Photo recovery: Unable to open recovered images, images corrupt, or thumbnails only

[Alexey V. Gubin]

In case a digital image recovery run brings some files, but part or all of these files

Fail to open (various error messages e.g. "Invalid SOI marker").
Have the thumbnails OK but fail to open in full size.
Are visibly distorted (e.g. only upper part of the image OK).
There is basically nothing we can do. If the image files are fragmented on the card, we cannot re-assemble fragments back into the complete and correct image.

In this case, you should try the "Simple volume recovery" (http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm) mode, which may or may not achieve better results. If this fails as well, there is nothing else we can do.

[cyndic_bus@sbcglobal.net]

when viewing photos in camera, suddenly says "caution, erasing all". when memory card taken to kiosk, says "no pictures". when trying to download to PC, says "unable to read" or "not possible". sometimes on camera, says "card error" photos can be seen on the camera, but starts erasing while viewing.

[cyndic_bus@sbcglobal.net]

:confused: I'm sorry. I thought I already replied. I'm having trouble getting the pictures off my camera. I can't print at a kiosk or download to my PC. While viewing pictures in the camera it starts erasing them.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

1. Remove card from the camera. You need a card reader device. Insert the card into the card reader.
2. Run ZAR as illustrated at http://www.z-a-recovery.com/demo-ir.htm
This may or may not work depending on the card reader model and damage type. If this does not work, report back with specific details (what was done and what problem is encountered).

[Geemc]

Hi All-
I am new in this forum. So, bear with me. My Olympus D560 wants me to reformat the chip with 98 pictures on it. I downloaded ZAR, which transfered the files, but I can't open them. I am not sure I followed all the directions on how to use ZAR recovery software. Any advice? Thanks, geemc

[Alexey V. Gubin]

This is most likely caused by the fragmentation of the image files (see details (http://www.digital-photo-recovery-guide.com/photo-recovery-limitations.aspx)). This is not something we can recover with current technology.

The proper procedure is to try both recovery modes available, as described here
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/demo-ir.htm
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm

If neither of these recovers files correctly, we are out of options.

[Nancy]

I did the trial run at work (while researching drive recovery / forensics products for a work project) and saved the data in order to finish recovering the drive at home. When I paid for the program and installed the key - I loaded the file I had saved from work and while it appeared the files were recovered, NONE of the pictures would open (it gave an error message that it was not the same set up although I had ignored the warning). Zar also locked up and I got the threading error others have received. I tried running the entire thing again from the start and recovery went very well and recovered all (as far as I could tell) of my pictures and documents (and they opened fine) and I did not receive an error.

[toshaiverson]

I seemed to have recovered my images from my camera, but I am unable to open any of the images. I continue to get an error message. I was reading through some of the postings, and it says you should use a card reader to recover your photos. Is this more successful than trying to use your camera as an external device?

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Card reader is useful when

You cannot get ZAR to recognize camera
A "physical" (bad block) problem is suspected
ZAR locks up when scanning using camera, or the entire system crashes during scanother than that, card reader does not provide any benefit.

I do not think it will help in your case. If you tried both
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/demo-ir.htm
and
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm
with no positive results, then there is nothing else we can do.

[freekinwilly]

zar gave me a list of over 700 images in jpeg but when i click it says no preview available...they are between 1.5 and 4 mb in size...anything i am doing wrong?

[Alexey V. Gubin]

If you actually recover these images, and try to open them with whatever image viewer you typically use, are they still unusable?

[MeiLi]

I already tried your advice in this thread. But I still cannot recover my photos from my Olympus XD-Picture Card. :(

This is so frustrating. Earlier today I tried opening it through my laptop but it asked me to format it. I took the card to a nearest photo shop who tried to recover the files using Smart Recovery. But to know avail.

Before the technician used Smart Recovery, he asked me to click on "format now" from my digicam (Olympus FE-210). He said it's ok because he can recover the files using the said software.

Now, I feel hopeless. The pictures are of my mother's vacation overseas. This is the only time my mother can travel abroad and I don't have pictures. Please help!

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Could you please find ZAR log file,
C:\Program Files\ZAR\logfile.txt
and email it to me at development@z-a-recovery.com

it should not be that big

[rosscoboy]

I just used ZAR to scan my memory card and it found all my files so I saved them however, when I open them the pictures are really small to what they are meant to be. However there seems to be about 3 copies of each image all at different dimensions

They are meant to be 2592 x 1944 pixels and I have found only some of the recovered images that are of that dimension but when I try opening them it says 'drawing failed'? I took images and videos on the 11/08/08 and it was the 12/08/08 that they vanished however I still used my memory card on the 13/08/08 and the images I took on that day seem to be fine.

the other dimensions that do open are 170 x 128 and 320 x 240.

Anyone know if there is a possibility of recovering them all properly?

[milo_fishie]

I got all my photos from ZAR and the thumbnails are right but when I open it, the pictures have grey all over it and sometimes over half the photo is grey. What should I do? These photos were from my Grad dinner dance... It would be great if they turned out ok. Thanks =)

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Unfortunately if you tried both of

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm
and
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/demo-ir.htm

and still no positive result, then there is nothing else we can suggest.

[usafmonty]

I was able to recover my photos, however I am having the same problems as stated with only 10 of the 320 recovered photos (they would be the ones I wanted the most). Has anyone been able to find a way to copy the photos that will not open? The fustrating part is seeing the photos and not being able to do anything with them.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

they would be the ones I wanted the most

.. and I guess these are either the earliest in the set, or the latest in the set?
Earliest shots are often first to be overwritten (e.g. after format).
Latest shots tend to be damaged when things go wrong (writes go wrong, buffers not written completely, and so on).

Unfortunately, this is in most cases just the bad luck.

[sidcoronel]

Hi Alexey:

I think I have the same problem opening recovered powerpoint and excel files :(

I get the following message from MSOffice help.

The selected file does not appear to be a valid Microsoft Office PowerPoint file. It might be another kind of Microsoft Office System file or a file created by using a different program.

Try double-clicking the file in Windows Explorer to see if another program will open it. If PowerPoint opens again when you double-click the file in Windows Explorer, it is possible that the file is not a PowerPoint file but that its extension was renamed to be that of a registered PowerPoint file type (such as .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .ppsx, .pptx, .pot, or .potx) but the file is not a PowerPoint file.

To determine which program can open the file, try any of the following:

Contact the original author (if known) to find out which program was used to create this file. Then rename the file with the correct extension so that it can be opened by that program.
Try opening the file in other programs.
If you, or someone you know, are very knowledgeable about software, examine the file header in a text editor to determine which program can read the file.
Another possibility is that the file was damaged during transfer from another computer. If the file was transmitted over a modem, try re-transmitting the file.

Lastly, the file might have become corrupted. If you have a backup copy of the file, use it. It is not currently possible to reverse file corruption.

Please take a look at the attached file.

Thanks in advance!


Sid

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Could you please describe the incident you are recovering from?


What was the original problem?
What is the size of a volume involved?
If you can recall, what was the filesystem type, FAT or NTFS?
How many files were on that volume?

[yahoo23]

zar gave me a list of over 700 images in jpeg but when i click it says no preview available...they are between 1.5 and 4 mb in size...anything i am doing wrong?

did you ever figure this out??? I am having same problem....what to do??

[Alexey V. Gubin]

What type of the media are you recovering from?
Assuming this is a photo camera memory card, how many images do you expect to be there?
How many images were actually recovered?
Are all of the images unusable, or just a part of the images?

[ACEllis]

Hi,

When first attempting to access my SD memory card (by inserting it into the SD slot in my PC) to view photos, it worked fine, but later when I attempted to copy the images (during the same session) Windows told me it was not formatted and I needed to do so in order to access the drive.

I used ZAR to attempt to recover the images, using both the 'recover data from a simple volume or from a functional RAID volume' and the 'recover images from the digital camera memory card' options. Both produced the same results- most have been recovered successfully, but many of the images have a grey bar at the top or bottom when viewing in preview. However, strangely when the preview of these images first appears the whole image is viewable, but once left to fully load, the grey bars appear over parts of the image (they then remain indefinitely). As the rest of the image appeared temporarily, it seems that the full data is there- is there any way to repair these files?

Thanks

[Alexey V. Gubin]

The preview is lower resolution (and smaller size) than the full image. The preview is stored close to the beginning of the file. It thus has less chance to get damaged. So the preview is loaded first, and then once the full image is loaded, it becomes clear the full image is distorted.

Alternatively, I recall JPEG can use progressive layout where first part of the file composes lower-resolution image, and subsequent parts provide increasingly higher resolutions; the same principle applies - even in theory, you can only get a lo-fi version of the image. As far as practice is concerned, I'm not aware of any image editor that would allow you to discard a part of the JPEG.

[arnabbt]

I have the same problem. When I recovered my photos from my Sony Cybershot digital camera, most of the pictures turned grey :( and I cannot view them anymore. Please suggest a way to view the files as those pictures are precious to me.

Thanks

Arnab

[Alexey V. Gubin]

If you tried both "Recover simple volume" and "Recover images" modes, ZAR run without any apparent error message, and still did not produce the desired result, there is unfortunately nothing else I can suggest.

[buttercup87]

i recovered some files from ma frens laptop...the data was about 20BG...the files were recovered bt then they dont open..almost 70% of image files are not opening,...wat should i do? please help

[Alexey V. Gubin]

1. You did use "Recover simple volume" mode, is that correct?
2. What kind of problem there was with a laptop?
3. How did you connect the laptop drive, or do you still have the laptop bootable?