Large .wav file problem

[Centauri]

Hi,

Have been recording some live shows to PC recently with no problems, except one. This particular concert lasted around 3 1/2 hours, which resulted in a 2.2Gb .wav file, but the file cannot be opened (operating system Win98SE). Windows Media player treats it as a half second silence, and Cool Edit Pro 2 reports file size of 0.0k

There has been some talk about Win98 having problems with large files, so I transferred file to a Windows2000 machine, but have the same problem on it.

Anyone got any ideas on this ?

Thanks

[Frank Berry]

You must convert the Windows 98 machine to FAT32 before you can access the file. It's possible that the file was not written properly because of the 2.1 gig file limitation size of FAT16.
If that's the case, the file is corrupt and can't be recovered.

[Centauri]

Frank,

Thanks for reply, however my Win98 machine already fat32...

The file may be corrupted - don't know if there is any utility to recover .wav files...

Cheers

[Lyra]

Not sure, but I think Win98 has some kind of limitation regarding the size of files You are able to open.
You could share the file if You have a local network, and try to open it with another machine with a not so obsolete OS...

All the best!
Lyra

[Netlist]

A .wav file has a limit of 2GB.
Samplitude and maybe other programs seem to have a workaround: http://www.samplitude.com/de/feature2.htm
Check your file system. It should be FAT32. FAT16 also has a limit of 2GB files.

/Hugo

[Centauri]

A .wav file has a limit of 2GB.

Ahh, didn't know that. I did a search and found some info - thanks for that.

It would seem that Creative Recorder (bundled with my sound card drivers) doesn't take that into consideration.....

Anyone know of any software to restore / repair the file ?

Cheers

[mcs]

Originally posted by Centauri
Anyone know of any software to restore / repair the file?

You could use a converter utility such as sox. Apart from the file header an uncompressed wav file is just raw data, so just tell sox to treat your file as raw data. But you'll still have the 2GB problem, so chop the file into smaller bits before trying to convert it.

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

[Netlist]

Winamp should handle the full .wav.
Then convert to a high quality mp3 is an option.
Unfortunately you'll end up with a lossy format.
Make a good backup first

/Hugo

[Wombat]

If i remember right the wav header is written when the recording ends.
If in the program you recorded with ignores the 2GB file limit and
the operating system just ends there, no header was written to the file.

You can try Wavefix to add a header afterwards. You may try to open this wav
in your application as raw audio data if this is possible.

Good luck!

Ups! Just when i wrote this - 2 other replies

[tschrama]

Hi all,

I've had my piece of >2Gb .wav files problems. Some softeware program do sputter when the 2Gb file size is exceded, some other program don't mind... windows media player should be able to play >2Gb files.. matlab has some problems, cooledit works etc etc.. It's about the file-header of a .wav file. There are a limited number of bits availble to specify the chuck-size (here the audiosamples).. this is no problem, not all programs need to know the second-chuck size..but some do apperently...

anyways.. I had problems with using GOLDWAVE on a FAT32 system with > 2Gb .wav files... after I switched to NTSF everything worked just fine.. you might wanna try converting your HD to the NTSF-system.. I think there's a big change that will solve you problem.


Regards,
Thijs