Serious Deletion Problem - Lost series that I wanted to keep

[Lao Pan]

Appears to be a flaw in the logic somewhere.

There were 2 similar entries in Recordings:

FIA World Rally Championship (Which had a recording from 2014 and a recording from 2015 in)

FIA World Rally Championship... ...Highlights (Which had 13 episodes from 2016 and 3 from this year all of which that I wanted to keep, several I hadn't even watched :mad: )

All these episodes were in the same folder on the hard drive - obviously without the ... in the name (FIA World Rally Championship)

In the New Style recordings screen I deleted first the 2014 recording followed by the 2015 recording - around 11:44 - 11:45 in the nrecord log.

It then appears that NPVR thought that as there were no more entries in the db under FIA World Rally Championship, the folder should be deleted - taking the other 16 episodes with it

Only saving grace was that they were MY programs not HERS

There seem to be more and more programs where the title runs into the description with a ... - is there any way to stop these unwanted deletions from happening.

[sub]

I've just double checked the code, and I can't see how this is possible. The logic basically deletes the exact filename for the recording, then asks Windows for the number of files in the in directory - if there are none, then it'll delete the folder.

If you can come up with an scenario that shows the problem, I'm happy to take a closer look.

[sub]

FIA World Rally Championship (Which had a recording from 2014 and a recording from 2015 in)

FIA World Rally Championship... ...Highlights (Which had 13 episodes from 2016 and 3 from this year all of which that I wanted to keep, several I hadn't even watched )

Did both of these recordings end up in the same directory? I wouldn't have expected them to (assuming those are the full titles).

[Lao Pan]

Did both of these recordings end up in the same directory? I wouldn't have expected them to (assuming those are the full titles).

Yes They were all in the same real directory but in separate virtual directories in the metadata recording screen.
All files, and the directory were named without the triple periods. When the last of the files without [...] was deleted, it would seem as though NPVR checked the database to see if there were any files left, rather than Windows.
When I went back to the recordings screen both of the virtual directories had gone - thinking the database had got corrupted I checked the hard drive to find the real directory had vanished along with 16 programs and their nfo files.

At least it freed up about 28gb of hard drive

[sub]

it would seem as though NPVR checked the database to see if there were any files left, rather than Windows.

No, it doesn't do that. It asks Windows for a list of files in the directory. It's intentionally worked on the assumption there could be other files not in the database, like episodes the user has downloaded rather than recorded.

[Lao Pan]

One other thing that may be involved in this:
If there is no resume control showing on the left menu, when you delete the last file - using the left menu, it will throw you up a level, and the folder will be gone.
If there is a resume control showing, deleting the last file will leave you in the empty folder. Exiting using back button will take you out and the folder will still be there. Changing recordings screen and back again will cause the folder to delete. This is what happened today except both folders went missing.

[scJohn]

Can't you restore those deleted files from your hard drive backup? You do backup your hard drive on a regular basis?

[Lao Pan]

Can't you restore those deleted files from your hard drive backup? You do backup your hard drive on a regular basis?

Always back up c drive but not the 1tb of the recording drive - It's only TV after all - I just got back several hours of my life

All my Movies etc have parity.

[Lao Pan]

All my Movies etc have parity.

But I guess that wouldn't have helped when the OS deleted the files.

I have thought of a scenario that may have contributed to the problem - before deleting the program I had been doing stuff which probably allowed the hard drives to spin down i.e. no disk access for about 20 minutes.

In explorer if you go into the folder with a spun down disk, in Windows 10 it will say "working on it", but in 8.1 (which this is) it will say "empty folder" until the green line starts to travel across in the address bar.
Did Windows tell NPVR that the folder was empty before the disk had spun up?
On most occasions NPVR wouldn't ask unless the folder was empty and if it wasn't empty the chances of the disk being spun down are probably quite rare.
There again the hard drive is getting quite old - 8 years service as recording drive, first for GBPVR then NPVR - so could possibly be on it's way out.

[martint123]

I'm sure it was mentioned in the dim and distant past, but would there be a downside if NPVR had an option to move deleted recordings to the system recycle bin rather than just make them disappear?