Pictures Obliterated

Discussion in 'Software' started by snailer88, Aug 19, 2009.

  1. snailer88

    snailer88 Private E-2

    The other day I was doing some PC "unclogging" for my girlfriend. I uninstalled a few programs (nothing important), removed a bunch of start programs, ran CCleaner along with its reg cleaner, and defrag with Defraggler (first time I ever used it).
    A few days later she's whining her pictures won't open. I figure she's just doing something wrong, but sure enough I get "missing or incomplete header" message. I use WinHex and open 5 pictures from different folders (there are a total of 1,300 pics in 9 folders, all in My Pictures). When I peek at the pics, I'm horrified... ALL zeros! Every picture has been completely destroyed :( I shouldn't say all.. for some reason 73 pics from random locations remain untouched. Everything else is wiped.... I think.
    I'm hoping this was caused by the defrag and perhaps the pic info remains somewhere on the drive. Anyone know what could have caused this and if there's any way to reclaim the pics? It seems pretty hopeless....
     
    snailer88, Aug 19, 2009
    #1
  2. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    I have moved your thread to the software forum as this is not a malware issue.
     
    TimW, Aug 22, 2009
    #2
  3. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    Perhaps something was important.
    If it were my computer, I'd work backwards. There is nothing you can do to reverse defragller if that was the culprit. First restore the registry from CCleaner. Reboot and see if the picture info is back.

    If that didn't help, the next thing I'd do is go to accessories, system tools and restore to before you cleaned the computer. Reboot and see if that fixes the problem.

    It's a bit late now but before I do anything major, I always create an image using Acronis True Image. Then if something weird happens, and it does, I restore the image.
     
    plodr, Aug 22, 2009
    #3
  4. snailer88

    snailer88 Private E-2

    I tried using System Restore before I posted, that didn't help.

    Thanks for the registry idea, but that did nothing either.

    I don't think it will be possible to get the pics back :cry
     
    snailer88, Aug 24, 2009
    #4

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