Location of Library Manager Files

babyleon · Post by **babyleon** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:55 pm

I recently had a C drive crash.

I had Ulead VS 8 installed from a CD and had used it for more than two years on a number of different projects. One in particular was to create a DVD of birds I have filmed in Belize over the course of three years. I created a Video Library containing hundreds of short clips of various species in taxonomic order, all from my own work.

After recovering from the crash and restoring backups, re-installing programs, etc., I no longer had that library with all the clips in it. I contacted Ulead and they told me they no longer supported VS8 and could not answer the question. I upgraded to VS11+ via download and asked Ulead the same question. The answer they gave was that those files are not saved. I don't understand how that can be since they were always there every time I restarted the computer and Ulead program. And new libraries I have created in VS11+ are also always there, leaving me to believe they are saved, in some way, somewhere.

If I knew where they were saved or indexed or whatever, or what they were called in terms of file names or extensions, I might be able to find and retrieve what I need from a backup or from files rescued from the offending drive. I still have all the source files on a variety of external Firewire drives where they have always been located and I know I have them named as the same drive letters as before the crash (that was a lot of fun to reconstruct.....). To locate, re-edit and re-arrange all the clips from the source files (50+ hours of DV)will be a massive undertaking.

I have tried to search this forum to find a similar situation but have been unable to find anything I can recognize as relevant to this.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.

asjr_4584 · Post by **asjr_4584** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:38 am

Did you reformat your drive C? Usually, the location of the library can be found in this directory: C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead VideoStudio 11\Samples\Video\

Have you tried using file recovery softwares such as File Scavenger 3.0? Here¡¦s the link: http://quetek.com/prod02.htm

babyleon · Post by **babyleon** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 6:20 am

Okay, I can find the stock Video files in that directory. But what I am talking about is a "New" video library created by the user through the Library Manager function and populated with video clips by the user. Where/how are those clips saved/identified?

I don't think it is relevent to my question but I did not reformat my C drive. I had to replace it but I was able to extract a great deal of the files using a program called "Zero Assumption Recovery". Having recovered a lot of the old C drive info, what I need to know is where/how the video libraries I created (and audio libraries and image libraries) are stored so I can see if they are among the files recovered. New video library files I have created in VS11+ are not stored in C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead VideoStudio 11\Samples\Video\. Only the stock files that came with the program are there.

Any other suggestions????

asjr_4584 · Post by **asjr_4584** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:43 am

When you create a custom folder within the library manager, it doesn¡¦t generate in your local drive literally; this is just an option for you to organize your media files within the UVS software. The location of the files you are looking for depends on where you stored it in your local drive. These files were just loaded to the UVS and were not copied to a new directory after you inserted them on a folder within the library manager.

babyleon · Post by **babyleon** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:13 am

I do believe I am screwed on this one. I know when I populate a custom video library with clips from much larger video files, the properties of those clips show the name of the full, larger file file, i.e. "N:\McNeil\070610 1233\uvs070618-005.AVI" which is a one hour, 14GB file. It seems like there would be something else though that indicates to VS11+ that the smaller 15-second clip is not the entire 14GB file. For example, when I pull the 15-second clip in the library down onto the timeline, it is just the short, edited clip not the whole large file from which it was edited. But I guess that is somehow maintained in the program code rather than in an actual clip file.

I hope I am stating this correctly and in an understandable fashion. But I still think I am going to have to recreate my custom video, audio and image libraries by going through all the source files again.

Had I just upgraded from VS8 to VS11+ without having had to re-install VS8 due to my C drive crash, would my custom libraries have survived into VS11+?

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:48 am

Babyleon

Your library files are called:-

VS_Video.dat
VS_Title.dat
VS_Audio.dat
Etc

They can be found here:-

C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Ulead Systems\Ulead VideoStudio

In the appropriate folder 8.0---9.0---10.0¡X11.0

Hoping you can find the recovered files.
Copying these from one version to another version should also work.

You may run into the relink option if the original raw files have been moved.

Hope this Helps

babyleon · Post by **babyleon** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 6:24 pm

Thank you so much Trevor! (By the way, your referenced website is terrific - I wish I had gotten to it a long time ago!)

Another related question if I may - I have found the .dat files in the directory you indicated. They have the appropriate dates, i.e. just prior to my C drive crash. My question: How do I get VS11 to "see" them? Do I have to copy them to another directory or is there a preference I need to set in VS?

For example, I renamed my existing, new VS11+ "VS-Audio.DAT" file to "VS-AudioQ.DAT" (so I would not replace so new custome audio files I have created in VS11+ since the crash). The I copied my "old" VS-Audio.DAT file from the recovered VS8 Application Data folder into the VS11+ Application Data folder. I restart VS11+ and but there are no custom audio folders at all. (I was able to get my "new" custom audio files back by changing the file name back to the original one so I did not lose anything new.)

I will play around with this but if you have any additional pointers, I would appreciate further advice. But if you don't have the time, you have helped immensely already. I least I have some hope!

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:18 pm

Hi

From what you said you are doing it correctly.

By renaming your VS 11 files you are making a copy, When you re-start VS 11 a new default library will be created by VS 11.
As you have found you can return to this copy.

By pasting the VS 8 files into the 11 folder, will over-write the existing. Your VS 11 library should show the content of the VS 8 library.

Does replacing the other library files work?????? Video etc.

If you e-mail me the VS-Audio.DAT file from VS 8
I will have a look on my system.

Regards

babyleon · Post by **babyleon** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 11:02 pm

Thanks again Trevor,

I have found a way to make this work for me.

1. Copy the recovered VS8 Custom Libraries into the appropriat re-installed VS8 Data Application directory which is under a different User Name that the recovered VS8 files.

2. Open VS8 and the Custome Librarie are there!

3. Copy VS8 Custom Library contents to Timeline.

4. Save as a new VS8 project and close VS8.

5. Open VS11+ and open VS8 Project saved in #4.

6. Create a new Custom Library in VS11+.

7. Copy clips from project opend in #5 into Custom Library created in #6

There may be an easier way to do this and the clips look like they might be in a slightly different order in the new Custom Library. But thanks to Trevor, I at least know there IS a way to do it and it will save me hours and hours of review and editing from original source files. And this way I don't risk over-writing any Custom Libraries I have already created directly in VS11+.

I hope this all makes sense.....

Thanks again Trevor!

I don't know if is appropriate for this forum but I have some of my clips, old and new, on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/user/babyleon

Wayne Hall
Anchorage

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:36 am

Hi

There may be an easier way to do this and the clips look like they might be in a slightly different order in the new Custom Library.

Glad you have found the library files

Inserting items to the timeline and the library may be placed out of order.
First and last being reversed.

From your hard drive Drag and Drop. (select the files then drag the first)

From the timeline to library Copy and Paste (do not drag)

From library to timeline is ok to drag and drop.

Good luck