Carlson CRD File - Transferred Wrong Direction!

Step 1 Contact Carlson Support --They are the experts

Step 2 On your computer there may be .CR5 Files I believe that these are a backup for the .RW5 file

Step 3 On the data collector search for *.QLY files. On mine they are in /SystemCF/Data/Backup. If you find it ask Carlson how to utilize it. I only know that they are created not what they are.

I just sent the crew back out (I am imagining that this will not happen again, nothing like doing something twice)

This is the response from Carlson Tech Support:

The backup folder is useless for Coordinate Data or RW5 raw file data.

The .QLY files in the DataBackup folder cannot be used to recover Job
Data like coordinates or raw file information --- it is only used as a
Temp File while SurvCE is running for Map information.

The only thing that contains Coordinate or Angle/Distance info is the CRD
or the RW5. The only other way to recover Job Data would be if you had
exported an Ascii file before deleting the CRD file or exported a DXF in
the Map screen and checked the box to include Points before deleting the
CRD.

That sucks.

I wonder if it might have been less expensive to send the unit away to a data recovery service to see if they could recover all data from before the transfer.

It's a good lesson for the crew anyway. Here's to hoping it never happens again.

Back when I was doing TDS transfers, there was a check box to Archive Raw data file, you could not modify this file without changing it to an editable raw file.

It saved me a few times. But since you didn't download the raw file before it was over written, this wouldn't have helped you anyway.

I have used PCTools to "undelete" files from data collectors, just like a computer.

If there is or the crew downloaded a drawing file or backup drawing file and the points were plotted on it, you could recreate the points under "coordinate utilities"
update coordinate file from drawing.

Just an idea

If the data is being stored on a compact flash car, SD card or other type of storage media, there are many free utilities that allow you to recover deleted files.

I have recovered photos from deleted SD cards. The trick is to do it before the files get "over written". JRL

I lost a job once from my Carlson DC. No idea what happened, it just was not there when I got back to the office. Ever since that painful experience, I have made it a point to "export" the job (raw and crd) from the Carlson menu to the documents file of the DC at the end of the day's work. I always have the Carlson job file and the exported raw and crd file on the DC. Works great.

Thanks for the ideas, the crew re-did the fieldwork yesterday. I'm sure that experience was enough to 1) make them more careful about transferring data & 2) export an ASCII file at the very least into the DC documents folder at the end of each day, prior to transferring. Hope no one else has to deal with this!

The rw5 has everything you need to get the data you need. The rw5 (raw data) is invaluable and has saved me many times.
Plus I always create a new folder for that days data. On large projects there may be many folders,but it makes the process a lot easier and you can't inadvertently overwrite your data because there's nothing in the file on the computer to transfer back in to the data collector if you use this methodology.

One thing that has saved me over the years is ALWAYS renaming the file when you upload a previous day's work. We use a number system, like 110350 ... so after I tinker with it in CAD, I export the points as 110350A, 110350B, etc. It keeps you from over writing anything. When the software asked "This file already exists, do you want to replace?" the answer is always NO!.

There is also a "Save As" command in TDS (don't know about Carlson). At any point the job where you are going to rotate or do some crazy editing, you can SAVE AS (110350C, 110350D, etc.) and perserve your original points as a "checkpoint" incase you really screw it up in the field.

Beleive me, these proceedures have come from years of experience of making costly mistakes. I recall one time my boss trying to rotate and translate a non-consectutive block of points in the field, and forgetting to add a few points, then trying to undo the initial rotation, and redo it with the points he forgot ... and by the time he was done, it was so screwed up we had to just start the job over.

I do the same thing, that is create a new folder for the day's data.

I have a lot of copies of the files but they are usually small so don't take up much space and it has the added benefit of me never having overwritten today's work.

You are correct.

Never ever mess with your only copy of the job data.

If you need to mess with your only copy, DON'T!

Make a copy or better download it and do it in the desktop software then upload a new copy of the job and carry on.