Cruise Pictures..."Unknown File Format"?? Uh oh!

I just got home from a week long cruise and 3 128mb smart media cards full
of lifetime memories. One of the cards was full of "unknown file format"
error messages. All the pictures but one were corrupt. I used PC Inspector
Smart Recovery program to successfully recover 95% of them but a few were
just partially recovered. Elements can't open it because of "unknown or
invalid jpeg marker type is found". Irfanview says "unknown file format"
and PSP 9 says it's not identified as a supported type. Is there any
recovery program that might be able to load ALL of those few that just
partially loaded? Before leaving for our cruise, I formatted all the cards
in the camera. This particular card had an .avi movie on it that doesn't
appear on the card now. I reviewed it on the camera earlier this week but
it doesn't show up in the DCIM folder.
Thanks,
Monica

Forgot to mention that once I recovered the photos, the partial photos show
complete in thumbnail size....enlarge it and it's part picture and part
gray.


"Monica" wrote in message
news:l0IAf.122617$oG.35883@dukeread02...
I just got home from a week long cruise and 3 128mb smart media cards full
of lifetime memories. One of the cards was full of "unknown file format"
error messages. All the pictures but one were corrupt. I used PC
Inspector Smart Recovery program to successfully recover 95% of them but a
few were just partially recovered. Elements can't open it because of
"unknown or invalid jpeg marker type is found". Irfanview says "unknown
file format" and PSP 9 says it's not identified as a supported type. Is
there any recovery program that might be able to load ALL of those few that
just partially loaded? Before leaving for our cruise, I formatted all the
cards in the camera. This particular card had an .avi movie on it that
doesn't appear on the card now. I reviewed it on the camera earlier this
week but it doesn't show up in the DCIM folder.
Thanks,
Monica

"Monica" wrote in message
news:l0IAf.122617$oG.35883@dukeread02...
I just got home from a week long cruise and 3 128mb smart media cards full
of lifetime memories. One of the cards was full of "unknown file format"
error messages. All the pictures but one were corrupt. I used PC
Inspector Smart Recovery program to successfully recover 95% of them but a
few were just partially recovered. Elements can't open it because of
"unknown or invalid jpeg marker type is found". Irfanview says "unknown
file format" and PSP 9 says it's not identified as a supported type. Is
there any recovery program that might be able to load ALL of those few that
just partially loaded? Before leaving for our cruise, I formatted all the
cards in the camera. This particular card had an .avi movie on it that
doesn't appear on the card now. I reviewed it on the camera earlier this
week but it doesn't show up in the DCIM folder.
Thanks,
Monica

Sorry to hear that! I don't have an answer for you but tell us what brand
and model of camera you used and what brand of memory cards.

Best of luck!

John L Rice

Monica wrote:
I just got home from a week long cruise and 3 128mb smart media cards full
of lifetime memories. One of the cards was full of "unknown file format"
error messages. All the pictures but one were corrupt. I used PC Inspector
Smart Recovery program to successfully recover 95% of them but a few were
just partially recovered. Elements can't open it because of "unknown or
invalid jpeg marker type is found". Irfanview says "unknown file format"
and PSP 9 says it's not identified as a supported type. Is there any
recovery program that might be able to load ALL of those few that just
partially loaded? Before leaving for our cruise, I formatted all the cards
in the camera. This particular card had an .avi movie on it that doesn't
appear on the card now. I reviewed it on the camera earlier this week but
it doesn't show up in the DCIM folder.
Thanks,
Monica


Monica,
I am glad you managed to get most of your pictures off the card. I
suspect that the others are so damaged that you won't be able to recover
them. The nature of JPEG is such that just a few bytes missing from the
beginning of the file can render the file useless, like an encrypted
file without the key.
Now, for the future-- This type of corruption usually happens when
you remove a card before the camera is finished writing to it. Don't
get in a hurry when you fill a card during a rapid shooting 'spree'. I
recall taking a lot of pictures quickly on a cruise (Alaska), and
filling the card. I had to wait almost 30 seconds before the camera
indicated it was finished writing to the card before I could replace it
with an empty one. Impatience at that point can cause a lot of trouble.
Most current cameras are smart enough not to power down until they
finish writing to the card in spite of the switch position, but if you
remove the battery, ugly things can happen, so be careful if you are
changing batteries as well.
I hope you never have this problem again. Just be glad you had your
pictures on three cards, instead of all on one....

PhotoRescue is proably a better recovery program, but where you recovered
such a high percentage of what was on the card I doubt if it would do any
better in this case. I agree with Ron below, be very careful no writing is
taking place when you remove the card.
Dave Cohen

"Ron Hunter" wrote in message
...
Monica wrote:
I just got home from a week long cruise and 3 128mb smart media cards
full of lifetime memories. One of the cards was full of "unknown file
format" error messages. All the pictures but one were corrupt. I used
PC Inspector Smart Recovery program to successfully recover 95% of them
but a few were just partially recovered. Elements can't open it because
of "unknown or invalid jpeg marker type is found". Irfanview says
"unknown file format" and PSP 9 says it's not identified as a supported
type. Is there any recovery program that might be able to load ALL of
those few that just partially loaded? Before leaving for our cruise, I
formatted all the cards in the camera. This particular card had an .avi
movie on it that doesn't appear on the card now. I reviewed it on the
camera earlier this week but it doesn't show up in the DCIM folder.
Thanks,
Monica
Monica,
I am glad you managed to get most of your pictures off the card. I
suspect that the others are so damaged that you won't be able to recover
them. The nature of JPEG is such that just a few bytes missing from the
beginning of the file can render the file useless, like an encrypted file
without the key.
Now, for the future-- This type of corruption usually happens when you
remove a card before the camera is finished writing to it. Don't get in a
hurry when you fill a card during a rapid shooting 'spree'. I recall
taking a lot of pictures quickly on a cruise (Alaska), and filling the
card. I had to wait almost 30 seconds before the camera indicated it was
finished writing to the card before I could replace it with an empty one.
Impatience at that point can cause a lot of trouble. Most current cameras
are smart enough not to power down until they finish writing to the card
in spite of the switch position, but if you remove the battery, ugly
things can happen, so be careful if you are changing batteries as well.
I hope you never have this problem again. Just be glad you had your
pictures on three cards, instead of all on one....

Thanks guys. I was fairly certain I'd gotten all I was going to get.
Thought just I'd ask to make sure. After emailing, I noticed the file size
on those that didn't completely turn out. They're small (200kb) so there's
nothing there to "recover". I have (2 actually) Oly 2100UZs (UZi). I try
to be very aware of turning the camera off after all writing is stopped. I
have a digipack power supply instead of batteries....oh, you know what!
Come to think of it, on this last card there was 3 or 4 times that the
camera indicated the card door was open It didn't appear to be but maybe
it was just enough to cause the error message. Hummmm, I'll have to watch
that. Thanks again for your replies.
Monica
"Dave Cohen" wrote in message
news:NJNAf.608$mj3.268@trndny06...
PhotoRescue is proably a better recovery program, but where you recovered
such a high percentage of what was on the card I doubt if it would do any
better in this case. I agree with Ron below, be very careful no writing is
taking place when you remove the card.
Dave Cohen

"Ron Hunter" wrote in message
...
Monica wrote:
I just got home from a week long cruise and 3 128mb smart media cards
full of lifetime memories. One of the cards was full of "unknown file
format" error messages. All the pictures but one were corrupt. I used
PC Inspector Smart Recovery program to successfully recover 95% of them
but a few were just partially recovered. Elements can't open it
because of "unknown or invalid jpeg marker type is found". Irfanview
says "unknown file format" and PSP 9 says it's not identified as a
supported type. Is there any recovery program that might be able to
load ALL of those few that just partially loaded? Before leaving for
our cruise, I formatted all the cards in the camera. This particular
card had an .avi movie on it that doesn't appear on the card now. I
reviewed it on the camera earlier this week but it doesn't show up in
the DCIM folder.
Thanks,
Monica
Monica,
I am glad you managed to get most of your pictures off the card. I
suspect that the others are so damaged that you won't be able to recover
them. The nature of JPEG is such that just a few bytes missing from the
beginning of the file can render the file useless, like an encrypted file
without the key.
Now, for the future-- This type of corruption usually happens when you
remove a card before the camera is finished writing to it. Don't get in
a hurry when you fill a card during a rapid shooting 'spree'. I recall
taking a lot of pictures quickly on a cruise (Alaska), and filling the
card. I had to wait almost 30 seconds before the camera indicated it was
finished writing to the card before I could replace it with an empty one.
Impatience at that point can cause a lot of trouble. Most current cameras
are smart enough not to power down until they finish writing to the card
in spite of the switch position, but if you remove the battery, ugly
things can happen, so be careful if you are changing batteries as well.
I hope you never have this problem again. Just be glad you had your
pictures on three cards, instead of all on one....

Monica wrote:

Thanks guys. I was fairly certain I'd gotten all I was going to get.
Thought just I'd ask to make sure. After emailing, I noticed the file size
on those that didn't completely turn out. They're small (200kb) so there's
nothing there to "recover".

If they were about the right size then it may be possible to recover
them provided that most of the data is intact. Obviously if they are too
small then the rest has been lost for all eternity. But worth trying on
the original media with PhotoRescue just in case their heuristics find a
few files that another package has missed. Each one has its strengths.

It only takes a few bytes of unlucky damage to a JPEG stream to render
it totally undecodable (that is a price you pay for efficient
compression). Some can be repaired but unfortunately the JPEG repair
process is not cost effective for holiday snaps.

I have (2 actually) Oly 2100UZs (UZi). I try
to be very aware of turning the camera off after all writing is stopped. I
have a digipack power supply instead of batteries....oh, you know what!

One thing that can trash a memory card is when their is an intermittent
or dirty electrical contact on it. But by far the most common causes a

1. Ejecting the card from a socket whilst a write is still in progress.

2. Inserting it into a card reader after physically ejecting another
card but without explicitly demounting the volume (for some strange
reason Windows does not always honour the media changed flag). If this
happens you get the old directory info smashed down on top of the new
card - not good.

Come to think of it, on this last card there was 3 or 4 times that the
camera indicated the card door was open It didn't appear to be but maybe
it was just enough to cause the error message. Hummmm, I'll have to watch
that. Thanks again for your replies.

You should try to figure out what caused the failure to prevent it
happening again. If you only lost 5% you were quite lucky this time.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Hi,

If you really wish to restore data I suppose you using really powerful
data recovery tools such as Active@ Undelete or Uneraser(for DOS).
These mighty tools never failed me before and were always able to bring
back data, nor thay ever corrupted it. I'm pretty sure that will be
able to solve your problem.

http://www.active-undelete.com/

http://www.uneraser.com/