I've got a ton of images on my computer, and I can't view a bunch of
them. I have no idea why. I've done nothing to change them. It's not
any specific ones that I can't view, its a random selection. I have no
viruses and no trojans. The files show their normal file size and all
other stats, but when opened in any image program show up as blank or
result in some kind of error. Please help, many of these pictures are
irrecoverable. |
Clarification of Question by
babaloulou-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 15:37 PDT
If anyone thinks they can help, I'll send some pictures to show
exactly what it is that I mean.
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Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 15:55 PDT
babaloulou...
If you post some of the images to a free host site,
both we and you may be able to see by the results
whether it is the images that are faulty, or the
viewers on your system.
You can register and upload your image to one of the
following free sites and then post the URL of the image
back on this page:
http://www.villagephotos.com
http://www.deviantart.com
http://www.usa-ezweb.com/ezfree
Also, it might help to know which image-viewing programs
you are using. ACDSee is a particularly good free one.
sublime1-ga
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Clarification of Question by
babaloulou-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 16:19 PDT
I already use ACDSee, and I've also tried to open the files in
Microsoft Photodraw. They don't display in explorer on thumbnail view,
either.
http://img33.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img33&image=Alexis-hand.jpg
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Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 17:39 PDT
babaloulou...
Well, obviously the file you uploaded is not appearing in
a browser window, and, when I downloaded a copy to my
drive, it is showing up as a black screen in ACDSee, so
it would appear that the file is damaged.
To confirm this, I opened the file in Metapad, or Notepad
if you don't have Metapad, and the file is missing the
requisite JFIF header which identifies the file as a .jpg
file. A file header is inserted in the first few characters
of text on any file, and identifies the file to the default
program associated with, and used to open that particular
file suffix. These headers are in plain text, rather than
code, and are visible in any text editor.
In short, you seem to have a case of what is called a
'corrupt header' on this file, and this is likely the
case with your the other files which won't display, as
well.
It seems possible that this may have been the product of
a virus - especially if you were originally able to view
these specific images. Otherwise, this problem can occur
in the process of an interrupted or otherwise faulty
download.
I wish I could tell you that I knew a way to repair image
header files, but I don't. Additionally, searches for the
terms:
"repair image file header"
"repair file header"
"repair header"
turned up no usable results.
Let me know if this satisfies your needs in posting this
question, even though the news is not good, and I'll post
a formal answer.
sublime1-ga
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Clarification of Question by
babaloulou-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 18:01 PDT
Well, I did manage to find two CDs that had most of these pictures
backed up, so recovering is no longer my worry. I'd like to prevent
this from happening in the future. I don't think a virus is to
blame--I've never had Norton's pick one up before, and it scans
weekly. So, if you've got a way that I can make this stop happening in
the future (and it works), a formal answer would be fine. Otherwise,
unneccessary.
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Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 18:29 PDT
babaloulou...
Ah! You didn't mention the CD source before.
Of course, another area that is prime for file corruption
is when you copy files from a CD to your hard drive.
Assuming the CD files have their headers intact (which
you can check in Notepad), it's quite possible that the
corruption is occurring during the copy process, depending
on the reliability of your CD software, and, more possibly,
your CD-ROM itself. These can go south quicker than most
people like to think, and problems like this would be one
of the first symptoms. Or perhaps your software offers you
a way to limit the transfer speed during the copy process.
These things are the only preventive measures I can imagine,
given the conditions you're describing.
If this additional information qualifies what I've provided
as a satisfactory answer, do let me know.
sublime1-ga
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Clarification of Question by
babaloulou-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 19:17 PDT
Er, I think you misunderstood me. The pictures went from my camera to
my HDD, then I later backed them up to CDs. Just today, I restored as
many pictures as possible from those back-up CDs, replacing the messed
up files.
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Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 20:08 PDT
babaloulou...
Ah. This would lead to the possibility that the damage
may be initiated during the transfer from the camera to
your hard drive. Though I'm not personally familiar with
a situation in which the files have been downloaded and
subsequently viewed as normal (and saved to CD), followed
by some form of deterioration at a later time, if your
only interaction with these files prior to their failure
is the transfer from the camera, there seems to be no
alternative possibility, short of one of the software
viewers you are using being the cause of the damage.
I've certainly never heard of this with ACDSee, so it
would have to be some other viewer, such as Microsoft
Photodraw, with which I'm unfamiliar, or perhaps the
Explorer thumbnail software itself.
So, if this happens again in the future, you might
consider reinstalling your camera interface software,
or look for an alternative.
Finally, Pinkfreud-ga informed me of a program which
*is* able to repair some damaged image files:
"PixRecovery is data recovery program for damaged images.
It supports GIF, TIFF and JPEG formats."
"PixRecovery restores the corrupted image file and saves
it as Windows Bitmap (.bmp). See product information for
a full specification."
http://www.officerecovery.com/pixrecovery/
As always, let me know how helpful I've been, and whether
you wish to reward my efforts.
sublime1-ga
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Clarification of Question by
babaloulou-ga
on
26 Sep 2004 21:23 PDT
PixRecovery didn't recognize the files as being corrupt, so it was
unable to fix them.
And I transfer photos to my computer via Windows Explorer; it's
basically treated as one hard drive to another, so that causing any
errors wouldn't make any sense.
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Request for Question Clarification by
googleexpert-ga
on
27 Sep 2004 21:00 PDT
I just found about a jpeg virus from http://www.slashdot.org
From http://www.easynews.com/virus.txt :
"UPDATE: To check to see if you have been infected by this virus, look
for a directory named c:\windows\system32\system\ that has nvsvc.exe
and winrun.exe in it."
The virus doesn't seem to corrupt jpeg files although it seems like it
could.
A patch from Microsoft is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-028.mspx
Please let me know if your system is infected with this virus.
Thanks.
-googleexpert
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Clarification of Question by
babaloulou-ga
on
27 Sep 2004 23:41 PDT
Site says it doesn't affect WinXPSP2, which I've got. I do have
nvsvc32.exe in c:\winnt\system32, but I don't think that's malicious,
especially because I lack winrun.exe.
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Clarification of Question by
babaloulou-ga
on
27 Sep 2004 23:43 PDT
Aaaand Google tells me nvsvc32 is just some harmless Nvidia thing, so
I certainly don't have the virus.
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Request for Question Clarification by
googleexpert-ga
on
28 Sep 2004 07:26 PDT
Great to hear you don't have this jpeg virus.
Here's another file recovery utility you might want to try
Nmae: BadCopy Pro
Download Page:
http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/download.asp
Please let me know if this helps you.
Thanks again.
-googleexpert
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Clarification of Question by
babaloulou-ga
on
28 Sep 2004 15:01 PDT
No luck. It said 'Recovering...' then 'Recovered', but wouldn't
display in the preview (said it was corrupt or something).
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