Corrupted BMP files

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by ellison64, Aug 4, 2008.

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  1. ellison64

    ellison64 Registered Member

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    A friend of mine asked me to try and retrieve some family photos off his pc.There is about 100 of them ,each a couple of meg in size.They are showing on his hard drive ,however nothing can open them.Paint says they are corrupted ,while other image viewers says unknown format etc ,although they all have .bmp extension.They are not READ only or anything like that and attributes are normal.Apparently they became this way after another friend installed some "upgrade" to his pc.Waht that was he doesnt know ,and his friend is saying it wasnt anything that he did that messed up the photos.He runs XP home.The only way ive been able to open the file is with a hex editor which just shows blank lettering.....whereas other BMPs show some sort of code in them so i guess there really is nothing in this file?.Does anyone have any suggestions ?.Ive tried undelete program's but that doesn't find them cos they are already there...though in an unreadable format?Also tried renaming to .jpg etc .Can these file be uncorrupted somehow?.Just wondering why theres 1.7 m/b of nothing showing in the hex editor.
    .Heres pic of the hex data showing.....zilch.
    ellison
     

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  2. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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  3. ellison64

    ellison64 Registered Member

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    Thanks for that suggestion.I probably wont see my friend again until later in the week ,but will post back if it fixes it or not.
    thanks again
    ellison
     
  4. MikeBCda

    MikeBCda Registered Member

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    One thing you might want to try, if it's not an outrageous expense (used to be around $50 US) and if it's still around, is Graphic Workshop Pro, from MindWorkshop/Alchemy. One feature it offers is the ability to (usually) properly identify graphics files of "unknown" type, typically with incorrect extension as might be your case.

    While it can be evaluated free for 30 days, be warned that using it in evaluation mode puts a permanent and obnoxious "watermark" into any graphics file it opens.
     
  5. ellison64

    ellison64 Registered Member

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    Thanks for the suggestion...
    I just tried that program and it identifies the sample BMP that i took home as .tga file so i renamed it to .tga.It actually shows a little info now such as size date it was taken etc ,but still no joy showing the actual photo.Its just a black square.
     

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  6. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    TrID is a free program that will do this.
     
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