Yes, I found some damaged files with unusual issues. Answers are available.
Yes, I found some damaged files with unusual issues. Answers are available.
I was browsing my old hard drive frequently and noticed many file names getting replaced with X, sometimes capitalized. What’s more puzzling is that these are the only files that remain intact compared to others. Here’s a screenshot of several of these files—text files without 'X' appear corrupted or encrypted for some reason. You can observe that the X replaces whatever text was before. Instead of key.png, it shows XEY.PNG. Below is a clean, uncorrupted text file. Also, here’s another file that seems similar (the name doesn’t contain X, which makes me wonder about the connection). Feel free to imagine any kind of content: v BŸ2š:Û¶\¹ªáZÕ×hr²Uúb êLù๲|¡‚Æ£ãe—ùíJ¶í•Ž–¸$ÌBÐ<ÖLœž<•»½UrPuGJ¥òDDç"5ÔM5Êc/£LB³Œ¥ª_1ÊÜÛa´Ce—:£ A NA¹h‡c¼ÚYjmU;Iÿ„<§J• TóZÓmšÎx³…ÝwwÃ.4lÓÖäüt¹WSéUJx%L‚8Ø?ãrAï—ÜäÑ~Ö†¾£&Üo2òäÓ£°r[ñ£Yé¸ÊÕæ|êh›§ø*:0Zíîã¿2ïÊ@VqµíÉfY¾¼ÛŽýú(PL4m²ìW/+T•¦ …O–ÒFukwDCˆ{£ïJúIT4Ø [?jd˚é:låþ3ðóéL?=Å·…]])]·Ω¬¨»
Here is a clean, error-free document: Text form if you want to experiment: v BŸ2š:Û¶\¹ªáZÕ×hr²Uúb êLù๲|¡‚Æ£ãe—ùíJ¶í•Ž–¸$ÌBÐ<ÖLœž<•»½UrPuGJ¥òDDç"5ÔM5Êc/£LB³Œ¥ª_1ÊÜÛa´Ce—:£ A NA¹h‡c¼ÚYjmU;Iÿ„<§J• TóZÓmšÎx³…ÝwwÃ.4lÓÖäüt¹WSéUJx%L‚8Ø?ãrAï—ÜäÑ~Ö†¾£&Üo2òäÓ£°r[ñ£Yé¸ÊÕæ|êh›§ø*:0Zíîã¿2ïÊ@VqµíÉfY¾¼ÛŽýú(PL4m²ìW/+T•¦ …O–ÒFukwDCˆ{£ïJúIT4Ø [?jd˚é:låþ3ðóéL?=Å·…]])
What a strange situation! These files look normal except for the X symbols, which seem to overwrite previous content. A regular text file here is intact, while others show signs of replacement. It’s unclear why only certain names avoid corruption.
If the file is encrypted, standard attempts won’t unlock it. You’d require the encryption method and the secret key used. Because the file might include non-display characters, the text representation isn’t helpful—provide it in hex format instead. Have you checked for ransomware using a virus scan? Those are common threats that can encrypt files.
Thanks for the quick reply @Eigenvektor and apologies i'm an amateur at this. No there has been nothing malicious nor scans pick anything up, I may somehow have encrypted it myself years ago. Is there software where I can just throw passwords to try decrypt? This encrypted directory is from a really old version of a project, and I have a 5+ year newer version; where some files have survived through the years (they have the exact same file name, I presume the contents are the same just not encrypted) And converted to HEX obv they totally different