Hey. So I managed to delete my project folder while having no backups at all. (I know I know)
With Recurva and fast reflexes I managed to restore most of the lost files (for all but few hex named files)
Now Unity won’t start up the project. I’ve been considering deleting some temp editor files but I’m mot sure which ones?
could try copying contents of Assets/ folder (if you got any)
into new empty working project Assets/ folder.
(no need the other folders, and packages you can redownload)
So I did that and it all worked fine untill it crashed. Different crash but still. Something must be corrupted and I’m not sure how to proceed in order to find the culprit.
At which point it crashed.
Don’t copy, try just import to new project.
Then probably need recreated whats missing, corrupted.
Then make sure you are using repositories.
Backup also wont hurt.
Alright, so this time it worked but as expected there are a bunch of files that create errors which are some assets I used for translation which I can just re-import. Also opening the scenes in the text editor shows me some garbage text such as this:
Is there any tool that would help me un-corrupt these files or do I have to do it all manually? What I care about the most is the scenes and scripts (which are mostly fine)
How long did take you to make scene?
I ask, because it may be faster for you to recreate it, than play with corrupted files. Specially if you new to these.
Now you have no guarantee, that you will fix things correctly, which wont cause any issues down the line, some time in future. I don’t think is worth the risk. Recreating is safer route.
Plus, you have opportunity to clean up and organize things better.
Quite long, the project took least 3 months of work. I might try to recreate it but the problem isn’t just time but also that it won’t be the same as before.
When did you delete your project? If you are using Windows, did you set “Previous versions” for your files?
https://winaero.com/blog/restore-previous-versions-windows-10/
does that scene file binary show version number on top? (then it could be just binary serialized mode)
(screenshot binary scene file in text editor)
can change that to text mode in editor settings, but if the actual file is broken then probably no way to salvage it…
Just wanted to add; before you do anything, take a copy of your recovered project and maybe a second copy to avoid any further damage.
I already checked unfortunately :c
Thanks for the heads up. I already did multiple copies.
I tried checking both of the secenes (one of them is in a better condition) but none of them has anything like that.
Well, desperation is starting to settle in. Guess I’m gonna get fired tomorrow lol ¯_(ツ)_/¯
As harsh it may sound, there is no excuse to not having any form of backups, even more in professional world.
3 months and not even thought about contingency plan …
Lesson learned hard way.
What caused it to crash? Repeat the steps, up until the point before it crashes, then report here what your next step is that leads to the crash. The files that you are looking at are probably not corrupted, just binary.
