What happened?!!! Much work lost, saving .pcg

Randelph · Post by **Randelph** » Wed Dec 22, 2010 9:57 pm

Backed up my work on Programs and Combis to a flash drive, only to discover that all my precious work is gone! After saving the current setup to a .PCG file, my board reverted back to where it was about a year ago, and the .PCG file I saved only takes me back to that year ago state.

What did I do wrong?

Steps leading to this:
1. Bought a new flash drive, and started to format it using the M3, but when I saw how long it was taking I did some research and realized it needs to be formatted to FAT 32, so I aborted the formatting. Then I put the flash drive into my Vista laptop and did the FAT 32 formatting there, as well as put backup files on it that I'd archived on the previous flash drive.

2. Inserted the flash drive, booted up, in Media Mode I used the Save PCG command and saved the current state of my M3 (or at least I thought I did).

3. Noticed the .PCG content was not the stuff I've been working on, but a from a year ago.

Don't know what to think- is there a gotcha around saving .PCG files that I don't know about? It seems strange that the .PCG that got saved was from so long ago- it's not even close to my last previous .PCG save, and it also wasn't its original factory state.

This is very discouraging. I've been tackling (again...) learning the M3, and while I'm at fault for not backing up more regularly, its disturbing to think that saving could be worse than useless.

Is there a way to save .PCG files without a flash drive, by using USB into my laptop? Is there a librarian out there that would make the extremely tedious task of re-naming and re-labeling (of categories) faster than what's required using only the M3?

Thanks- help very much appreciated!!!

Miggz McFly · Post by **Miggz McFly** » Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:04 pm

from my knowledge, you ALWAYS need to format it from the m3.

you should have test saved something first, since you formatted from windows.

Randelph · Post by **Randelph** » Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:30 pm

Miggz McFly wrote:

from my knowledge, you ALWAYS need to format it from the m3.

you should have test saved something first, since you formatted from windows.

OK, but formatting the flash drive in Windows doesn't explain why it would show up as the state of my M3 a year ago (as opposed to the factory fresh state). And I've read of people who've bought USB flash drives that were pre-formatted to the 32 fat protocol.

I just did a small test (using the Windows formatted flash drive), saving a .PCG file that had a small change in it, and it worked like it's supposed to. What did I do wrong?

BasariStudios · Post by **BasariStudios** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:16 am

I already explained to Vasillis on another thread, USB Sticks HAVE to be
formated on the Synth and MUST NOT! have a 3UDF partition to it, that
partition is not something you can just delete, you must buy a proper USB
Stick and i would prefer SANDISK CRUISERS, prefered by Korg and me,
so far i've tested over 20 different sizes of them and not a single problem
while i experienced hundreds of problems with others.
Prefered and Best USB Stick for M3 and PA Series:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/SanDisk+-+C ... Id=9226777

I am using this 8GB version of it and never had a problem but i paid 19.99
for it on Thanksgiving Black Friday, tonight i bought a My Book Essentials
USB 3.0 2 TB External HDD at the same store and saw this same exat thing
went more then doubble the price, from 19.99 to 44 something...damn.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:58 am

Sounds to me like you accidentally loaded one of your existing backup files rather than saving a new one. That is the only explanation that fits with your description of events.

Randelph · Post by **Randelph** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:38 pm

Nedim,
Given up cigarettes, so my only way of figuring stuff out is pulling out my hair (and I'm bald so that don't work too well), and posting stuff here.

The flash drive I just bought is a Sansdisk Cruzer, 4GB ($12.99 Best Buy). Yes I unfortunately did format it on my Vista laptop- but with FAT 32, no UDF partitions added. (In other words, I used the FaT 32 formatting offered by Vista and did nothing besides that.).

So you're saying there's been a lot of problems from folks on the forum with using flash drives?

I'm re-formatting the flash drive, using the M3 this time for formatting. I choose Full Formatting, not Quick, I wonder if that makes any difference; and I read on another thread to do it FAT 32.

X-Trade,
Yes, that's what it seems like, huh, that I loaded an old file instead of saving a new one-? But I do have a specific named file on my flash drive (the name is the date) that was created when I did the SAVE operation, and when I LOAD that .PCG file up it's the state of my board about a year ago. The only other complete save (about 20 MB) was about 4 months ago and it's a more recent version of my board than the "newer" save. Don't make sense to me!

bigdaddyscondition · Post by **bigdaddyscondition** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 3:59 am

Newbie question related to this topic: so can you use a USB 2.0 flash drive to save songs to? The M3 Operation Guide says "You can use a USB hard disk [whatever that is] or CD-R/RW drive to save or load M3 data such as PCG or SNG files, or WAVE files."

The Operation Guide says nothing about USB 2.0 flash drives, as far as I can tell. So it's OK to use a USB 2.0 flash drive to save songs to? Thanks.

Randelph · Post by **Randelph** » Wed Dec 29, 2010 3:18 am

The Operation Guide says nothing about USB 2.0 flash drives, as far as I can tell. So it's OK to use a USB 2.0 flash drive to save songs to? Thanks.

Yes. Read the rest of the postings (format flash drive with M3, Sansdisk Cruzer known to be reliable).

Another way to back up is to use the computer Editor: when the Editor starts up it downloads everything on the M3, and under the Utility menu you can SAVE, and that creates a M3all file on you computer that you can then choose to send to your M3.

For reliable backup of files, I would recommend doing both. The Editor method is foolproof, and then if you screw up the Saving process within the M3 (like I apparently did- still don't know why it screwed up- I've since done it successfully), then you've got a safe copy on you computer.

bigdaddyscondition · Post by **bigdaddyscondition** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:14 am

Thanks, Randelph. Yes, I had read all the comments in this thread, but nowhere did I see it explicitly stated that you can use a flash drive for saving songs.

It seems very strange that the Operation Guide would not include this crucial bit of information, but it seems to be a pattern with all the written support material I got with my M3. A lot of reading between the lines is required. If not for the founders, moderators, and contributors on Korg Forums, I'd be having a lot more trouble. Much obliged!

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:33 am

USB Hard Disk Drives and USB Flash Drives are all accessed with the same protocols and are the same type of device - 'USB Mass Storage' devices.

The only difference between a USB Flash Drive and a USB HDD is that the HDD typically draws more power.