AdamGrossmanLG
why would one even need this tool?
 
when I delete a clip from a project, i notice it deletes the file wav file associated with it in the project audio folder.  why are there people with so many orphaned wav files?

house keeping man. When you take 10 clips (punch ins, takes, exc) all in one track and bounce to clips.
You are left with one full clip / a full track.
 
So you don't need those 10 little clips anymore. correct ?
sonar wont purge those by default, you need to go in and rid them with the sonar clean audio folder tool.
 
Its also one thing to delete, but to record over..that's another story.
When you record over another clip, its still in the audio folder.
Ive had a project with 22 tracks but inside the audio folder there's 100+ clips.
 
As I said before these accumulate from takes, smaller clips that are bounced in to one big clip, Vocal synch bounces, Melodyne bounces, exc. So Ya, after 25 takes on 5 vocal tracks, they add up.

Make shure you DONT WRITE ANYTHING ON THE DRIVE anymore!  install some undelete/recovery software (as mentioned before) on a seperate drive and there might be a chance that you can recover lots of the deleted files.
If it's your C drive: remove it from your system and use another computer or another system drive to boot from.
Also make sure you don't write the recovery files on the drive you're trying to recover. 
 
Good luck! I know all to well how it feels to loose your life's work :-/
Hope you're able to recover all or at least some part of it!  
 
 

michael japan
Gentlemen, please read the thread again (Fred and Iapasoa.) I do use per project folders and I didn't lose any of my project files or .wav data from any Sonar Projects. I lost my mixes. I do have back-ups of everything. That is why its so weird.

So, you had exported mixes to the project folder of the songs, and now the wav file mixes are gone?
Is that correct? Curious.

This might be helpful;
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3023681

Everybody does this at least once.
It should be brought into the 21st century or removed.
 
It was designed when hard drives were much smaller and networks didn't exit at home.
It is so old, it doesn't even know what the recycling bin is and merrily scans that, too!
 
When it happened to me, a kind soul recommended CWAF and gave me step-by-step instructions.
A bug in CWAF then proceeded to ignore the path and deleted files elsewhere.
The kind soul was mortified to confirm CWAF also was buggy.
 
I never touched these two tools again.
 
Sound-Rehab has the best workaround.
Sonar often needs a workaround (sigh)

What I'm curious about is how the CWAF utility works.
Does it scan and document any and all wavs?
Or, is there something embedded in Cakewalk wavs that it can recognize that they are or are not tied to a cwp or wrk file and deal with accordingly?
 
As the OP noticed in the Clean audio utility it grabbed his mixes.

jpetersen
 
When it happened to me, a kind soul recommended CWAF and gave me step-by-step instructions.
A bug in CWAF then proceeded to ignore the path and deleted files elsewhere.
The kind soul was mortified to confirm CWAF also was buggy.
 
I never touched these two tools again.

 
The CWAF doesn't delete anything on its own. You need to delete it. and the path is listed right there so not sure what you mean by that.
 
CWAF lists the project and its associated files. I have never once had a problem with either tool to be honest.
Do they needed to be updated ? sure they do. they are slow as all H. but buggy ? come on.
Even the op admitted he didn't look at the list of files he was deleting (basically admitted it was his fault).
 
CWAF tool does what it should. Which is "Show you the files that are orphaned". its your choice to delete them.
 
 

timidi
What I'm curious about is how the CWAF utility works.
Does it scan and document any and all wavs?
Or, is there something embedded in Cakewalk wavs that it can recognize that they are or are not tied to a cwp or wrk file and deal with accordingly?

Yes sir to both Tim.
It Scan the projects and the associated files that belong to that project. The CWAF doesn't delete anything. it only lists the files (With their path) its up to the user to choose which file to delete.
 
The clean audio folder is a bit different. that scans per project files that belong to that loaded project.
It then opens a sub menu with a list of files that are no longer needed in the project.
Then you can delete 1 by 1 or delete all at once.
 
What the OP did was hit "delete all" without checking the list. I've done it before so I don't blame him. we get complacent sometimes and take for granite the tool found what it should. in his case he changed the drive letter. which listed every back up file on his back up HD.
 
Hope that helps man

timidi

michael japan
Gentlemen, please read the thread again (Fred and Iapasoa.) I do use per project folders and I didn't lose any of my project files or .wav data from any Sonar Projects. I lost my mixes. I do have back-ups of everything. That is why its so weird.

So, you had exported mixes to the project folder of the songs, and now the wav file mixes are gone?
Is that correct? Curious.

No, the files (my 24bit mixes) or any other .wav in my whole D: drive that was not inside a Sonar Project Folder was deleted. The project folder .wav are all intact.

By checking the box "Recurse" you told the Clean Audio Folder tool that any wav file it found on your D: drive belonged to a SONAR project. So it listed all those mixes and sample files as orphaned, which is logical.
 
Does anybody know what happens if you uncheck the box? Would it return an empty list ...?

WalkerTalker
By checking the box "Recurse" you told the Clean Audio Folder tool that any wav file it found on your D: drive belonged to a SONAR project. So it listed all those mixes and sample files as orphaned, which is logical.
 
Does anybody know what happens if you uncheck the box? Would it return an empty list ...?

Thank you! You win the prize.