| Application | Error Message |
|---|---|
| Paint | Paint cannot read this file. This is not a valid bitmap file, or its format is not currently supported. |
| Photos | This file can't be opened. The file might be damaged. |
| Windows Photo Viewer | Windows Photo Viewer can't open this picture because the file appears to be damaged, corrupted, or is too large |
| Corel PaintShop Pro X7 | Unable to open the file. Pleae verify that the file is valid. |
| Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 Editor | Could not complete your request because an unknown or invalid JPEG marker type is found. |
Though the Windows Photo Viewer error message suggested that a possible cause could be due to the file being too large, that program was able to open other photos where the file size was larger than for the ones that it could not open, so I knew that wasn't the cause of the problem.
I tried opening the files with the Photos application on a Microsoft Windows 10 system, but saw the message "We can't open this file" on that system. I also tried opening them with the Preview application on a MacBook Pro laptop running OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), but was not able to open them with that application, either. When I attempted to open the first file, I saw the message:
The file "DSCN92227.JPG" could not be
opened.
It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview
doesn't recognize.
A similar error message appeared when I attempted to open the other two files.
Possibly some sectors on the memory card were damaged or the corruption could have been due to some other reason, but I thought I might be able to recover the images using a file repair tool. I tried the RS File Repair tool, which runs on Microsoft Windows systems, from Recovery Software, but the repaired files it generated were not useful.
When you run the program, you will see a "Recovery Wizard" window, which states:
The wizard helps to fix the logical structure of any corrupted files, including digital images, documents, music, and archives. You can fix and save files that are corrupted as the result of a virus attack, hardware or software errors, or unsuccessful recovery after file deletion.
The process for recovering files is very simple and intuitive, even for beginning computer users. Follow the wizard's simple instructions for successful recovery.
If you click on the Cancel button, instead of proceeding with the wizard interface, you will see the main window below.
You can select the drive and folder where the corrupt image files are stored and then click on one or more files to select a file or files that you wish the program to check. There is a Repair button, but you won't be able to repair and save a repaired version of the file, if you haven't yet registered the program.
You have two options from which you can choose at this point:
I chose the Analyze option. The program then performed the analysis and showed me a thumbnail image of the one file I had selected for analysis. From the thumbnail, it appeared I could successfully recover the damaged JPG file, though I couldn't save the file, since the program wasn't yet registered.
I then selected all three of the corrupted images and ran the analysis again, but the program only showed a "Picture1" thumbnail, which was the same as what it had displayed when I selected just the one image. S I clicked on the Research button to see if the results would differ. The process did take a lot longer this time, but still only showed the one thumbnail. So I then selected another image and chose Analyze for it. The program displayed a "Picture1" thumbnail for that image. And when I selected the third image, the same thing occurred. Since it appeared I would be able to use the program to successfully repair the images, I chose to register the program online.
You can pay for the registration with a credit card, check, or PayPal, among other payment options. The cost is currently $15.95 USD. Payment is handled via PayPro Global, a company that provides payment solutions for software developers. When I went through the ordering process, there was a field where one could provide a phone number in case there was a problem with the order. Though I don't think it was a mandatory field, I put in my phone number. I paid with PayPal, but a few minutes after paying I received a call from someone at PayPro Global asking to speak with the card holder for the purchase. Since I paid with PayPal, that seemed suspicous to me so I asked the person why she needed to speak with a card holder as I paid with PayPal. She said that, since it was a PayPal payment, she needed to speak with the PayPal account holder to confirm the transaction. Since I had registered the software in my wife's name and used her PayPal account, I gave the phone to her and she confirmed the transaction. She wasn't asked for any personal information, but the call still seemed unusual to me, since we had paid with PayPal.
After confirming the payment information, my wife received an email from PayPro Global confirming the payment, but that notice didn't contain the registration code I needed to register the software. Instead, there was a note on that email that the registration code would have to come from the developer. We went to bed, since it was late; when we awoke she did have the registration code from the developer in her inbox. I've encountered situations in the past where payment for software by credit card provides an immediate registration code, but payment by PayPal does not, so I didn't find that exceptional and we did receive the registration code in a reasonable amount of time. Though I don't know if we would have received it immediately, if I had paid by credit card.
After registering the software, I selected all three images again by clicking on them and then clicked on the Analyze button. The program still only showed one "Picture1" image. I right-clicked on that image and chose Save All. I then chose a folder where the recovered files should be placed (you can create a new folder during the process of selecting the path for the recovery folder). I left "Save directory structure" and "Open the folder after saving" checked and clicked on Forward.
When I viewed the one file placed in the recovery directory afterwards, though the image captured the scene photographed by the camera, the image was much smaller than I expected, only 160 pixels wide by 120 pixels high. The results were the same. I.e., I could select and analyze an image, then save it to the recovery folder, but the images recovered were only 160 x 120 pixels in size. So I tried the Research process on the images to see if the results would differ. They did not; I still got only the small images that were 8 KB in size, even though the original JPG files were about 6 MB in size. So, in this case, the images produced by the RS File Repair recovery process were not useful to her, though, perhaps in other cases of corrupted files the result might be useful.
