Restoring MP3 files

[canajuneh]

I'm a new Express Scribe user, and I must say the product is excellent for my purposes. However there is one issue I haven't been able to solve and that is how to recover the original MP3 file. I inadvertently loaded the wrong MP3 file into Scribe and for the life of me have not been able to figure out how to get the old file back. I'm sure there's a way - I just can't find it nor have I been able to find anything in this forum about it (and apologies to all if I just missed it).

 

Help please, and thank you.

[cujo]

I'm a new Express Scribe user, and I must say the product is excellent for my purposes. However there is one issue I haven't been able to solve and that is how to recover the original MP3 file. I inadvertently loaded the wrong MP3 file into Scribe and for the life of me have not been able to figure out how to get the old file back. I'm sure there's a way - I just can't find it nor have I been able to find anything in this forum about it (and apologies to all if I just missed it).

 

Help please, and thank you.

 

 

The original MP3 file will be wherever you had it saved to begin with. ES does not seem to change/move the original file.

 

It does seem to convert the MP3 into a WAV file though, and copy it to the 'Current' folder in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\NCH Swift Sound\Scribe. Done files are moved to the 'Done' folder.

[canajuneh]

My system seems to operate differently - a configuration issue?

 

The MP3 files are removed from the source folder when Express Scribe loads them. What gets stored in the folders you mentioned are files that have been renamed with a numeric name only, so it's not possible to link back to the original file by name.

 

 

Seems to me to be a pretty poor way of managing files.

[krnotley]

My system seems to operate differently - a configuration issue?

 

The MP3 files are removed from the source folder when Express Scribe loads them. What gets stored in the folders you mentioned are files that have been renamed with a numeric name only, so it's not possible to link back to the original file by name.

Seems to me to be a pretty poor way of managing files.

 

Hi Canajun: Unless you've loaded a large number of files into ES at the same time, you can usually key the wav files in the /Documents and Settings/.../Current/ folder to the date they were created. You may have to go to the Windows toolbar, View, and pick "Choose Details." I use both "Date Created" and "Last Modified". In this case, Date Created is what you're interested in, and you can key that to the date you loaded the file.

BTW I don't recommend using "Done." Even if you select a date when "Done" should delete the files, I don't find it reliable. Best to just delete files within ES when you're done with them, using Control Delete. Of course, if that's your only copy it's gone for good. I archive everything.

[cujo]

I just double checked another audio file (ie. file.mp3). I downloaded and saved to desktop, then opened in ES. It copied the file.mp3 to the 'Current' folder, renamed to 00000046.wav with a corresponding 00000046.dat file. I then 'deleted' the file from the ES window (00000046.wav/dat were removed).... and the original .mp3 file was NOT touched at all on the desktop.

 

The only delete related option I am seeing in the Settings is under 'Files'. And that is to Auto-Delete 'Done' files after x days. So, the orig/source audio files should not be touched by ES. Something else must be doing it. OR, you are doing a CTRL+SHIFT+L (File -> Load and Delete Dictation File(s) ). And that DOES delete the original from your HD after loading (would not affect a CD-ROM though).

 

I actually think it is an 'ok' way of managing audio files. Why it needs to convert them to .wav format though I don't know.

 

The only issue I see is using a lot of HD space that would need to be purged occasionally... since in the case of .mp3's, the resulting .wav file is usually much larger. 6-7 times larger in my test above.