FLAC Stream Decoder Error, FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_ERROR_STATUS_LOST_S Options

[Zennon]

I'm in the process of backing up 500 CD-DA discs in FLAC format (using EAC). I ran a shell script to test (flac.exe -t; flac version 1.1.1) the 4000 FLAC files on my hard drive so far and found that flac.exe reported errors for 36 files. All errors are the same:

<filename>: *** Got error code 0:FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_ERROR_STATUS_LOST_SYNC

The files decompress fine, but now I'm not sure if I got the exact WAVs back. What does this error message mean, and how severe is the error? Moreover, is there a way to avoid it when compressing WAVs to FLAC in EAC?

This post has been edited by Zennon: Jan 17 2005, 00:10

[viktor]

Hey viktor... I don't want to jump over your post, but I am having similar problems with my flacs. Not sure if this is hardware or software, but it sure seems like we need to regularly run tests on our flac library to check for errors.

yea i surely will, at least to recognize hdd failurs in time. this is the simplest way.

its more likely that you also have hw problems.

i cant be sure in my case, but now im waiting for any error to occur again. in theory my hw is fixed now, so it shouldnt.

well see.

anyway, havent you had any hw problems recently?

[Roobar]

anyway, havent you had any hw problems recently?

It looks like it might be a problem with the firewire connection. I have moved the ext hdd to a USB2 port and will correct the corrupted files. There was also a problem with a previous release of Media Monkey that might have also corrupted some files. The problem with these types of things is that corrupt files are "hidden" until you try to use them again. In my case, I was playing around with Synthetic Soul's flac-verify.bat file and just happened to stumble on a corrupt flac file. Pure chance.

So now I have created a batch file that I can schedule overnight to check the entire flac library directory and flag any corrupted files into a log file. I have also created a batch file that can check an album directory, create a log file of the complete flac -t output for every track and store this in the album directory. It also creates a .swf file for the directory. Once this is done, I'll also include a check of the .swf file in the library check procedure to see if throws up any errors on all other files (jpg, etc) in my library.

The bottom line is that, if we're wanting to archive our CD collection with a lossless copy, we must have a system to regularly test the archive so that we can catch problems before they get out of control. If I had been able to see that I was getting corrupt flac files when I only had one or two, this would not have become such a big problem. I should also have checked my entire flac directory when I moved it from one external hdd to another before I formatted the source hdd.

Lessons learned the hard way I'm afraid.

This post has been edited by Roobar: May 23 2007, 03:24