Question Understanding video corrupted files on backup hard drive

[aikotanaka6699]

Greetings,

I just recently purchased a new hard drive, and placed a bunch of videos on it. I came back after about a month, and found that there are quite a few videos that no longer open. It says "Media Player Classic: Cannot render the file" when I try to open it with media player classic, but I still see the thumbnail. I understand that hard drives usually degrade with time, but I'm surprised with the amount of corrupted videos. I have two questions:

1. I'm wondering how this came to be/how to prevent. Usually I transfer it via an external usb enclosure, and I do shut off the enclosure manually. However, I never turn it off while I see the transfer is in progress (I'm fairly confident I did not shut off during transfer, and the corrupted videos seem to be scattered across different transfers). Could this be the cause of?
2. Is there a good quick method to finding out which video is corrupted? It's difficult because all of the thumbnails are there, so the only way I can think of is opening each file one by one to see if it runs.
3. Is there any recovery mechanism that I can try to get the videos working again?

Thanks!

 

[rgd1101]

I do shut off the enclosure manually.

did you use the safely remove or just shut it of when you think it is finish transfer?

 

[Lafong]

Greetings,

I just recently purchased a new hard drive, and placed a bunch of videos on it. I came back after about a month, and found that there are quite a few videos that no longer open. It says "Media Player Classic: Cannot render the file" when I try to open it with media player classic, but I still see the thumbnail. I understand that hard drives usually degrade with time, but I'm surprised with the amount of corrupted videos. I have two questions:

1. I'm wondering how this came to be/how to prevent. Usually I transfer it via an external usb enclosure, and I do shut off the enclosure manually. However, I never turn it off while I see the transfer is in progress (I'm fairly confident I did not shut off during transfer, and the corrupted videos seem to be scattered across different transfers). Could this be the cause of?
2. Is there a good quick method to finding out which video is corrupted? It's difficult because all of the thumbnails are there, so the only way I can think of is opening each file one by one to see if it runs.
3. Is there any recovery mechanism that I can try to get the videos working again?

Thanks!

I have a few hundred video clips and occasionally come across one that won't open. I don't know why. I am quite careful in any move, copy, open, or close operations.

I don't know of any way to determine the bad ones without attempting to open them.

It may well be that something other than Media Player Classic would open your files. I haven't used it in over 10 years.

A "bad" file can still open sometimes in a video editor, where it can then be re-saved and again be functional.

 

[aikotanaka6699]

did you use the safely remove or just shut it of when you think it is finish transfer?

I did not safely remove. It doesn't seem to give me the option to "eject", so usually I just physically press the power off button on the enclosure. But I always check the progress is complete before shutting down.

 

[aikotanaka6699]

I have a few hundred video clips and occasionally come across one that won't open. I don't know why. I am quite careful in any move, copy, open, or close operations.

I don't know of any way to determine the bad ones without attempting to open them.

It may well be that something other than Media Player Classic would open your files. I haven't used it in over 10 years.

A "bad" file can still open sometimes in a video editor, where it can then be re-saved and again be functional.

I've tried using VLC as well, but it seems to have error opening the video as well. Placing it in a video editor is something I haven't thought about, but is a good idea for me to try as a last resort.