[Drago1]

I recently switched computers and in the process, I burned approximately 2,000 photos onto two discs for backup and to transport them into my new computer (old computer is long gone). The problem now is that I am unable to open more than half of the photos. Both discs contain ‘missing’ photos; however, they usually are missing in huge chunks (one chunk is almost 400 photos thought some can be as small as four). The photos were taken with various cameras and some are scanned photos; there is no correlation between this and the ones, which are missing. The file names are in tact and the file size seems consistent with the non-missing photos (2 MB for jpg and 5 MB for tif files); however, the thumbnails appear just as enlarged icons. Furthermore, if I try to copy/paste or send the files from the CD to my computer, I get an error message stating, “Cannot copy (file name): the parameter is incorrect.” So far, I have tried to open the files using various photo editing programs and viewers, but nothing seems to work. Please help; these photos are my life...literally!!!!

Old Computer: Windows 98, Roxio CD Creator, Memorex CD-RW Discs

New Computer: Windows XP Home

ERROR MESSAGES

Windows Picture Viewer: “No Preview Available”

Canon ZoomBrowser EX: “Not Responding” and program freezes

Microsoft Paint 5.1: “An unknown error occurred while accessing __jpg”

Digital Print 1.0: “PhotoAlbum has encountered a problem and needs to close...”

Photoshop Elements 1.0: “Could not open __jpg because a JPEG marker segment length is too short (the file may be truncated or incomplete).”

[Dreambringer]

what are the file names... I dont know if this makes a differnce.. but it seems like something is missing..

in the errors they are __jpg and there should be a __.jpg for the file extention.. but I see that in both the MS Paint and the Photoshop... so that could be a problem if they are not named correctly, and I do not know for sure.. but someone please correct me if I am wrong..

[Drago1]

Oh...I put the line there to represent any file name. In other words, depending on whatever file I try to open, it is that file's name which is substituted for the blank in the error message. Yes, you are correct it is the file name and then .jpg or .tif.

Thank you for your very, very quick response!

[Dreambringer]

Oh ok.. hmm then I am not 100% sure.. have you read thru this post, may offer you some answers.. sounds very similar

Cannot Open Image - Techguy.org

[Drago1]

Yes thanks, I actually did read it before I posted my question. His files were only 4KB, mine are 2MB-5MB. I was really hoping this was to my advantage and I would not have to go through what he went through.

Perhaps, the downloads they suggested could be of help, but I am not too familiar with such things.

http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pcinspector.html

[kiwiguy]

I suspect that the files really are corrupted.

Did you burn them in one session, or in groups? If in groups, then it is quite common to get errors in a group, as the entire TOC is rewritten each time, and CD-RW are the most unreliable media at the best of time.

[xgerryx]

Drago1
I would be quite happy to have a go at opening a sample if you like. If you are happy with this click on my profile send me a pm.

[Drago1]

Kiwiguy...That is the strange thing...I actually burned each CD-RW in one session. That is why I cannot understand why some files are okay and the others are not. It is frustrating because I can see that there is clearly MBs of info in each file, yet I have no way to access it.

Right you are!...Through out my research I have also learned that CD-RWs are the worst media for storing photos; moreover, burning should be broken up into multiple sessions of that magnitude. (Monday Quarterback)

[Drago1]

Thanks for the offer. I’m not sure if the missing files uploaded correctly. I uploaded a “good file” for comparison and it transferred differently. Okay, it seems that the files on one disc will upload, but the files on the other disc will not budge at all. Like I said in my original post...I cannot copy/paste or send to, hence I may not be able to upload either???? Lucky for me, 80% of the missing photos are on the “will not budge disc”

[xgerryx]

Irfanview say:
Can't read file header !
Unknown file format !

As Kiwiguys says, they could well be corrupt. I don't know.

You mentioned some 2 MB jpg and 5 MB tif files. These are to big to be uploaded here (limit 200 KBs). So my offer still stands. Can you open some of them and not others.

Be a shame to lose them, they look like nice pics.
Just took a bit of the green out of this one for you.

[uly7]

Do you have Roxio in the new computer?
For some reason I have a problem with Roxio as default CD burner, because in the past, some of my pictures that were burned using Roxio, cannot be opened in some computers. The only way to open them was by using Roxio as a picture viewer, then I copied the pictures back in my computer and burned them with XP drag and drop default burner.
Roxio is long gone out of my PC.
Can this be the problem, or is this only my imagination?
One more question, Do you format your CDs?
Uly7

[johnni]

Drago1 - I think you wrong in saying CD-RWs are the worst medium for storing photos as in fact they are probably the worst medium for storing ANY data. That said, I have been using formatted CD-RWs for storing photos for years but only as backup media. They do tend to suffer problems but I have always received warnings in the form of 'backup your data and reformat' which I have done until it happens too often and I replace the disk. The lesson is to use a cd-RW, 'burnt' or 'formatted', as backup only, and not as sole storage.

johnni

[theseif]

I tried to open one of them with PSP9, no go. Looks like they've been corrupted. That's a shame, I guess you can rescan the photos but the dig. one's are probably lost. If you've sent some to other people you may be able to get copies from them.
I never use RW's, had problems with them way back when and placed them all in the round file. I buy the 100 stacks of R's and back up at least once a week, that way I have many copies of all of my files accept the recent ones, but it perpetrates. I never burn at the full speed of the burner, always cut it in half, less chance of file corruption. Been using Easy CD creator since version 3 (Adaptec then) and had problems with the early versions but the program has been pretty stable since version 5. With the program you can chose to leave the CD open to further sessions or close it so nothing else can be written to it. I've never had any problems reading or copying from the CD to another PC either way. The latest version of Roxio (Media Creator 7) has a CD repair feature which may or may not work, I've never had much luck with it. I believe there are other programs available which attempt to repair a CD, but I don't know if they work or not. Good luck, I know how it feels to lose files that are irreplaceable, that's why I started my current back-up
policy.
Edit: Sorry just read the part in your first post about the Canon Zoombrowser. I had this problem with my Zoombrowser after I installed XP's SP2 on my PC. You have to go to the Canon site and download and install a patch/update to get the program to work in SP2 although the update info does not specifically say that, it just say's it's an update for the program.

[slipe]

You might try the free version of IsoBuster to see if you can get the files off the CD. If you formatted the RWs you will have to use the pay version, but it is reasonable for a recovery program: http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/

It is all one download. The page explains that the entire older version functions are free but UDF requires registration. Formatted RW writes in UDF.

If you checked them on the old computer and they were all reading OK, you might try reading the CD on another computer. If you formatted the RWs you will have to use a computer with Roxio software or the free Roxio UDF reader.

There are also quite a few programs you have to pay for that purport to extract corrupted files from a CD. This is just the first I ran across. You might look around for another free one if IsoBuster doesn’t work. http://www.008soft.com/products/cd-data-recovery.htm

[islandguy]

You could try the evualation version of Photo rescue pro
http://www.objectrescue.com/download...photorescuepro