Hi

I have a CD with digital .jpg photos burnt on it. The problem is, I can't open them at all. No matter what program I try to use, I get the error message 'Cannot determine file type.' I have tried everything from Paint to Photo Suite.

The file names and sizes all appear to be correct but they will not open, be copied to my hard drive or inserted into a Word document or Outlook message.

My operating system is XP Pro but I do not know the program that was used to burn the photos to the CD originally.

Are there any repair programs for photos?

HELP please!

Annabel Grannery

Re: Cannot open jpegs

Annabel,

I would suggest trying an image recovery program and see what occurs.

I have a program called Digital Image Recovery which was freeware. I recovered about 3000 images from my HDD even after re-format and re-partitioning my HDD.

I will e-mail if you post your address (600Kb approx).

Cheers

Re: Cannot open jpegs

Hello Annabel,

When you insert the digital images CD into your D:drive, does Windows offer "View a Slideshow of the images using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer"? If it does, are you able to view the images?

If it does not, have you tried going to Start|My Computer and right clicking on D:drive then left click autoplay. This should tell you whether your PC can read the images.

Alternatively, Start|My Compter right click D:drive, left click Open and then right click on an image icon and check the images properties.

Warm regards,
Roley.

Brisbane.

Re: Cannot open jpegs

Hi Annabel,

The fact that you mentioned you cannot even copy the files from the CD to your hard drive indicates to me that there may be a problem with the CD or with Windows trying to read the format in which the CD was written.

Windows can normally copy any type of file from a CD to your hard drive, regardless of it's file type, even if Windows doesn't have a program to open it with.

If Windows cannot even copy the files to your hard drive using Windows Explorer or My Computer, then it does suggest that there might be an issue reading the CD.

A common cause of problems we encounter with users trying to read CDs in Windows is when they have sometimes been written using CD writing software that allows the files to be dragged and dropped onto the CD, or packet written.

Many of these programs seem to need the same software installed onto any other computer in order to read the CDs, so anyone who does not have this software installed may have trouble reading the CD, whilst the person who originally created the CD will have no problem at all reading the CD. This presents a problem for most people though, as the software is often retail software and requires purchasing by the other parties.

The easiest solution in this case is if at all possible, is have the person who created the CD re-create it by using an ISO or Joliet type CD project in their CD writing software and adding the jpeg files to it and then writing it to CD. This method can then normally be read without problem by most operating systems.

This may or may not be the answer to your problem, but it could be worth investigating and responding back with your results to eliminate at least one aspect of the problem.

Re: Cannot open jpegs

Hi Dick Tracy

I would love to try the Freeware Recovery Program,

my e-mail is anngarry@upnaway.com.

Unfortunately I can't have the files recreated in the original software and would you believe the hard disk they came from has had a major crash (as they do)! So I only have the copies on a CD.

Thanks again

Annabel Grannery

Re: Cannot open jpegs

Hi dick,

I would be interested in your program as well.

aarapisis54@optusnet.com.au

Regards Littlefella

Re: Cannot open jpegs

Thank you Dick, although your program wasn't able to resuce my original lost photos from the crashed Hard Drive, it did pick up a lot of deleted ones on my SD Card.

Thank you for your help

Annabel

Re: Cannot open jpegs

How bad is a major crash??

You will be surprised to hear that hard drives can be formatted quite often and still have files recovered.

Basically if the drive is functional and spinning, you have some hope, then again, if it is a Maxtor drive, kiss it goodbye, they are renowned bad drives which fail often, even after been formatted to factory status.

Mr Lister

Do you still have this program?

Hello Dick Tracy,

I realize this is quite an old post but i just came across it and maybe you can help me... I lost a whole folder of images about a year ago froma virus on my computer. I tried a file recovery and the images were found but I could not see the images, it only shows 20% of the image and the rest in distorted. I was told it was the program.

Any advice?

Thanks, Talia

Hi to all, I'm having trouble with my pictures. First i save it to picasa 3 and afterward i transfer it to usb stick and transfer it to my laptop and burn the pictures there using nero, and now when i try to open it says could not be open. Please help me i really need the pictures badly and i already deleted the original pictures to save memory.