Utility to identify picture files ? Please help !!

[Guest]

To all,

I _really_ need your help !

The hard disk where I put my archive of thousands of pictures that I've
taken, recently acted up. The entire FAT screwed, and all the picture
files that are stored in it, CAN NOT be retrieved !!

I ran chkdsk on the drive and it ended up with thousands of thousands
of file****.chk files under several FOUND.00x directories.

The picture files include TIFF files - (*.tif or *.tiff), JPEG files -
(*.jpg or *.jpe or *.jpeg), bitmap files - (*.bmp), and some GIF files.

Now I am getting _REALLY_ desperate !!!

Is there any program or utility that can automatically scan these
"*.chk" files, identify them, and then convert the files back into
their original format, such as *.JPG or *.TIF or *.BMP ?

I fully understand that some of the files are gone forever, but I need
to find a way to rescue as many of them as possible.

Can you help, please ?

If you know of any utility, be it freeware, shareware, or
commercial_ware, that can scan the *.chk files, or even scanning the
disk itself, and then retrieve whatever picture file it finds, please
tell me where and/or how to obtain/buy/download that utility.

I am using Windows, but I can use DOS or Linux to access the disk.

Please, please help !!!

Thank you.

 

[Tim]

To all,

I _really_ need your help !

The hard disk where I put my archive of thousands of pictures that
I've taken, recently acted up. The entire FAT screwed, and all the
picture files that are stored in it, CAN NOT be retrieved !!

I ran chkdsk on the drive and it ended up with thousands of thousands
of file****.chk files under several FOUND.00x directories.

The picture files include TIFF files - (*.tif or *.tiff), JPEG files -
(*.jpg or *.jpe or *.jpeg), bitmap files - (*.bmp), and some GIF
files.

Now I am getting _REALLY_ desperate !!!

Is there any program or utility that can automatically scan these
"*.chk" files, identify them, and then convert the files back into
their original format, such as *.JPG or *.TIF or *.BMP ?

I fully understand that some of the files are gone forever, but I need
to find a way to rescue as many of them as possible.

Can you help, please ?

If you know of any utility, be it freeware, shareware, or
commercial_ware, that can scan the *.chk files, or even scanning the
disk itself, and then retrieve whatever picture file it finds, please
tell me where and/or how to obtain/buy/download that utility.

I am using Windows, but I can use DOS or Linux to access the disk.

Please, please help !!!

Thank you.

Use Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com). Copy the CHK files somewhere
that can reliably be written to and right click a file and Open With
Irfanview. You'll get a message saying that the file is actually a
JPG/TIF/BMP with the wrong extension and will be asked if you want to
rename it.

 

[Eric Huebner]

Am 26 Sep 2005 00:21:49 -0700 schrieb (e-mail address removed):

To all,

I _really_ need your help !

The hard disk where I put my archive of thousands of pictures that I've
taken, recently acted up. The entire FAT screwed, and all the picture
files that are stored in it, CAN NOT be retrieved !!

I ran chkdsk on the drive and it ended up with thousands of thousands
of file****.chk files under several FOUND.00x directories.

The picture files include TIFF files - (*.tif or *.tiff), JPEG files -
(*.jpg or *.jpe or *.jpeg), bitmap files - (*.bmp), and some GIF files.

Now I am getting _REALLY_ desperate !!!

Is there any program or utility that can automatically scan these
"*.chk" files, identify them, and then convert the files back into
their original format, such as *.JPG or *.TIF or *.BMP ?

I fully understand that some of the files are gone forever, but I need
to find a way to rescue as many of them as possible.

Can you help, please ?

If you know of any utility, be it freeware, shareware, or
commercial_ware, that can scan the *.chk files, or even scanning the
disk itself, and then retrieve whatever picture file it finds, please
tell me where and/or how to obtain/buy/download that utility.

I am using Windows, but I can use DOS or Linux to access the disk.

Please, please help !!!

Thank you.

True ID
http://mark0.net/soft-tridnet-e.html

not exactly what you want because:
it only scans one file at a time
you have to rename it manually

there's also a command-line version, maybe you can control it with a batch
file
http://mark0.net/soft-trid-e.html

 

[Galen Musbach]

http://pages.xtn.net/~musbachgj/FileCHK.zip
Your problem is bigger than you know; many of the files
will be fragments that have to be reassembled.
This is the program I used when I had a similiar
problem.

If you don't want to trust an unknown source
(prudent) try googling on the data from the
readme file inside the zip, which is as follows:

FileCHK was written by Martin Kratz
<[email protected]>. This distribution
was compiled by Eric Phelps <[email protected]>.

FileCHK will check for files named FILE????.CHK in it's
directory and rename those CHK files to the correct
extension. FileCHK can identify the following file types:

3DS - 3D Studio
AI - Adobe Illustrator
ASF - Microsoft Multimedia
AVI - Windows Movie
BMP - Windows Bitmap Image
CAB - Microsoft Cabinet
CDR - CorelDRAW
CHM - Compiled Help
DOC - Word Document
DWG - AutoCad Drawing
EXE - Executable Program
GIF - Compressed bitmap
HLP - Windows Help
HTM - Web Page
JPG - Compressed Picture
LNK - Windows Shortcut
MDB - Access Database
MID - MIDI Music
MOV - QuickTime Movie
MP3 - Compressed Music
MPG - Compressed Movie
PDF - Adobe Acrobat
PSD - Adobe Photoshop
PST - Outlook Personal Folder
QT - QuickTime Movie
RAR - RAR Compressed Archive
RMI - MIDI Music
SWF - Macromedia Shockwave
TIF - Tagged Image Format
TTF - Font
TXT - Plain Text
URL - Internet Shortcut
WAV - Sound
XLS - Excel Spreadsheet
ZIP - PK Compressed Archive

 

[Meursalt]

Once, long ago in a dream, I received this telepathic communique from
Tim. I remember as if it were 9/26/2005 2:47 AM...

Use Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com). Copy the CHK files somewhere
that can reliably be written to and right click a file and Open With
Irfanview. You'll get a message saying that the file is actually a
JPG/TIF/BMP with the wrong extension and will be asked if you want to
rename it.

You can also install Cygwin from cygwin.com, then write a simple shell
script, perhaps with sed/awk, or (better yet, a perl script) to use the
unix "file" utility or a similar perl module (check CPAN archive) to
identify what the files are, and use a switch-like control structure to
rename them based on whether the output from the file command includes
"JPEG", "TIFF", etc. This option would be completely free. You might
even be able to find a perl script that does something like this... but
if not, you can sit down with a perl tutorial and write a 5 - 10 line
(or less) script to do exactly what you need.

 

[Richard Hudson]

I _really_ need your help !

The hard disk where I put my archive of thousands of pictures that I've
taken, recently acted up. The entire FAT screwed, and all the picture
files that are stored in it, CAN NOT be retrieved !!

I ran chkdsk on the drive and it ended up with thousands of thousands
of file****.chk files under several FOUND.00x directories.

The picture files include TIFF files - (*.tif or *.tiff), JPEG files -
(*.jpg or *.jpe or *.jpeg), bitmap files - (*.bmp), and some GIF files.

Now I am getting _REALLY_ desperate !!!

Is there any program or utility that can automatically scan these
"*.chk" files, identify them, and then convert the files back into
their original format, such as *.JPG or *.TIF or *.BMP ?

I fully understand that some of the files are gone forever, but I need
to find a way to rescue as many of them as possible.

Can you help, please ?

If you know of any utility, be it freeware, shareware, or
commercial_ware, that can scan the *.chk files, or even scanning the
disk itself, and then retrieve whatever picture file it finds, please
tell me where and/or how to obtain/buy/download that utility.

I am using Windows, but I can use DOS or Linux to access the disk.

Please, please help !!!

Thank you.

Google for

File Recovery For windows
Diskinternals Uneraser
GetDataBack for FAT v1.05
Runtimes.GetDataBack.For.FAT.

 

[Larry Sabo]

To all,

I _really_ need your help !

The hard disk where I put my archive of thousands of pictures that I've
taken, recently acted up. The entire FAT screwed, and all the picture
files that are stored in it, CAN NOT be retrieved !!

I ran chkdsk on the drive and it ended up with thousands of thousands
of file****.chk files under several FOUND.00x directories.

The picture files include TIFF files - (*.tif or *.tiff), JPEG files -
(*.jpg or *.jpe or *.jpeg), bitmap files - (*.bmp), and some GIF files.

Now I am getting _REALLY_ desperate !!!

Is there any program or utility that can automatically scan these
"*.chk" files, identify them, and then convert the files back into
their original format, such as *.JPG or *.TIF or *.BMP ?

I fully understand that some of the files are gone forever, but I need
to find a way to rescue as many of them as possible.

Can you help, please ?

If you know of any utility, be it freeware, shareware, or
commercial_ware, that can scan the *.chk files, or even scanning the
disk itself, and then retrieve whatever picture file it finds, please
tell me where and/or how to obtain/buy/download that utility.

I am using Windows, but I can use DOS or Linux to access the disk.

Please, please help !!!

Thank you.

I've used Eric Phelp's freeware UnCHK program to recover files with
great success. Like hundreds of family pictures of new baby and
since-deceased grand-dad. My client was *delighted* with the results!
See http://www.ericphelps.com/uncheck/ for more info and a comparison
with Martin Kratz's FileCHK (which I never seemed to be able to get to
work, but it was probably just me).

Good luck!

Larry

 

[Guest]

I do defrag often, so I believe the fragmentation problem was kept to a
minimum.

Problem is now I got almost 60+ K of *.chk files.

Thanks for the link and I'll check it out !!

Thanks again !!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the links. I'll try them out !

Thanks again !!

 

[Guest]

Thank you and thank all for your wonderful and generous help !!

I'll sure check out all the options that you've pointed out for me.

Thanks again !!!!!

Muchos Gracias !!

 

[Tim]

Once, long ago in a dream, I received this telepathic communique from
Tim. I remember as if it were 9/26/2005 2:47 AM...

You can also install Cygwin from cygwin.com, then write a simple shell
script, perhaps with sed/awk, or (better yet, a perl script) to use
the unix "file" utility or a similar perl module (check CPAN archive)
to identify what the files are, and use a switch-like control
structure to rename them based on whether the output from the file
command includes "JPEG", "TIFF", etc. This option would be completely
free. You might even be able to find a perl script that does
something like this... but if not, you can sit down with a perl
tutorial and write a 5 - 10 line (or less) script to do exactly what
you need.

I guess... but I'd also guess that only about one person in ten thousand
would consider that writing even the most basic shell or Perl script to
be simple... probably less than one in ten thousand would ever consider
writing any sort of script, period.
It would only be completely free if you consider the hours of study and
work for a complete novice (or even a moderately knowledgeable user) to
do this to be without value.

 

[chad]

Here are some freeware data recovery tools which you can use to mine
out your image files.

http://free-backup.info/data-recovery-software.htm

Good luck!

 

[Guest]

Hello all,

First of all, I need to thank all of you who have helped me so much !

My disk conked, and thousands of the picture files in it got trapped in
it. So I asked for help here and you guys have been so generous and
kind-heartedly helped me finding ways to retrieve the files.

Thanks again !!

Now, I need your help again. But this time, it's a little bit
different. You see, many of the "retrieved files" dug out with ZAR
(zero assumption recovery), chkdsk, unchk and so on, have file size in
the tens of megabyte.

For example, here is one *.chk file with 35,079,680 bytes, and upon
checking I found out that it was supposed to be a JPEG file. Using
graphic software, I got the information below:

Packed Size: 35,079,680 bytes (33.4 MB)
Unpacked Size: 471,600 bytes (460 KB)
Compression: -7338 percent

This shows one thing - a JPEG file that was 471,600 bytes in length
which is carrying an excess of 34,582,080 of junk bytes, and in order
to get the original file back, I have to find a way to get rid of all
the excess "fat".

That's a lot of "fat" to be trimmed - from 33.4 MB back to 460 KB !

This is just one example, and there are more than 60 thousands of such
files, all waiting to be slimmed down.

There lies my problem !

The thought of manually slimming down 60+ thousands of files is a task
too daunting for me to venture.

So far, I've done 400 of them manually, but that is but a little drop
in the bucket !

Therefore, I need you help. I need to know if there is any utlity that
can retrieve the "true" picture file, whether they be JPEG, GIF, PNG,
BMP or TIFF. I really am looking for a utility that can automate the
process I mention above - to get rid of the "excess bytes" so to return
the picture file to its original size.

I don't care if the utility is a shareware, freeware or commercial
ware, as long as it can help me.

If you know of such utility that can do that, especially if it can do
batch process of thousands of file in one go, please tell me.

I appreciate all your help so far, and I apologize for needing more of
you assistance.

Anyway, many thanks to all of you !!!

 

[Nicholas Sherlock]

For example, here is one *.chk file with 35,079,680 bytes, and upon
checking I found out that it was supposed to be a JPEG file. Using
graphic software, I got the information below:

Packed Size: 35,079,680 bytes (33.4 MB)
Unpacked Size: 471,600 bytes (460 KB)
Compression: -7338 percent

This shows one thing - a JPEG file that was 471,600 bytes in length
which is carrying an excess of 34,582,080 of junk bytes, and in order
to get the original file back, I have to find a way to get rid of all
the excess "fat".

Are you sure that the "fat" doesn't contain other jpeg images that you
need to recover?

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

 

[B. R. 'BeAr' Ederson]

Therefore, I need you help. I need to know if there is any utlity that
can retrieve the "true" picture file, whether they be JPEG, GIF, PNG,
BMP or TIFF. I really am looking for a utility that can automate the
process I mention above - to get rid of the "excess bytes" so to return
the picture file to its original size.

That's the task file rippers are written for. They extract files of
a known structure from arbitrary binary streams (files). The one I
like most is Multi Ripper, which went freeware with the latest Beta:

www.baccan.it/index.php?sezione=mripper&email=si
-> direct download: www.baccan.it/share/mrip300b.zip

Another good one is Ripper5, which can be found on SAC:
ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/sound/rippr500.zip

For the latter you'll need a tool like R200Fix (to handle the
Borland CRT bug):

www-user.tu-cottbus.de/~kannegv/programm/index_e.htm

Both are DOS programs. But that shouldn't discourage you. They do
absolutely fine and can both be applied to a bunch of files via
command line options. (Without user interaction, if desired.)

BeAr

 

[galah]

My disk conked,

This shows one thing - a JPEG file that was 471,600 bytes in length
which is carrying an excess of 34,582,080 of junk bytes, and in order
to get the original file back, I have to find a way to get rid of all
the excess "fat".

This is just one example, and there are more than 60 thousands of such
files, all waiting to be slimmed down.

hmmm - 60,000 files of approx 30 megabytes each amounts to nearly 2
terabytes of data, if I've done the math correctly.

And this is all _yours_?? On your pc??

Wow!