Strange phenomena

[Siekmanski]

I just had a strange phenomena while coding pixelshaders.
My computer did a reset while building the pixelshader code in the RadAsm version 2.2.1.2 editor.

The main source file is filled with zeros and also the 9 backup source files in the BAK map are all filled with zeros.????
Strange that the backup main asm sources are wiped out????
Also in the lost source files, and lost, alI the gathered info and links about pixelshaders.

So I lost 3 weeks of coding work, hope I can remember what I wrote and start over....

I'm assuming there is no way to recover my lost code?

I'm totally pissed @@#$%!*!?? 

[felipe]

That's a shame. I wish you good luck with your project. :icon14:

[HSE]

Well... We lost 3 weeks  :( 

I don't have any confidence in RadAsm baks because usually what I try to find is overwritten by new versions.
 

[hutch--]

Marinus,

Recently I had a PHUKUP and deleted the first few directories on my video partition so I hunted around and found a tool called "Recuva" that read the data back off disk and I got most of it back but if your backup files have been overwritten I think you are stuck with starting again. I don't know enough about RadAsm but if there is an option to turn the auto backup OFF I would do that and do your file backups manually.

[jj2007]

So I lost 3 weeks of coding work, hope I can remember what I wrote and start over...

My condolencies :icon14:

Perhaps recuva might get something back. Do it immediately, though, and on a different drive if possible, as other applications will overwrite the disk sectors if they are marked as free. See Which Are The Best Free File Recovery Tools? Comparing 5 Of The Most Popular Programs:


Read 20 Free Data Recovery Software (2018), no guarantees but it might help.

My most valuable sources and docs are in a handful of zip archives that are on three USB sticks (house, wallet, car) and in my mail inbox 8)

[aw27]

This is terrible, it has happened to me a few times until I found that doing frequent backups to outside devices was a nice thing.

[jj2007]

I have tested Puran and Recuva now, they both work fine. But I saved the recovered file to Collections\Music and couldn't find it then. Only some time later I understood that it was saved to the Admin account, so it was not the same Collections\Music :icon_redface:

Recuva hangs at 50% of "analysing damage". Just wait a few minutes, it will come back.

[caballero]

I use notepad++ for programming, since some time appeared an error consisting on that from time to time it hangs and truncates the file you are editing as if you were the protagonist of a hidden camera :( The latest versions come with some enhanced behaviours to avoid it. It's one of those moments when you want to laugh or throw any heavy object somewhere. Please, tell us if you achieved to recover it in any way.

[Siekmanski]

Hi guys,

I couldn't recover my main asm and backup files, the files come back empty every time.
Luckily my translated pixelshader files (Shadertoy GLSL to Directx 9 HLSL) are not gone.

Never had any problems with RadAsm using it for 10 years now.
But the backup mechanism of RadAsm is certainly flawed, it saves 9 backups in a circular way.
All files seems to be created before assembling and saved after executing the build program.
My computer crashed while testing the limit of execution slots of the pixelshader hardware.

It's a lesson learned not be to lazy and do more frequent backups to external media in the future. 

[K_F]

Ughh!... that freaks me out big time. Reminds me to do backups now!!

Maybe Hutch, Ramon can include a backup facility in their packages, that back up to a few locations.. different disks/USB sticks.. etc.
 ;)

[jj2007]

I do remember a thread where somebody had a very similar problem, source files filled with zeros; but I can't find it.

That should never happen, of course, but I remember (rare) situations where a program crashed while a file was open for writing; and afterwards the file was in bad shape. Since then, I never allow files to remain open.

RichMasm has no sophisticated backup scheme, but 1. menu File/Last good version (gets saved after a successful build, handy if you got stuck in bugs) and 2. a tmp file that gets saved whenever the editor is idle; the latter is for the occasional crash e.g. due to forced closing by Windows update

Nir Sofer has a tool that can check if files are open inside a running program.

[hutch--]

Its usually the case that once a file is written to disk its safe apart from actual hardware failures. It seems to be a problem when an app keeps the files open and something crashes. I don't know if Ketil ever made the source available but if he did I would disable the backup system and just do it manually.

What I do with QE is have no auto functions at all and I manually back up any files I need. If I have to modify an existing file, I save a copy with a BAK extension so that if I stuff the working version up, I can simply overwrite it with the manually made backup. If you have an external backup device like a plugin HDD or similar it is not a bad idea to backup the entire development partition to another device and if you only turn it on to do backups like this and turn it off later it will not wear out in your lifetime.

As I have enough room in the house for a number of computers as long as you keep them out of the way, its a very safe way to backup important code, I have 3 or 4 others that are left over dev machines that I can park important stuff on and if they are only ever turned on to do something like this, they never wear out either.

I became neurotic over backup bask in 1999 when an expensive SCSI would not start one morning. I lost the entire contents and even though I sent it to a company that was supposed to be able to get the data, they just ripped me off for a couple of hundred buck$ and did nothing. I also start that day to re-write all of the lost code.

[Siekmanski]

It's a wakeup call.  :(

Better do it right this time because my backup hardware is from 10 years ago.
I don't want to take any risk anymore.
Tomorrow I will receive a 2.5" 5TB usb 3.0 external hard drive in my postbox.
It's large enough to backup my entire development partition.

The good news is, I've got the pixel shader basic code running again.
I'm relieved now... 

[sinsi]

Hard drives fail too easily nowadays, an external drive is probably more prone to failure as it is moved around whereas an internal drive usually sits in the box.
Best way for backups is to use DVD-RAM discs if you can find them, they were purpose built for archiving. If you don't have terabytes of pictures, a USB flash drive
is better than an external drive, no moving parts, a good 64/128 gig high speed flash drive is fairly cheap, fits a lot of source code. For a lot of data, build a NAS box
and use RAID 1+0 (or RAID 10 as it's sometimes called) spread over at least 3 hard drives, if one fails you can hot swap and rebuild it.

If it's important, back up your backup, then back it up again

[Siekmanski]