Repair Corrupted JPG Files

[dumfy]

Hi All,

I'm on a mercy mission for my brother-in-law to repair some precious jpeg files that have been corrupted. Is this possible?

I've managed to recover all the files using data recovery software and had some luck in getting around half back to jpegs that will display.

Here's what happened . . . All his photos were on his Android phone and he was short of space. He decided to move them to the microSD card and free up some space. He didn't use the "copy" option unfortunately.

Something went wrong during the move and he ended up with a load of unreadable jpegs.

I've Googled around jpeg repair software (not recovery) but there doesn't seem to be around that proves successful.

Any recommendations and help would be greatly appreciated.

With kind regards & many thanks

Dumfy

 

[samuria]

Have you checked the photos are not on Google photos a lot of phones backup to it by default

 

[dumfy]

That's a good idea, thanks and I'll check. Somehow, I don't think his account will be setup to auto upload to Google Photos.

My best chance is to find a way of repairing damaged jpegs . .

Kind regards

Dumfy

 

[indianacarnie]

From what I could find out you may be out of luck. Depending on what part(s) of the file were/are damaged. If it was the header then you may be able to open the file in a hex editor and repair it/them manually. If its corrupted/lost inside then ................. it ain't looking good.

 

[mrjimphelps]

Here is some information about some JPEG repair tools:

http://www.jihosoft.com/free-utilities/jpeg-repair-tool.html

Most of these are free.

I haven't used any of these. But if I was in your situation, I'd probably go with the paid program.

 

[samuria]

There are a lot of repair tools its how bad your are corrupt

repair corrupted jpeg files - Google Search

 

[dumfy]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've tried most of the progs in the links provided, but they wouldn't recognise the damaged files, so it doesn't bode well.

I never used a hex editor so will give that a try as perhaps a last hope. How do I use it? How would I know if it's just the header that is corrupt and not the file itself as well?
Any recommendations for hex editors for a newbie/layman to use?

Thanks as always,

Dumfy

 

[mrjimphelps]

I have a little bit of experience fixing files using a hex editor. Here's the idea behind it:

Data is written to the drive in Binary ("Base 2", or 0's and 1's), not in plain English. Binary can be translated into Hexadecimal ("Base 16", 16 digits in the hexadecimal numbering system) without any loss of data; and Hex is much more readable than binary.

A hex editor shows you what is on the disk either as hex (if it can't translate it) or as plain English (if it can translate it -- for example, a path and filename, if present, will likely be shown in plain English).

When you browse through a file using a hex editor, you will hopefully see enough stuff in plain English to help you figure out where the errors are. If an error is in one of the plain English parts of the file, you can likely make changes to those parts of the file, correcting that error. For example, if the path or filename is corrupted, you could make the corrections to the path or filename, fixing the error. These sorts of corrections can be done with confidence. It's more sketchy if the errors occur in the hexadecimal stuff. Since it is displayed in hexadecimal and not plain English, it's harder to know (1) where the errors are, and (2) how to fix them.

If possible, make copies of the files before editing them with a hex editor. In this way, if you mess something up, you can get back to the previous condition of a file.

Good luck.

 

[dumfy]

A big thank you mrjimphelps

I'll give it a go and fingers crossed. I'll be sure to copy/backup any files first though.

Just one quick question before I head of into hex land . . . any particular editors you can recommend please? Something for a newbie perhaps - unless all editors are the same.

Kind regards

Dumfy

I have a little bit of experience fixing files using a hex editor. Here's the idea behind it:

Data is written to the drive in Binary ("Base 2", or 0's and 1's), not in plain English. Binary can be translated into Hexadecimal ("Base 16", 16 digits in the hexadecimal numbering system) without any loss of data; and Hex is much more readable than binary.

A hex editor shows you what is on the disk either as hex (if it can't translate it) or as plain English (if it can translate it -- for example, a path and filename, if present, will likely be shown in plain English).

When you browse through a file using a hex editor, you will hopefully see enough stuff in plain English to help you figure out where the errors are. If an error is in one of the plain English parts of the file, you can likely make changes to those parts of the file, correcting that error. For example, if the path or filename is corrupted, you could make the corrections to the path or filename, fixing the error. These sorts of corrections can be done with confidence. It's more sketchy if the errors occur in the hexadecimal stuff. Since it is displayed in hexadecimal and not plain English, it's harder to know (1) where the errors are, and (2) how to fix them.

If possible, make copies of the files before editing them with a hex editor. In this way, if you mess something up, you can get back to the previous condition of a file.

Good luck.

 

[mrjimphelps]

It's been a very long time since I did any hex editing, so I don't have any current knowledge about hex editors.

 

[dumfy]

I downloaded a hex editor and gave it a go. It does seem to my novice eyes with this sort of thing that the files are completely corrupted.

I opened a known good photo in the editor not knowing what to expect to see. It made sense though - it was all hex code 0A 14 etc.

When I opened a corrupted file - and all the other corrupted ones - it was a page full of "F"s.

So I assume this means that the photos are unrecoverable no matter what?

All the best

Dumfy

 

[mrjimphelps]

That's what it sounds like. If the file still had meaningful information in it, it would have different characters, not all 'F's. That's likely why you couldn't recover anything using recovery software.