[Shan329]

I'm trying to open some important files that appear to have been damaged. When opening the JPEG's through Nero PhotoSnap Viewer I get the message: Loading one or more of the plug-ins has failed. The plug-in files might be either corrupt or not valid. When trying to open the pdf's I get: Acrobat could not open file.pdf b/c it is either not a supported file type or b/c the file has been damaged. Is there any way they can be repaired and opened? I really need them. Thanks so much.

[slipe]

The first thing to check is that the file names end in .jpeg or .pdf. It is unusual to get both pdf and jpg files corrupted at the same time and the file extensions should be checked.

You might also change a jpeg to jpg. I have read of computers that can read one but have trouble with the other.

It is unlikely your reader needs a plug-in for jpegs. You could download the free Irfanview at www.irfanview.com to see if it can read the files.

If you made the PDF files yourself with your version of Acrobat they are probably corrupted. If you didn’t make the files and have an old version of Acrobat there is a possibility a new version could write a file not backward compatible. Download the latest Acrobat Reader and try that.

If there is a common link like both file types were on the same CD, flash drive etc then you can do a search for software that will recover files corrupted by that media. There is software that will restore corrupted files of a particular type like pdf or jpg. Example: http://www.pdf-tools.com/asp/product...FR4zgQodqgSjgw There is also software that supposedly fixes anything but if your files are actually corrupted I doubt it will fix them. Example: http://www.fix-my-pc.org/corrupted-f...pted-files.htm

I would suppose you have done a virus scan with the latest definitions. Spyware and adware doesn’t usually corrupt files, but you might run a scan anyway.

[lister]

Are these files on some kind of removable media (CD, DVD, flash drive)?

[Shan329]

Okay, I tried InfranVew and the pdf repair softwear. The InfranView said: Can't read file header! The pdf softwear said: The file header was not found. Error: file cannot be repaired but can possibly be recovered. So both items are missing file headers, what does this mean?

The files are not from removable media and are located on my desktop. I made the pdf's myself using Acrobat 7 Professional. Yes, my virus definitions are current. I've also already tried Recover My Files. Thanks.

[slipe]

Can you think of any common link between the pdf and jpg files other than they were saved to the desktop? Were they zipped or otherwise compressed other than normal jpg compression?

If specific pdf recovery software can’t recover the files my guess is that you might not be getting them back. But I would be concerned about how it happened and how to avoid it happening again. If it has happened only to files saved to the desktop I would put them in folders in My Documents, My Pictures or wherever. I don’t know of any problems saving to the desktop, but for files of different types saved from different programs to lose headers you have to find something they have in common and eliminate it.

The most likely thing to corrupt a file header is a virus. I take it you have done a complete scan using your current definitions. You might try an online scan at a site like PC Pitstop as a backup. http://pcpitstop.com/antivirus/default.asp

[CarolinaBill]

Did these files go through some copying stage such as FTP transfers. If a .pdf or a .jpg file is copied in ASCII mode, you get a message like the last one. The transfer has to be in binary mode to be successful and readable.

[Rosmet]

I downloaded some pictures from my brother in China and got the same problem: all shown as X. The only way to view them is to open them with Internet Explorer by right click.

Most file can be previewed before I download them from Yahoo.email. The file type is pjpeg, although extension is .jpg.

[Rosmet]

As I said above I downloaded those JPEG files from my brother in China. On my company computer, they can not be viewed with almost any photo viewer except for IE. I got “Can't read file header!” when double click to open. I brought them back home, and on my home computer, all JPEG pictures worked perfect! I renamed all files from Chinese to English, and all worked perfect on my company computer too. So the answer is to avoid saving files in languages other than English.