DeepMediaScan is a method to read a damaged disk, thus integrating data recovery, diagnostic and video preview into one application: Treasured.
DeepMediaScan is specialized in audio and video recovery. Unlike data recovery services and tools that try to recover files by detecting container data, it tries to recover media directly. Indeed, what matters is the content, audio and video, not the container, that can be re-built through reindexing.
Since Treasured main strength is media detection, it is not surprising that DeepMediaScan recovers more footage from a damaged disk than generic recovery tools.
DRAFT DeepMediaScan overview (13 minutes video)
Understand DeepMediaScan
Recommended reading: Where is my footage?Generating the Disk Map
1. Open damaged disk with Treasured
Choose a disk or volume from the left column of the Open dialog and push Open.
Network disks are not allowed.
Besides disks, DeepMediaScan also accepts files with .img or .dmg prefix. Such files are disk images created by reading a damaged disk.
2. Choose Slice size
We recommend to take a bigger size first. This will give less definition but will be faster.
Optionally, you can...
The first time, you can also leave everything as it is and push Start.
3. Scanning
The same process will repeat several times:
And finally, all the images will be grouped in an iPhoto album, and the Scan Summary screen will display.
You can leave the computer unattended during scanning.
Working with Clips
4. Disk Map in iPhoto
If everything went well, now there is an album called "Treasured Disk Map" in iPhoto that contains dozens of images. This is like a "contact sheet" of your damaged disk.
Each image represent a certain amount of data of the disk. In the example above, each image represents around 68 seconds of XDCAM EX media.
If Treasured has been able to preview the data, the image represents the contents of the data. Otherwise, it indicates the media type. The images accumulate in your iPhoto library:
At the end, Treasured displays a Scan Summary with statistics about the Disk Map.
After scanning, the Disk Map is persistent: you can quit Treasured and come back later, double-clicking on the disk in the History pane.
Unless you delete the images in the iPhoto album, it will not be necessary to scan again.
5. Define and extract clips
Probably your disk contains several video clips. Looking at the Disk Map in iPhoto, you can identify them: if you "read the map" you will see sequences of images pertaining to a clip, followed by more sequences.
The Disk Map allows to define the clips that you want to recover. This flexible approach is very useful when your have a huge hard disk but you only want to recover a part of it. Or when you don't have enough disk space to recover everything in one shot.
A clip can also be created from the menu: Disk > New clip from iPhoto selection
You can...
A clip is first defined (at this stage it doesn't exist as a file), extracted (it becomes a file in your repair folder), then repaired (it becomes a playable movie). But to repair, first you need to go through quotation and request...
6. Price Quote and Repair Request
To give a Price Quote, Treasured runs a diagnostic on one of the extracted clips. The quote is indicative, it will be confirmed by a repair technician after you send a Repair Request.
Aero Quartet will examine your request and contact you. In most cases, the repair is possible and you will receive a Repair Kit, a program that will transform your clip files into playable movies.