Question / Help MKV file unrecoverable after BSOD

[evilgoodguy]

Hey guys, so I started recording in mkv about a year ago, due to crashing that I was experiencing on my old computer. As we all know, mp4s are pretty much the devil because you can't salvage them after a crash of any kind.
It saved me many times in the past after quite a few game crashes and BSODs.

But yesterday I had a full system crash (blue screen of death) after 45 minutes of recording. I went to remux the mkv to salvage most of the clip.
But when I went to remux, it "completed" the remux instantly (which is unexpected because it usually take 2-3 minutes), with a red x next to the file in the remux menu and brought up a notification saying "recording remuxed, but the file may be incomplete", which is obviously expected.

The problem though, is that it actually was not remuxed. No mp4 file was output/produced from the remux.
In fact, the mkv file says it's 0kb.
I then tried out various programs to try and fix the mkv, but was not successful. The only progress that was made is that the program I used got the mkv to display its actual file size, which is 18.3gb.
I then tried to remux the mkv again, still with no success.

So, are mkvs no longer recoverable after a system crash?
This is my first time trying to recover one from a system crash in about a year. There's been many updates to OBS since then. So I'm not sure if there is something in the current version that is causing problems, that was not present in older versions.


*I would upload the log file, but there does not appear to be one for that session (perhaps because it was a system crash?). I have the logs for the session before that and the session after though.

 

[koala]

The mkv file might be damaged on a file system level, since your whole computer crashed in the middle of recording. If it appears as unusuable, you first should let Windows chkdsk the correspondig drive to check for file system errors. In Explorer go to the properties of the drive, tab Tools, check for errors. If this was the system drive, checking will probably taking place with a reboot.

After that, copy your file and only operate on the copy from now on. This way, you avoid accidently destroying your original.
Now try to view the mkv file with the vlc media player. If something useful is left within that file, vlc is able to display it. If vlc isn't able to display anything, the file is broken, probably beyond repair. If vlc is able to display something, you might retry remuxing. If remuxing still doesn't work, you can try to recode with a 3rd party recoding app like Handbrake. Recoding will thoroughly read the file and re-encode everything that can be found in it.
There is also a "scan for errors" function in Avidemux, and a function to save a video without found errors. Avidemux is also able to recode the video, just like Handbrake.

Have fun with repairing your file. It's always a tedious thing and success isn't guaranteed.

 

[evilgoodguy]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions Koala :)

I was mainly just surprised since I've never had an issue remuxing/salvaging mkvs after system crashes - which used to happen all the time on my old computer. So was curious if I was just oblivious to something.

I'll give Avidemux a try and see if it gets me anywhere.

 

[Armuta]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions Koala :)

I was mainly just surprised since I've never had an issue remuxing/salvaging mkvs after system crashes - which used to happen all the time on my old computer. So was curious if I was just oblivious to something.

I'll give Avidemux a try and see if it gets me anywhere.

Did you ever find something? I'm having this issue currently and have come up empty.

 

[koala]

My answer in this thread above is actually a bit more verbose than in your original thread. Do what I wrote above (chkdsk, vlc, handbrake, avidemux) of you didn't do this already.

 

[Armuta]

My answer in this thread above is actually a bit more verbose than in your original thread. Do what I wrote above (chkdsk, vlc, handbrake, avidemux) of you didn't do this already.

Ahh I missed this was also you. Thank you for the help in the first place! It's probably busted but I'm still working at it.

 

[koala]

Your file is probably damaged by the power loss and Windows not being able to flush important file system metadata to disk, it's probably not simply truncated.