Corrupted JPG Files

[Castle Computer]

I had someone call me today. They lost 3000+ photos. They arent sure how they lost them. They called The Geek Squad at Best Buy to retrieve the files. The Geek Squad found the files are restored them (JPG files). However the files can not be opened or viewed. If you use Windows Picture Viewer you get a message that the file can not be opened. I installed IrfanView to try to open the files and get a message the file may be corrupted.

I also tried Stellar Phoenix JPEG Repair and that couldnt repair the files.

I did not the files restored all about 4 megs in size and the files not lost are about 8 megs in size.

Anyone have any suggestions on things to try ? The last resort is calling a data recovery service, but trying to help a potential new customer. Would love to save the day....

Thanks

 

[Kitten Kong]

how did they 'lose the files

what recovery software was used.

did you do an image and are working on this?

how long ago was the loss.

 

[Castle Computer]

The data was lost sometime within the past 2 weeks. They aren’t sure when and they don’t know / remember what was done to lose the data. They also do not know what geek squad did to restore the files. I do not have an image of the drive. This is a new client that called me. I tried a few things (see my post above) and haven’t had any luck yet. I also took one of the jpg files and put it on one of my computers and can’t open or repair

 

[lcoughey]

Are the recovered files recovered from and stored back onto the same drive from which they were deleted? Can you confirm that nothing has been written to the source drive since the data was lost by the client, Geek Squad or you?

If your first step wasn't to get a full sector-by-sector image of the drive, you are going about it wrong.

 

[Markverhyden]

^^^^ What @lcoughey said.

Sheep Squad? LOL!!! Doubtful they did anything correct. Because if they had they would have at least tried opening a few pics to test and would have reported the problem to the customer. If they copied the "recovered" files to the original drive don't waste anymore time. Are you able to generate thumbnails from icon view?

 

[Alexey]

If they copied the "recovered" files to the original drive don't waste anymore time

Not necessarily

I did not the files restored all about 4 megs in size and the files not lost are about 8 megs in size.

See, the recovered files are about half the size of the originals. So even if they did overwrite some of the original data, I'd expect about half of it still be there, and it is still possible to attempt another recovery. It is not likely exactly half can be recovered, but still some significant amount is likely to be there.

 

[Archon Prime]

Durp Squad probably used "recuva" by Piriform to do the recovery. I would try R-studio yourself AFTER you do an image of the drive. See what you can possibly grab from that. Otherwise, send it to a data recovery location that does this on a daily basis.

 

[backwoodsman]

If the drive is still intact, I'd try photorec.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

 

[Joep]

So ..

- Were the files written back to the same drive?
- Can we see some of the kaput files?

 

[frase]

First what model was the drive, was it a WD Book enclosed type or an Internal HDD?
There is a program I have yet to test called FastPictureViewerCodecPack that can supposedly open RAW files, is a Photoshop Import/Export Plugin.

The files recovered are most likely useless ghost files as someone stated Geek Squad prolly used Recuva - useless program.

Is best practice to create an image of damaged drive and work from that. This way the original drive isn't being beaten to death with unnecessary read/writes.

Help your customer by giving it to the professionals in Data Recovery, before more damage is done.

 

[johnrobert]

I am surprised Geek squad would be allowed to do recovery
they have so many rules and regulations
must have been a rogue agent

 

[Archon Prime]

I am surprised Geek squad would be allowed to do recovery
they have so many rules and regulations
must have been a rogue agent

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/geek-s...ry/pcmcat748300502324.c?id=pcmcat748300502324

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/produc...rvice-tier-1-in-store-only-misc/10167406.aspx
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/produc...rvice-tier-2-in-store-only-misc/10167408.aspx

 

[frase]

Fast lane..must drive pretty slow there