Member Avatar for talley2191

I tried to do the right thing today by backing up all my pictures onto a CD. I opened my pictures file and click "copy all files to cd" and the "temporary files were sent to be copied. An error occured while trying to burn them and they were not copied. Instead of being constantly reminded that I had "files waiting to be copied", I deleted the temporary files and then deleted them from the recylcling bin. Now when I go into the harddrive to open the photo files, they will not open. The size of the files, and names are all there. But that is all as of now. Please help.

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Summary: attempted to burn photos, removed the burn-stage temp files when the burn failed, and now many JPEGs show names/sizes but will not open. Nikon’s Project Manager still displays small previews for those images, and a paid recovery tool recovered a few files. Reboots and a System Restore did not help.

Immediate priorities (do these first): stop any further writes to the affected drive; create a sector-level image of the drive/partition and work from that image (never recover files back onto the same disk). Use a disk-imaging tool so the original remains untouched; all recovery attempts should target a separate physical drive.

Recovery workflow (ordered):

  • Use a file-carving tool (one well-known option is PhotoRec/TestDisk) against the drive image to recover JPEGs by signature rather than relying on the filesystem. Save output to a different drive.
  • Because Nikon’s Project Manager shows previews, check that program’s cache/library files and copy them off the machine — many camera apps keep embedded thumbnails that can be exported or extracted.
  • Try tolerant image viewers/converters (IrfanView, XnView, GIMP or ImageMagick) on recovered files — some will open partial/truncated JPEGs that Windows Photo Viewer rejects.
  • If a file still won’t open, inspect its JPEG markers: a valid JPEG normally begins with FF D8 and ends with FF D9. Small tools (ExifTool, JPEGsnoop) can report header problems and extract embedded thumbnails.

Final notes: avoid installing recovery software to the affected disk (use another drive), expect some recovered files to be renamed or lose EXIF metadata, and understand that success varies with how much of the original data was overwritten. If comfortable with these steps, they can recover many images; otherwise professional recovery is the safer option. Advice here ties back to earlier suggestions by , , and while focusing on safe imaging and file-carving plus extracting the visible Nikon previews.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for DarkRubicant

Have you tried restarting the computer, it sounds like those particular photo files maybe locked in a process running in the background on your computer. If that's the case they likely wont be able to be opened until you restart, if you still cannot open the photo files after you restart something could have happened to them, please post back with further details.

Member Avatar for talley2191

Have you tried restarting the computer, it sounds like those particular photo files maybe locked in a process running in the background on your computer. If that's the case they likely wont be able to be opened until you restart, if you still cannot open the photo files after you restart something could have happened to them, please post back with further details.

Thanks but yes I have restarted the computer to no avail. Seem now that I remember getting a pop up screen after selecting the files to be copied. Before the computer generated these temporary files to be copied I got a pop up screen saying something about wanting to continue dispite something. The only reason I did continue is because the last line of the pop up message said something to the effect of "the original file will not be changed." Of course I figured that if it doesn't work, at least the hard drive file won't change. So after restarting there has been no change. The files are still there as far as I can tell. Placing the cursor over the file brings up the file size and all the names are still there.

Member Avatar for coolraj003

Hi There

Try right clicking on the file names and check the properties and see if you can get them opened by playing around with the properties.

See if that works.

Regards
Raj

Member Avatar for talley2191

I will try that too....any other posibilities while I am messing around ?

Member Avatar for lavern67

Do a system restore.Pick a point before the problem started.

Member Avatar for talley2191

Do a system restore.Pick a point before the problem started.

I did a system restore back to date prior to the date of the problem, and it did not allow me to open the photos.

Member Avatar for lavern67

check this program out.I am using it and it works great. Joe http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html When you get this go to my computer and double click C.Then double click program files.Find HiJack This and double click to open.Right click the icon and click {send shortcut to desktop}.Open and click scan only then click Config.Click to check -mark everything-box.click back and run scan then run fix.Then always run Reg-Cure after running HiJack This. If this does not work restore CP back to original.

Member Avatar for talley2191

So the geek squad came out and told me that the files were corrupt but they may be able to be recovered. He suggested I look for a program online or their company could take care of it for $200. I found a program called media recover. Any thoughts on that program or perhaps another. Files are Jpeg if that makes a difference. Thanks again

Member Avatar for caperjack

try this free program from the makers of ccleaner ,it will recover file deleted from recycle bin.

Member Avatar for coolraj003

But i think the problem is not that he has deleted the files. He has got the files and the size also shows on the files when its scrolled upon but just having trouble opening them. He just deleted the temporary files that were ready to be written to the CD. I m sure that was his problem.

Regards
Raj

Member Avatar for talley2191

Yes I have the files but I did just delete the temporary files that were to be written to the cd. And best guess is that somehow that corrupted the original files to some degree. So now I am looking for one of those recorvery programs. I listed a program I found at www.mediarecover.com and was looking for feedback.

Member Avatar for caperjack

try the one i listed its free and if it doesn't work ,it won't cost you then you can buy the other maybe ,i have never used it ,i do not buy software ,i just use freeware

Member Avatar for talley2191

I will try that as well. The program I paid for did recover some of the photos. I also went into a program called "Project manager" on my computer. This program is from Nikon, and came with my digital camera. This program still shows the files of the photos I had uploaded into it. In it I see previews of photos that are supposedly corrupt. However, I am not able to double click and enlarge them. When I do so, I am told the file is deleted. Why then can I see a perfectly good small scale preview and what can I do ?

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