Cannot open mkv files

[roniold]

Hello! I will be very brief in my explanation. If anyone can help me, please.

1. 3 weeks ago I recorded 15-20 videos with the OBS in MKV format.
2. I moved all the files to the stick and reinstalled windows, thinking I would edit them after reinstalling windows.
3. Now, on the new windows, I can't open them with any application and I can't convert them with any application. I even tried "remux".

What should I do? Thank you!

 

[roniold]

I tried to convert them with 3 applications: handbrake, mkvtoolnix and xmediarecode.
None of them worked.

 

[Harold]

Did they work properly on the old install?
You may have ended up with a counterfeit usb stick that didn't actually have the capacity it advertised.

 

[roniold]

Did they work properly on the old install?
You may have ended up with a counterfeit usb stick that didn't actually have the capacity it advertised.

Hello!

I haven't tested them to find out if they worked on the old windows.

What is certain is that the problem is not from the stick, because I still have some videos (the ones in the green box) that work and are also from the same period.

The ones in the red frame don't work, don't open, can't convert.

 

[Harold]

Actually, the way that counterfeit sticks behave, it's actually still possible that yours is based on the behavior you've described. They still show the correct filenames and sizes, but the file contents are corrupted.

I'd move ALL the files off the drive and test the stick with programs like validrive

 

[AaronD]

Counterfeit drives are usually made from smaller drives that work perfectly well, except that they've been hacked to report a larger size than what they really are, and packaged accordingly.

There are two major ways for them to fail, depending on how the wear leveler is involved, which is the part that prevents premature failure by spreading the data across the entire drive even if you only ever use a small percentage of its capacity.

• If the wear leveler thinks it has more space than it actually does, then it could easily put something in a cell that doesn't exist, while leaving one unused that does exist. So there's a high chance of corrupting *everything* you put on it, from the very beginning.
• If the wear leveler still has the correct size, and it's *only* the reporting that's been hacked, then it works normally and reliably until it fills up, and then loses the rest. Where that point is though - the actual number of cells that it has - you don't know.