Recovered drive won't let me open project. "Unknown error occurred"

[leicaguy]

Hello,

Hoping someone can help me. The external hard drive I was using as my working drive failed about a week ago. (Actually, it still operated, just the main project folder stopped showing up). Thankfully, I was able to recover everything using Disk Drill recovery software. When it finished processing I saved it all to a new drive. And now I'm trying to re-create the Premiere Pro project I was working on. However, the project won't open. I've tried opening the main project as well as many of the auto-saved files, and I always get the same pop up message... "An unknown error occurred while opening the project." (I've attached a screen grab). Any help or ideas of how to fix this would be most appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Ann Bens]

Might not be able to resolve this but read this doc

FAQ: When to use "Save A Copy," or "Save As," or just "Save".

so you wont lose all your work next time something simular happens.

[leicaguy]

Thanks, I'll defintiely be changing up how I save projects in the future, but yeah, unfortunately doesn't solve the immediate issue.

[Averdahl]

...Thankfully, I was able to recover everything using Disk Drill recovery software. 

By @leicaguy

Was the failing drive an SSD or HDD?

Recovering large media files successfully from an SSD is hard. The files can be recovered but they fail to open. I deleted a file by mistake from a SSD disk yesterday and while the latest version of Disk Drill did recover the file it was damaged and could not be opened in any app.

So, if you create a brand new project, can you import any media files from the recovered main project folder?

[Michael Grenadier]

I had a chip fail with the files corrupted and was able to use diskdrill to restore the files.  However, the files would not open.  I eventually found someone in Spain if I remember correctly who was able to successfully create a program to make the files usable...  I think they were mxf format.    If anyone needs some help with this, post back and I'll see if I can dig the info out from old emails...  If I remember correctly I sent him a single file and for about $100 US, he sent me a program that got the files working again.  worth every penny.  This was a multicamera shoot and there was a canon camera that had two cf cards and was supposed to automatically transfer to the second card...    Averdahl, if that file is important, let me know.  

[Averdahl]

Averdahl, if that file is important, let me know.  

By @Michael Grenadier

Thanks for reching out, but i used a backup to restore the file so it was no problem. 🙂

But it´s really interesting to read that there is a hope. I have done several tests over some time and recovering large media files using various recovery apps from an SSD that are usable seems impossible.

[Michael Grenadier]

well if anyone's in the same boat, post to this thread and I'll see if I can find the info... but gotta say,  if the material is important to you, ya really gotta back it up at least once, twice if at all possible.  Just putting a bid together for a big job and drives and backup have to be in the budget..  And make sure you projects and any ancillary files are also backed up.  My premiere projects are automatically mirrored on dropbox and the autosave folder is kept on my media drive for theproject so drive failure is not a total disaster.  

[leicaguy]

Hey mgrenadier, thanks for the info. I I looked at DiskDrill, but looked too confusing to me. I have no coding experience so as far as I can see, wouldn't be helpful. But if you can find the contact info for your man in Spain, I think that might be a good option for me. Thanks for offering!

[Timothy Kendall]

I can use this mystery "fixer" in spain. My backup file was corrupted and can use a sergon. 

[leicaguy]

Thanks for the reply. The drive is a HDD... WD Elements. I haven't gone through all the files yet, but at your suggestion, I tried importing a few into a new project and have run into trouble. Basically they won't play. When I try to play them (.MXF files) using VLC, they are super glitchy. So looks like I have a bigger problem than just the project file. Doh! 

[Averdahl]

So looks like I have a bigger problem than just the project file. Doh! 

By @leicaguy

Read what @Michael Grenadier wrote in this thread, there may be a solution. 🙂 

[leicaguy · Accepted solution]

Good news (for me), in searching through the labyrinth of files recovered by Disk Drill (many of which were ghost files from previous uses of that drive), I stumbled upon another copy of the project files. But this time it opened! Woo Hoo! I'm going through and re-linking media and such but looks like my problem is solved. Thanks for all your help everyone! Really appreciate that this is a place I can come when things go wrong! Will be saving this project in other places as well going forward.

[CroixSather]

I had this problem."An unknown error occurred while opening the project." It wouldn't open when I started Premiere Pro. The solution I found was to open the project from FINDER or FILES. Or open Premiere Pro, escape out of the opening box when starting PP. Then go to Files > Open recent. 

I first disconected my hard drives, restarted the computer, and then opening it directly from the file. Hours of work saved and yelling colorful words. 

Here is a youtube video I found on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euR3PO_W7XM

Hope this helps.