Anybody familiar with image editor / converter software

samIamsad · 03-30-2006, 09:13 PM

I downloaded this fineyyyyyyaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh piece of software. You see? It's said to be sexy, fast, flashy and everything. So far so good. See, it's a trial version. I didn't register or anything. Yesterday I thought to myself: "Didn't you download this fine piece of software a while ago? Awesome, let's play!"

How foolish of mine.

See, after installing this fine piece of software you can right-click on any kind of image in your explorer window, and a menu pops up with options to resize/convert said image to whatever you like. So I did this. With a photo I don't own a backup copy of. "Wouldn't it be fun to see what happens if I'd resize this threehundredsomething by twohundredsomething pixels photograph I don't own a backup copy for to 48x48 pixels?". Or so I thought.

How foolish of mine.

Now this fine piece of software has mutilated this photograph I don't own a backup copy of into a blurry mess. No, not only that, it DELETED the original file without any warning. That's right, a several hundreds kb file got wiped out and replaced with an awful mess of a 4 kb file within just a couple of clicks. Not only that. Remember, I downloaded a trial version. Not only is the picture now, hahahahahahah, nothing but a blurry, squeezed shadow of its former self. It also has got a big, fat "Please register!!!!" written all over it now. HONESTLY! I thought it was pretty much standard procedure for a program to make a backup of the original file somewhere. Apparently this fine piece of software doesn't. Or I just haven't found out where it does. I did a search in the program folder, the win/temp folder..... nada.

Do you have any idea how to get the hell out of this mess? I'm pissed.

A DAMN FINE PIECE OF SOFTWARE. ORDER YOUR TRIAL COPY TODAY!

jjacob · 03-30-2006, 10:05 PM

I *think* Norton Ghost can recover deleted files. In any case Techmaster 2006 will do it (which specialises in data recovery/deletion rather than backup), it's pretty expensive (but then again it has DoD-standard data deletion/recovery skills

), though you could always try... yarrrrrrr.. ~~piracy~~... *COUGH*

Disclaimer: If you yarrrrr, do, then promise me to delete if after recovering your picture

samIamsad · 03-30-2006, 10:17 PM

Thanks. I'm not sure how all of this stuff works (I think we did actually get a bit into that kind of stuff back at college... gee), but the file has still got to be somewhere. I'm still hoping that the program *did* make a backup of the original....

Fairygdmther · 03-30-2006, 10:40 PM

Could you try restoring your PC to before you played with it - you said it was only yesterday!

Lynsie

samIamsad · 03-30-2006, 10:47 PM

Lynsie, you mean with the system recovery tool that comes with Win XP? I did try this, but, alas, my computer told me that nothing had been changed... The file was stored in the "My files"(?)folder. It's "Eigene Dateien" in the German edition, dunno what exactly it's called in the English one. I think I've read somewhere that this folder doesn't get restored by using that XP tool.

jjacob · 03-30-2006, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by samIamsad

Thanks. I'm not sure how all of this stuff works (I think we did actually get a bit into that kind of stuff back at college... gee), but the file has still got to be somewhere. I'm still hoping that the program *did* make a backup of the original....

Well it looks like the program didn't backup the file (if so it would simply leave it untouched, probably), but usually programs don't actually *physically* delete files; they may appear to be gone, but they're still on the harddrive - until you completely fill your HD's space with other files (in which case the HD will get rid of the "undeleted" files in order to utilize the space).

Even deleting a file yourself usually leaves it untouched, except for the file's information stored in the file system table (or something like that), which will from then on consider the file to be deleted (while it's not). There's a whole load of programs that specialise in restoring undeleted files, though most freeware ones are crappy and usually only work from a bootable floppy in DOS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fairygdmther

Could you try restoring your PC to before you played with it - you said it was only yesterday!

Lynsie

If you're referring to the windows restore function - that only restores previous drivers/configurations, not files

samIamsad · 03-30-2006, 11:59 PM

I'm currently scanning with another fine piece of software (....) called "Recover4all".

Jayel · 03-31-2006, 12:02 AM

Yeah, there are free recovery tools. Most are crap, but there are two good ones that I remember, but can't recall their names. You'll have to do some research. I did a while ago, when Windows hit the infamous 137GB wraparound bug and corrupted all my partitions. All my files were gone, but then I managed to recover most of them.

OOOH that reminds me. Beware of 137GB bug...!

artwking4 · 03-31-2006, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayel

Yeah, there are free recovery tools. Most are crap, but there are two good ones that I remember, but can't recall their names. You'll have to do some research. I did a while ago, when Windows hit the infamous 137GB wraparound bug and corrupted all my partitions. All my files were gone, but then I managed to recover most of them.

OOOH that reminds me. Beware of 137GB bug...!

Wassat?

edit: oh, nevermind. I only have an 80 GB hard drive.

samIamsad · 03-31-2006, 12:42 AM

Never heard of that bug. My hard drive isn't that big.

Quote:

Recover4all lists deleted files in the folder where the files have been located before they were deleted. If deleted files or directories could not be assigned a position in the existing file system, they will be listed in blue folders. So if you can not find your files in yellow or green folders, you need to browse all possibly listed blue folders.

Okay, I'm done. Dozens of blue folders containing thousands of files (eek, this might become tiresome), some yellow folders. However, the directory the file (let's just call it youfool.jpg) I'm looking for isn't displayed in there.

This could be, because the file youfool.jpg still *exists*. It just doesn't contain the same data it contained up until, well, yesterday. I'm not sure how image converters usually work. Hm, hm,...

Huz · 03-31-2006, 02:15 AM

I wouldn't get your hopes up, sam. Overwriting is much more difficult to recover from than deleting.

Those file recovery programs work by locating the 'deleted' files before their space is allocated to something new. In your case, part of the space occupied by your original image has already been allocated to the new, mutilated one. The rest may have been allocated to other things already - depends how much you've used your PC since the 'accident'. Even so, I'm not sure you can recover anything useful from only the tail end of an image file - it depends what format it was in, I guess.

You could try taking a backup of your file (just in case it's all you have left) and deleting it from its original location, then running the recovery thing. Think you'll just get the mutilated version back, though.

samIamsad · 04-03-2006, 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huz

You could try taking a backup of your file (just in case it's all you have left) and deleting it from its original location, then running the recovery thing. Think you'll just get the mutilated version back, though.

I tried. No luck.

Not that there had been that much of a chance of succeeding anyway.. I guess it's gone. Forever. Oh, the pains...

03-30-2006, 09:13 PM	#1
samIamsad capsized. Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,534	Anybody familiar with image editor / converter software I downloaded this fineyyyyyyaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh piece of software. You see? It's said to be sexy, fast, flashy and everything. So far so good. See, it's a trial version. I didn't register or anything. Yesterday I thought to myself: "Didn't you download this fine piece of software a while ago? Awesome, let's play!" How foolish of mine. See, after installing this fine piece of software you can right-click on any kind of image in your explorer window, and a menu pops up with options to resize/convert said image to whatever you like. So I did this. With a photo I don't own a backup copy of. "Wouldn't it be fun to see what happens if I'd resize this threehundredsomething by twohundredsomething pixels photograph I don't own a backup copy for to 48x48 pixels?". Or so I thought. How foolish of mine. Now this fine piece of software has mutilated this photograph I don't own a backup copy of into a blurry mess. No, not only that, it DELETED the original file without any warning. That's right, a several hundreds kb file got wiped out and replaced with an awful mess of a 4 kb file within just a couple of clicks. Not only that. Remember, I downloaded a trial version. Not only is the picture now, hahahahahahah, nothing but a blurry, squeezed shadow of its former self. It also has got a big, fat "Please register!!!!" written all over it now. HONESTLY! I thought it was pretty much standard procedure for a program to make a backup of the original file somewhere. Apparently this fine piece of software doesn't. Or I just haven't found out where it does. I did a search in the program folder, the win/temp folder..... nada. Do you have any idea how to get the hell out of this mess? I'm pissed. A DAMN FINE PIECE OF SOFTWARE. ORDER YOUR TRIAL COPY TODAY! Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ Look, Mr. Bubbles...! Last edited by samIamsad; 03-30-2006 at 09:25 PM.

03-30-2006, 10:05 PM	#2
jjacob Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 2,771	I think Norton Ghost can recover deleted files. In any case Techmaster 2006 will do it (which specialises in data recovery/deletion rather than backup), it's pretty expensive (but then again it has DoD-standard data deletion/recovery skills ), though you could always try... yarrrrrrr.. ~~piracy~~... COUGH Disclaimer: If you yarrrrr, do, then promise me to delete if after recovering your picture Share Share this post on Twitter

03-30-2006, 10:17 PM	#3
samIamsad capsized. Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,534	Thanks. I'm not sure how all of this stuff works (I think we did actually get a bit into that kind of stuff back at college... gee), but the file has still got to be somewhere. I'm still hoping that the program did make a backup of the original.... Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ Look, Mr. Bubbles...!

03-30-2006, 10:40 PM	#4
Fairygdmther Magic Wand Waver Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Sarasota, Florida Posts: 3,142	Could you try restoring your PC to before you played with it - you said it was only yesterday! Lynsie Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson

03-30-2006, 10:47 PM	#5
samIamsad capsized. Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,534	Lynsie, you mean with the system recovery tool that comes with Win XP? I did try this, but, alas, my computer told me that nothing had been changed... The file was stored in the "My files"(?)folder. It's "Eigene Dateien" in the German edition, dunno what exactly it's called in the English one. I think I've read somewhere that this folder doesn't get restored by using that XP tool. Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ Look, Mr. Bubbles...!

03-30-2006, 11:59 PM	#7
samIamsad capsized. Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,534	I'm currently scanning with another fine piece of software (....) called "Recover4all". Share Share this post on Twitter __________________ Look, Mr. Bubbles...!

03-31-2006, 12:02 AM	#8
Jayel Club a seal or two Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Oh Canada! Posts: 300	Yeah, there are free recovery tools. Most are crap, but there are two good ones that I remember, but can't recall their names. You'll have to do some research. I did a while ago, when Windows hit the infamous 137GB wraparound bug and corrupted all my partitions. All my files were gone, but then I managed to recover most of them. OOOH that reminds me. Beware of 137GB bug...! Share Share this post on Twitter

03-31-2006, 02:15 AM	#11
Huz Kersal Massive Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Manchester Posts: 1,430	I wouldn't get your hopes up, sam. Overwriting is much more difficult to recover from than deleting. Those file recovery programs work by locating the 'deleted' files before their space is allocated to something new. In your case, part of the space occupied by your original image has already been allocated to the new, mutilated one. The rest may have been allocated to other things already - depends how much you've used your PC since the 'accident'. Even so, I'm not sure you can recover anything useful from only the tail end of an image file - it depends what format it was in, I guess. You could try taking a backup of your file (just in case it's all you have left) and deleting it from its original location, then running the recovery thing. Think you'll just get the mutilated version back, though. Share Share this post on Twitter

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