Solitaire keeps restarting

[GregB]

Went to make copy for clipboard then unit froze and restarts then says the active project has been restored from an older backup.
Please help.

[TimKennelly]

There are not many statements worse than that one with our systems as it usually means you just lost a ton of finished work, sometimes even the original input footage.

To my knowledge there is no rhyme or reason of exactly what sets it off.

This normally means the OS has corrupted and I suggest a full, destructive OS install at your earliest inconvenience.

To my knowledge Greg there is no effective way to prevent this from occasionally happening and can only council backing up work incrementally.

The easiest and quickest method for this is to Clipboard finished segments to another Project "just in case".

This does not prevent catastrophic loss if the drive goes south, nor even saves an intricate work in process Project.

The Solitaire has a back up method to keep you safe from this in the internal mirror backup process, but of course, it's only of any value if you use it.

Sorry to say Greg, but whatever work you find you have lost since you received that message is gone for good unless you have it backed up via Clipboard, tape, DVD, hard drive.

[GregB]

Thanks Tim
Though not really sure how to do that D OS Install and does that mean I will lose all projects?

[LouBruno]

If you do a full install, all of your projects are gone.

I highly recommend to contact your dealer an look into a LaCie external HD.

Every evening simply BACKUP your SD project to DV BACKUP.

Thanks Tim
Though not really sure how to do that D OS Install and does that mean I will lose all projects?

[TimKennelly]

Yes, doing a full, destructive install is exactly what it says.

A full install sets your unit OS back to the exact state it was when it was first loaded.

Pros - fixes all Operating System corruption issues.
Cons - wipes out everything on the drive.

I am going to disagree with Lou regarding buying a LaCie for protection from this issue as you have a Solitaire.

While there are reasons to purchase a LaCie external hard drive for partial, incremental archiving I think spending money on an external hard drive is a waste of money as a prevention or precaution for this particular problem for someone owning a Solitaire.

Clipboarding Scenes to another Project is every bit as effective and far, far faster (and cheaper as it's free) than buying a Lacie and using either of the two crippled back up processes availalbe going out to a LaCie drive to protect yourself from an OS Project corruption and using the already built in internal mirror drive is far more protective and effective to save your work from catastrophic crashes on a Solitaire.

Simply touch the Backup button on the front of the unit and it will backup the entire hard drive overnight.

[GregB]

Thanks Guys
Tim could you please explain what this actually means: Clipboarding Scenes to another Project is every bit as effective and far, far faster (and cheaper as it's free) than buying a Lacie and using either of the two crippled back up processes availalbe going out to a LaCie drive to protect yourself from an OS Project corruption and using the already built in internal mirror drive is far more protective and effective to save your work from catastrophic crashes on a Solitaire as I don't even know what the internal mirror drive is or when to use it.

[SYLRENAUD]

Greg i've lost a project or two the same way now i back up EVERY days work on an
AVI DVD through disk transfer and this gives me piece of mind because i always
eventually end up with some corrupted project down the road and even if i have to re-load
footage at least the work that was done up to date is preserved !

Tim i have a Prestige and was thinking of getting a Lacie back up drive would you recomend it ? Plus my local Tech store says the models sold by Macrosystems are discontinued and he is
not sure if the replacement models he has would be compatible.
Would you know if they are?

Tks
Syl

[IanPearson]

Greg
The clip board function Tim refers to, is found under “Special” - “Clipboard” – “Add Scene”. This looks a little different, depending upon which OS version you have, but it will add whatever scene you have highlighted in your scene bin, to the clip board.

You can then go into another project, again open the clipboard, and this time add the scene in the clip board to the scene bin of this new project.

There are several ways of adding and transferring scenes to different projects, using the clip board, but the above will do what you require.

The only other thing you will need to do, before this clip process, is if it is the story board you need to clip transfer. You will need to make a scene of the story board first.

To make a scene of the story board, with the first scene of your story board selected, click the “fx” button to open the effects function. It does not matter what effect you have selected, but now click the “Scene” button, then “Range” and use the slider to select all of the story board. Then hit “OK”.

This will place a single scene of the whole of your story board in the scene bin, which is the scene you need for the new project. Incidentally this scene will have all the transitions, effect, added audio, etc, as one scene singe scene. Further editing will of course be limited.

You can of course clip individual scenes from the scene bin to the clipboard and place these in a new project.

As to the back up, I’m sort of in between Lou and Tim on this one. Tim is basically correct (of course), but using the back-up function on the Solitaire makes an exact copy of the current hard drive, including the OS. If the OS is corrupted then the back up will also copy these corruptions and when restoring, the data, OS, including the corruption will also be restored.

The clip board will clear an individual project fault, but the underlying issues will still be there. Eventually a destructive install will be required, after saving what ever you can by what ever external means you can. By external I mean disc transfer, external HD, tape back-up, etc.

Hope this helps.

Ian

[TimKennelly]

Tim could you please explain what this actually means: Clipboarding Scenes to another Project is every bit as effective and far, far faster (and cheaper as it's free) than buying a Lacie and using either of the two crippled back up processes availalbe going out to a LaCie drive to protect yourself from an OS Project corruption and using the already built in internal mirror drive is far more protective and effective to save your work from catastrophic crashes on a Solitaire as I don't even know what the internal mirror drive is or when to use it.

Greg,

Where to begin.

My experience is when this "Restored from an" occurs it only effects the Project you were in.

So when I complete a "section" (any editing sequence that took a while to complete) I Create a Scene of it and Clipboard it over to another Project designated as a Backup for this Project.

If the Project experiences one of these catastrophic crashes I Clipboard all Scenes archived from this Back up Project to a completely new Project and continue on, keeping the Back up Project independent for archiving only.

As you can Create a Scene and Clipboard it over to another Project in a couple of keystroke in seconds this is far faster than exporting to an external LaCie hard drive.

Using the built in Solitaire mirror backup saves EVERYTHING and unless you are silly enough to use the mirror backup directly after a crash (or phenomenolly statistically unlucky enough to do the save one command away from such a crash) this will Restore all your Projects and give you time to send them out to tape, etc.

The LaCie option is a worthwhile option in it's own right and certainly a valid protection process for any machine that does not have the internal mirror backup drive process that the Solitaire and a few others do, but as long as you DO have the mirror backup process I would get in the habit of using it when shutting down for the night on any evening after an edit session of any significant amount.

You can use the external dedicated button for this or do it with the internal menu system and even press the Power button directly afterwards and the unit will turn itself off after performing the backup.

I refer to the two LaCie backup methods as "crippled" because you either get a backup just like going out to tape or you get a version that does not save/archive any Inserts or added audio tracks which to me is unacceptable as I use both fairly extensively.

Now, with some planning you can double save (both DV and DV backup) using both LaCie methods and be able to reassemble most of your work using both Restore processes if you have a catastrophic crash, but it's awkward and clutzy at best and still does not give you everything and full flexibility on Restore like the mirror backup option does for catastrophic crash protection.

All of this aside, I still remind you that such a crash probably means the OS has some serious corruption that I would not trust any longer/further than you need to and I would be editing with the intent to do a full, destructive install as soon as it is inconvenient, but reasonable to do so.

[LouBruno]

Just a thought: If you save to a LACIE, you may want to make a SCENE of your SB or a portion thereof to maintain your transitions, inserts and audio.


What I like about the external dive is the fact that if my HD or Editing System crashes, I still have the recovery ability via saving externally rather than an internal saving or backup.

What good is an internal backup if the system doesn't reboot?

Archiving to tape is always another way to archive. In a SD project, simply use DV BACKUP. Yes...inserts may be lost as well as audio but most of your SB is still intact.