[wgman21]

I was fooling around and screwed up my laptop. I thought the best thing to do would be to restore my files from my weekly backup. The problem is twofold:

1. All of my photos and many of my files are now doubles.
2. I can't open any of my photos unless I right click on them and open them with Quick Time Picture Viewer.

If I try to open those photos all I get is a "ding" sound and nothing happens.

Can anyone help me to delete the doubles in a quick way? There are hundreds of them and I don't really feel like right click deleting all of them.

More importantly: Can anyone tell me how to open them without using QT Pic Viewer?

I use Windows Live Mail, and like the Windows Live Photo Gallery. That's what I prefer to use.

Thanks in advance for any ideas,

Bill

[wgman21]

bump

[DoubleHelix]

There can't be two files with the same name in the same folder, so can you describe in more detail how you ended up with "doubles"?

Pictures can be opened in MS Paint. If you can't even open the backup copies then there's either something very wrong with the computer, or something damaged the backups as well. Try taking the backup copies to another computer and opening them to verify they're still in good condition.

[aka Brett]

Sort your pictures by size
put your view to details
next go to control panel and open folder options
select the view tab
Tick the following
Use check boxes to select items
go back to your picture folder
make the window half size..drag it to the right side of the screen
next go someplace easy to make a new folder like the desktop..make a new folder
Open it
have it occupy the other half of your screen
no go to the other half of your screen where your pics are are start putting check marks of your duplicates...as being they are sorted by size they will be listed right next to each other.
after checking off about 10 or so drag then to the new folder you made
repeat..repeat until done
DO NOT delete the new folder yet as if the problem fixes itself later after a good burp you could lose your photos...this will keep a safe copy while you work on your remaining problem as well.

If 2 files have the same name but one of them has a [2] after it these are the ones you want to drag to your new folder

[wgman21]

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

There can't be two files with the same name in the same folder, so can you describe in more detail how you ended up with "doubles"?

Pictures can be opened in MS Paint. If you can't even open the backup copies then there's either something very wrong with the computer, or something damaged the backups as well. Try taking the backup copies to another computer and opening them to verify they're still in good condition.

Thanks to both of you for your responses. Every photo had a double with a (2) at the end of it name. I got the doubles when I restored my laptop from an exterior hard drive that I was using as a back up every week. When the restore started, it popped up a question asking me if I wanted to replace or keep the copies. I chose keep the copies, not knowing that it would create this huge problem.

Originally Posted by aka Brett

Sort your pictures by size
put your view to details
next go to control panel and open folder options
select the view tab
Tick the following
Use check boxes to select items
go back to your picture folder
make the window half size..drag it to the right side of the screen
next go someplace easy to make a new folder like the desktop..make a new folder
Open it
have it occupy the other half of your screen
no go to the other half of your screen where your pics are are start putting check marks of your duplicates...as being they are sorted by size they will be listed right next to each other.
after checking off about 10 or so drag then to the new folder you made
repeat..repeat until done
DO NOT delete the new folder yet as if the problem fixes itself later after a good burp you could lose your photos...this will keep a safe copy while you work on your remaining problem as well.

If 2 files have the same name but one of them has a [2] after it these are the ones you want to drag to your new folder

I did exactly what you asked, and moved all of those doubles to it's own folder. I closed both folders, and restarted my computer. I tried to open a photo and got the same error. What happens is: I click on a photo and I get the little spinning circle that says it's trying to do the job. After a few seconds I hear a "clank" and then it stops. That's pretty much it. I am still getting the clank and nothing opens. Any other ideas will be greatly appreciated. I will await any responses. Should I delete that extra folder now and see if that fixes it?

I also hooked the extra hard drive up to my pc which is running XP. The photos from the back up drive were able to be opened on the PC, just not in my laptop. I tried opening the photos from the external drive hooked up to my laptop and those files will not open with the laptop.

[aka Brett]

what all applications have you used to try to open the pictures.

There is no need to delete the pictures yet.

[wgman21]

Good news!! They will open with 3 apps right now. Quicktime Picture Viewer, Paint, and Windows Photo Gallery. Windows Live Photo Gallery and whatever I have set to use as the default viewer are still not working tho. I have a sneaking suspicion that Windows Live is set to the default. What are my best options for fixing Windows Live Photo Gallery? I really appreciate your help Brett!

[wgman21]

I changed the default to Windows Photo Gallery and they are opening fine. I just prefer Windows Live if it can be fixed.

[aka Brett]

Originally Posted by wgman21

Good news!! They will open with 3 apps right now. Quicktime Picture Viewer, Paint, and Windows Photo Gallery. Windows Live Photo Gallery and whatever I have set to use as the default viewer are still not working tho. I have a sneaking suspicion that Windows Live is set to the default. What are my best options for fixing Windows Live Photo Gallery? I really appreciate your help Brett!

I am suspecting that quicktime has created this problem

[wgman21]

The GIF files still won't open. Should I delete and re-install Quicktime? That's easy enough to try.

[aka Brett]

Yes its worth a try.
After uninstalling reboot and try your pics without qt first however

[wgman21]

Good idea. I'll let you know.

[wgman21]

Ok, I deleted QT and the GIF files still don't open. I restarted the computer before I tried. I am going to re-download QT, but I'm sure that won't fix the GIF files. Any ideas?

[wgman21]

The GIF files will open with QT but it's obviously not the right program. Does anyone know what the default program for GIF files is?

[kenny111111]

hello

I use Infraview http://www.irfanview.com/

good luck