corrupt Jpgs - need a fix (not data recovery)

R B Customs · 2 Nov 2008 at 23:06

Hey Guys
I'm at a loss here.

I'm trying to get back from my friends drive some precious photo's of their kids in their early years. They had to, for whatever reason re-install windows( as instructed by 'the tech guys' :rolleyes:

I've got the Jpegs back, that was the easy part. Just to confirm - I am not looking for data recovery here; i have the files.

The files are however corrupt. They display as JPGS ( no thumbnail though) they display at the correct size and everything. the wont open in any program. it's obvious that the information is there but the information is corrupt.

I've googled all night long, only to find countless... counts of people pointing to data recovery apps like 'get data back' and so on.

Does anyone know a sure-fire way to restore / repair corrupt Jpegs? the info is so obviously there! so near yet so far

aztechnology · 2 Nov 2008 at 23:47

when you say "they display as jpg's at the correct size and everything" do you mean as attributes in the file browser?

It sounds to me like you have managed to recover the files and the header info is correct, but the actual data has a corruption. This could prove very difficult to fix...

a quick google brought up http://www.s2services.com/photoandimagefreeware.htm which has a few links to image repair. I have not had to use any of these tools myself though.

You might find that a different file recoverer might be better at recovering the original lost images, it's worth trying a few to see. Lexar have one thats supposed to be specifically aimed at recovering image files.

D.P. · 3 Nov 2008 at 08:31

I would say the data is not recoverable.. All you have is a file header.

Banzai_Joe · 3 Nov 2008 at 08:42

So if they 'display' as jpgs, are you meaning you can preview them as filmstrip in explorer?
If so, and this obviously depends on ultimately how they want to use the image, i.e. to print or to display on screen; you could make your window as big as possible, thus making the preview as big as possible, take a screenie, paste into photoshop. Now it will only be 72ppi, which is fine for screen viewing, but not for printing, unless you need to print it at a much smaller size than what you pasted into photoshop (thus rezzing it up).
Hope it helps. If not, sorry, but the only other suggestion i'd have would be as already mentioned and try a different recovery program, more geared to image recovery.

^^Gord^^ · 3 Nov 2008 at 09:00

D.P. said:
I would say the data is not recoverable.. All you have is a file header.

I'd agree.

Sadly, it sounds like you've lost them.

Hodders · 4 Nov 2008 at 09:50

Have you tried opening them in every application you can find ?

If you are happy to - send me one (email in trust) and I will try to open it up in a couple of linux tools for you.

adamph · 4 Nov 2008 at 11:37

I had a similar problem once, but I was able to drop them into IE (FF wouldnt let me and then save them out under a new file name)

Best of luck!