Cannot open a very large Spike2 *.smr file

[ted3]

I need help opening a large data file. Large as defined by 2,097,155 KB. Has anybody has this problem and found a solution? Once opened, I would reduce it by deleting less necessary channels. I really only need 4 channels.

[Simon Gray]

Hi, I think it is first worth trying the Sonfix utility for this 32-bit file. It will identify if there are any problems with the file header and data block links. We have had a few users who inadvertently changed the extension from smrX to smr or vice versa so we should check the correct file type. There is a corresponding Son64Fix utility.

Feel free to PM me or send the offending file via our website - https://ced.co.uk/support/sendbigfiles and we will have a look at it for you.

Simon

[Greg Smith]

This is a note for anyone having a similar problem.

There is a known problem where if you sample to a .smr file until it hits the size limit of 2 GB (2 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes) minus a sfaety margin, the act of closing the file writes outstanding buffers of data, and it is possible to write a buffer that starts before the 2 GB limit, but ends after it. I suspect that in your case, when you say 2,097,155 KB the KB is in units of 1024 bytes. This makes the actual file size in decimal: 2,147,486,720 bytes, and the limit is 2,147,483,648 bytes, so the file is 3072 bytes (3KB) over the limit. When you attempt to open it, it fails a simple check of the file size.

The next releases of Spike2 (9.16 and 10.14) have a modification to allow them to read files in this state. If you have an ancient version of Spike2 and have a similar problem and will not consider upgrading to the latest Spike2, we can fix the file for you by exporting it as a .smrx file (which allows files of truly huge sizes), or even to a.smr file (omitting the last few seconds of data).