My map-files are gone!

I was surprised when HL2DM started downloading a map that I was sure I already got. Then I noticed several other bsps missing when trying to load them in console.

So I searched the hl2mp/maps directory and every file that comes after "dm_f..." alphabetically is gone! Now that would be weird enough considering that no files were missing yesterday (and I didn't even get close to this directory in any file browser). But when I try to copy the files back from a backup it says it couldn't because the file-name is already used! Phantom files? Hyper-confusing computer viruses? What's going on?

First, enable hidden files in windows, so you can actually see the buggers.

If they aren't there, but the message persists, do a chkdsk run. It might be something with the file references being still there, but the actual file not. chkdsk can be run from within windows,unless you suspect there's physical damage to your disk. (you have to choose chkdsk /f then, and it will run next time you boot up your computer)

You could also try to delete the phantom files by using the DOS box to navigate to the folder and try del dm_fsomemap.

Then again, you could also delete the whole 'maps' map, and start all over (because standard HL2DM maps are stored in the GCF anyway, no ?).

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Chkdsk actually solved it, thanks. The files are there again. First time the program actually helped me :biggrin:

Glad to hear that. CHKDSK ftw !

The old win3.11 version had this amazing graphic view of your disk, marking all the bad sectors. All in ASCII, it owned.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Hmm...I just noticed that all the maps I had under mapsrc are gone.
Good thing I never keep important stuff there. But for all that each
time I attempt to run ANY steam game, doc watson chimes in waving red
flags. Except for the SDK where it says, even after a total refresh,
that "the sdklauncher requires -game on the command line" which doesn't make any damn sense.

What's still a mystery to me is how the files became ... "invisible" ... in the first place. It's really strange. :sad:

your Harddrive could be on its way out or it could just be a reset that you did at the wrong time

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Why Do we all have to wear these ridiculous ties

I don't really know why stuff like that happens. I had problems with a bunch of music files once, and I had to run checkdisk to fix it. I don't understand enough about computers to really explain it. Donde esta senor Crono?

Basically, theres a section on the hard drive partition (FAT, file allocation table) that has a list of all the files on the partition, and their physical location on the drive. I beleive what chkdsk does to fix this is search the drive for files, and fix up the list. I'm guessing a part of the list got corrupted somehow. I'm not 100% sure on this though, Crono probably knows more about it.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

On NTFS hard drives (NT File System), you have the same thing.

Basically, 99.9 % of your hard drive are chunks of data, all spread throughout the disk. The resting 0.01 % contains a sort of index for your computer on how to find the right chunks to build up the file you need.

Hence defragmenting is so important: if you have to scrap your files together from 20 different locations on your disk, it takes longer.

CHKDSK basically removes dead entries from that index (files that have been wiped, but didn't have their reference in the index removed : sudden power cut, nasty viruses, ...). I don't think it can add entries, though, because that would involve guessing what's a file and what's not. Since the possibilities are endless ...

It also checks the physical condition of your disk. It tries to read stuff in every sector, and when it hits a bad sector, it tries to recover the data it can, places it in a functioning sector and updates the references in the index table. It's pretty normal for a hard disk to have some bad sectors after a few years of usage.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

It's a conspiracy.