JPG files can be viewed as thumbnails but not in full size

[Retfordpaul]

Hi - have just recovered some JPg files (or I thought I had), I can view them perfectly well as thumbnails or in filmstrip mode, but as soon as I try and open them I get error messages - either "drawing failed" or the picture opens but with large areas missing.

Does anyone know if these files can be fixed - it seems odd that look perfect until you try and open them

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

[GDH]

Hi,

JPEG files actually contain two separate images. One is the thumbnail which is at the start of the file, and the other is the full size picture.

The thumbnail is used by Windows to display low resolution images (i.e. show thumbnails) and the full size images is used when the file is opened with a graphics applicaiton.

In your case it sounds like the thumbnail is OK, but the full size image has been partially overwritten and corrupted.

You should try opening the files wil irfanview.com at it is quite good a reading paritially corrupted images. You may not always be able to get the full size image back, but you can use this program to save the files and then crop out any missing parts.

The only other option is to try the recovery again and see if you get improved results - you will need to let me know how your files were deleted or lost in the first instance and what you did to get them back.

Cheers.