Oops, Campaign file lost

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cstern
Kobold
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 10:51 am

Oops, Campaign file lost

Post by cstern »

Hey all, hoping some bright spark here might be able to help me recover from an awesomely stupid blunder.

Basically I built a new pc but unfortunately failed to backup properly all my campaign files (hard drive I stored them on is now unreadable). I used TestDisk (Photorec) to recover the files (36 hours for 500GB worth of data) from the drive they were stored on however TestDisk doesn't restore folder/file name information so what I am left with are the file extensions and sizes of 500GB of data.

I've managed to go through this and separate the obvious stuff (mpg, mp3, text, etc) however am still left with over 100,000 files to sort through. I created a test campaign, removed the .cmpgn extension and checked the properties which just shows the type as 'File' and so managed to find 3 potential files of the same type around about the size I would expect, however trying to load them up I receive the error

"Could not load campaign. java.util.zip.ZipException: error in opening zip file'.

Is this a generic error I could expect trying to open up the wrong file type, or is there potentially something else afoot?

Or does anyone (who may have done something similar before) have any suggestions on how to locate the correct file in amongst this monstrous heap of heartbreak. :)

Currently using build 1.3.B89, which I believe is the build I was using previously...

cstern
Kobold
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 10:51 am

Re: Oops, Campaign file lost

Post by cstern »

p.s it was built using the Pathfinder campaign MT1.3.87.04_DnD35_Pathfinder.cmpgn ruleset I believe.

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Full Bleed
Demigod
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Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 11:53 am
Location: FL

Re: Oops, Campaign file lost

Post by Full Bleed »

cstern wrote:...so what I am left with are the file extensions and sizes of 500GB of data.
If you have the files extensions then you should be able to search for .cmpgn files. But, somehow, I don't think you have access all file types, just some of the most common.

You could try using a Batch Hex Editor to read/search candidate files for MT campaign file markers. You should be able to look through 1000's of file this way. Start by looking at a working campaign file to find a fingerprint.
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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aliasmask
RPTools Team
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Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:11 pm
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Re: Oops, Campaign file lost

Post by aliasmask »

A campgn file is just a renamed zip folder, if that helps. They tend to be several MB in size to hold all the image data so I would start with large files. I'm not sure if there are any tools out there to identify zip files despite file extension, but there may be.

cstern
Kobold
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 10:51 am

Re: Oops, Campaign file lost

Post by cstern »

hmmm a zip file you say? I'd be surprised if there wasn't software of some kind out there that did exactly that!

Thanks for the suggestions, both. I've further narrowed it down considerably since yesterday so fingers crossed.

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Dervish
Giant
Posts: 121
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:52 pm

Re: Oops, Campaign file lost

Post by Dervish »

You could try recuva or easeus disk recovery software as i remember their freeware versionb allows for 1 gigabyte to actually be recovered.

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