I have a hard drive data issue, is anyone here an expert? Need help.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scott Baxendale
  • Start date Start date
Scott Baxendale

Scott Baxendale

Well-known member
I have a full hard drive of audio projects and all the audio files that were WAV files are now all Unix executable files. I have no idea how to get them back to WAV files. The data is all there but the file extension won’t work. If I just change the file extension it doesn’t work. Has anyone run into this?
 
First thing is make a Copy of the Drive on another External HardDrive then
Give this a try to see if it works (On Windows only)

Open Windows Defender Security Center
Click Virus & threat protection
Click Virus & threat protection settings

Scroll down to Controlled folder access
Toggle it off

See if that works.
 
Papanate said:
First thing is make a Copy of the Drive on another External HardDrive then
Give this a try to see if it works (On Windows only)

Open Windows Defender Security Center
Click Virus & threat protection
Click Virus & threat protection settings

Scroll down to Controlled folder access
Toggle it off

See if that works.
Click to expand...
I’m on Mac, but I have an old pc I can try that on. I’ve made a copy already
 
How do .WAV files become Unix Executable Files? Has your computer been encrypted? Hopefully you have backups. I hate hard drive problems, usually the only thing that will save you is the backup. Best of luck.
 
Ujn Hunter said:
How do .WAV files become Unix Executable Files? Has your computer been encrypted? Hopefully you have backups. I hate hard drive problems, usually the only thing that will save you is the backup. Best of luck.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately this one particular hard drive is the only drive from a certain set of recordings that I’d really like to get back? I have no ideal how this happened?
 
I'm not a Mac user, but I've read somewhere that Mac WAV and mp3 files can be stripped of extensions as well as other identifiers if they're passed through a Windows OS. Something about Windows not recognizing the info and dropping it from the files. Then it gets tagged as Unix. Well, something like that. This has been going on for decades with no easy solution - apparently. I suppose the only thing to prevent future incidents would be to keep backups on the original device/System.

When I render mixes, I put them into a folder and make a copy. I use the copies for posting or emails.
 
spantini said:
I'm not a Mac user, but I've read somewhere that Mac WAV and mp3 files can be stripped of extensions as well as other identifiers if they're passed through a Windows OS. Something about Windows not recognizing the info and dropping it from the files. Then it gets tagged as Unix. Well, something like that. This has been going on for decades with no easy solution - apparently. I suppose the only thing to prevent future incidents would be to keep backups on the original device/System.

When I render mixes, I put them into a folder and make a copy. I use the copies for posting or emails.
Click to expand...
There's got to be a fix, I would think? What I do not get about this is my pc handles wav files fine and I’ve transferred many wav files back and forth with zero issues. This hard drive is the back up after the original drive was destroyed.
 
Were these files copied to your hard drive from another drive?
 
TalismanRich said:
Check here. It's apparently a very common problem. Was the external drive formatted in NTFS? That is usually the root of the problem. Mac doesn't do NTFS well.

See if any of this helps.

www.webnots.com

How to Recover Files Converted to Unix Executable File in Mac? – WebNots

How to recover folders and files converted to Unix Executable File format in Mac, assign proper extensions and open them with correct app.
www.webnots.com www.webnots.com
Click to expand...
Thank you! This is the best info I’ve seen so far. I’ll try this.
 
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