Video · exFAT recording drive
ProRes MOV: find after an import failure
Where are ProRes recordings in MOV after a failed import?
Short answer
First check whether the offload actually finished: look in the destination, the trash and any verification report of your copy tool. An interrupted copy of a large ProRes file can leave a MOV that is shorter than the source. Compare byte sizes; if clips are missing on the medium too, scan it read-only.
The situation
ProRes recordings in MOV is incomplete at the destination and no longer appears reliably on the source.
An offload of ProRes material takes long enough to fail halfway, and that is what the evidence points to: an incomplete file at the destination and a source that may already have been cleared. Sizes, not file names, will tell you what actually arrived.
01 / Diagnose
Work out what actually disappeared
Copy tools create the destination file first and fill it afterwards, so an interruption leaves a MOV of the right name and the wrong length. If the offload was set to verify and then delete, a failure in the middle can remove takes from the medium that were never fully written to the target.
Move, rename, catalog and delete-after-import steps can fail at different moments and leave source and destination in different states. For ProRes MOV, this matters because QuickTime sample tables must point to the complete high-bitrate ProRes payload
Check the last known path, trash and backups without writing to the original device.
02 / Protect the source
Preserve the best recovery chance
- 1
Pause the offload software and leave the medium mounted read-only rather than starting the transfer over immediately.
- 2
Open the checksum or verification report of your copy tool and compare every listed take with what is on the destination.
- 3
If takes are missing on both sides, scan the unused medium read-only for MOV, or work from an image of it.
- 4
Copy anything you recover to a third disk, then run the offload again with verification switched on and deletion switched off.
Do not delete the partial files at the destination until you know the medium still holds the originals, and do not reformat the medium because the offload reported success. A verification report that never finished is not proof that the copy is complete.
03 / Choose the method
Match the tool to the source
For stable, readable exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 or uncompressed IMG, DD, RAW and BIN images.
Unconfirmed exports are marked .UNVERIFIED.
File Recovery Hero reads exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 sources plus uncompressed IMG, DD, RAW and BIN images; an APFS or HFS+ destination is outside its scope. Recover that side from your backup, a snapshot or the trash rather than with a scan.
04 / Verify
Check the recovered content, not just its name
The only reliable check is a byte-for-byte match between source and destination, ideally a checksum from the copy tool. Beyond that, open each transferred take in an editor, confirm the ProRes flavour and play the last thirty seconds, where a truncated copy shows up first.
Keep the source until two verified copies exist. One working preview is not enough.
Sources and technical references
FAQ
Questions about this recovery case
Can exFAT recording drive be recovered in this situation?+
An offload of ProRes material takes long enough to fail halfway, and that is what the evidence points to: an incomplete file at the destination and a source that may already have been cleared. Sizes, not file names, will tell you what actually arrived. The result still depends on what remains readable on the source.
What should I avoid before scanning?+
Do not delete the partial files at the destination until you know the medium still holds the originals, and do not reformat the medium because the offload reported success.
Does scanning write to my memory card?+
Your memory card is only read. Nothing is saved to it.
How do I know whether the result is complete?+
The only reliable check is a byte-for-byte match between source and destination, ideally a checksum from the copy tool.