Here is how you try to fix broken pictures and videos.
Here is how you try to fix broken pictures and videos.
I am writing here under "Apps and Software" because I feel like there is nothing else that would work better but still gives me hope. Here is my problem... Way back when, I had a laptop running Windows XP. Because of some specific reasons, it was time to make a new installation of the newest Windows OS on that same laptop. So, I made a manual backup of all my personal files and important stuff onto an external hard drive (drag and drop) and thought, that I covered everything I needed. Then, I started the process of formatting and installing the new Windows OS on that laptop. But after a short while, I remembered with shock to myself, that I had left out one very important folder which held my personal photos and videos taken with my digital camera when it was all brand new. I immediately stopped everything, turned off the laptop, and rebooted the operating system which was still working fine. Then, I found that exact folder, moved it onto my external hard drive, and restarted the process of installing Windows on the laptop. After checking the photos and videos on the external drive, I realized some were damaged and couldn't be read anymore. Because I was so frustrated with myself and very annoyed (these were all original files in high resolution), I just put off trying to fix this mess. I have to admit with shame that this happened about 12 years ago. Today, I finally pulled myself together and fixed the problem. To my surprise, out of all the photos and videos, only about 15% or maybe even less are unreadable or corrupted. Still, I wanted to know if there was a way to repair or recover the damaged part somehow. I remembered back then that I had seen Piriform's "Recuva" which I thought could do the trick. However, today I realized this type of recovery software is designed for the actual hard drive where the files were originally stored and not a copy of the folder with those files that I moved to my external drive. So here is my question now (and maybe I am wrong in that regard since it is very well possible I should have asked the above on a photography forum)... Is there any way some specific software exists that is made just for fixing the mess I am in? I stumbled upon this site... https://www.easeus.com/file-recovery/fil...overy.html which touts the software 'EaseUS' and a nice list of alternatives below, should their software fail but I am unsure if this might actually just make the situation worse as it isn't exactly what should be used or is needed for this type of recovery. Any input, big or small, is most welcome. Thanks in advance.
Right now, if you have a folder full of broken or missing pieces, that's probably useless for fixing things. One major issue is especially with photos and videos—you often need the whole thing to be okay. Think about the Mona Lisa; if she only has one third gone, it's just junk on a canvas. A picture of her missing part might not even come back as a normal JPG file. Recovery tools could maybe turn her into a bunch of tiny text files instead. Other programs you can try: Autopsy...
If your changes wiped out parts or all of a file, it's lost forever. Even if recovery tools list the file name, that doesn't guarantee the actual data works. Seeing a file name is like checking the table of contents for a book. Just because the TOC mentions page 83, it doesn't mean page 83 actually has content on it.
The issue you mentioned happens because people don't separate their personal stuff from where Windows lives. It's a common thing on many laptops. Putting your files in the same folder as Windows can be risky, especially if Windows updates mess with things or if everything gets wiped when you reinstall the system.
Hi and thanks so much for your reply! I read your post with a lot of interest and wanted to ask you some questions back. You said maybe you can recover deleted files but not fix the corruption. To the best of my understanding, I have both problems. After checking the file sizes of the unreadable files again after your second comment about overwritten or missing data, this gave me an idea. If those files are roughly the same size as the working photos and videos in the same folder, they probably just got corrupted. But if their sizes are much smaller than the working ones before and after them, they might be almost entirely gone—like just file names (indices) that point to a file permanently lost on the original hard drive on my laptop. And that is exactly what happened! Some files have very small size values while others have similar higher values in kilobytes compared to the previous or next ones. So I am thinking: although the larger ones are hopeless, the smaller ones might still be worth trying for recovery. To answer my first question... are there any programs you know that could potentially help with those files? (I don't care how likely success is). Another friend recommended trying out this tool in the current situation: https://www.z-a-recovery.com/download.aspx I'm really unsure though and worried about it. Is every recovery program out there using a process that needs to be run on the original hard drive where those files lived, or are there actually some tools that can save partially corrupted files as if they were intact? Thanks in advance for any reply!
@Grobe Yeah, I get it. The way things were split back then was totally wrong. But remember, this is 12 years ago and computers have improved a lot since then. So yeah, it used to be all messed up at the time, but that's not fixable now anyway. I'm just trying to find tools to make things better. If you've got ideas or help on how to do that, please share them! Thanks so much.
Right. If you have a copy of that folder with missing or bad files, it won't work for recovery tools. One main issue is that things like pictures and videos often need the whole thing to be useful. The Mona Lisa where the top third is gone? That's basically useless on canvas. A regular jpg file with only the first part missing might not even be readable as a jpg at all. Recovery programs could just give you tiny .txt files instead. Other software worth trying: Autopsy. You will need some other storage space to do this.
@USAFRet Thanks for the tip on that Open Source Program. I'm going to try it and come back with the results soon. It might take a while, but I think I can solve this problem within these coming weeks or days. By the way... I guess your answer means the recovery tools won't work here right? Please let me know if I got that wrong.