Re: repairing corrupt mp4 (and jpeg) video files
- From: "Steve King" <steveSPAMBLOCK@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:30:08 -0500
"Frank" <frank@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0ks9f3dnbbqk317s5o8usp6ippt5sufbse@xxxxxxxxxx
On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 06:55:37 GMT, in 'rec.video.desktop',
in article <repairing corrupt mp4 (and jpeg) video files>,
GS <GS@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I was on vacation and was using my Sony DSC M1 camera, which was showing
low battery, but this is usually not a problem, just use it sparingly
and you can often squeeze a few extra pictures and some short video
clips from it.
Except this time, and as luck would have it, they are pictures and video
of my youngest 2 girls catching their first fish. I took a few stills
and they showed fine on the cameras lcd, and also a few short clips.
However when I went to view them later on the camera after I got back to
civilization and recharged it none of the cameras or pictures or video
would show up. the file were there with what looked like the proper file
sizes so I downloaded them to my laptop. One jpeg shows up on a preview
screen when showing thumbnails but will not load. The others dont show
anything, same with the mp4 files, even though the files are there and
the sizes look ok.
I am assuming that some header information is missing or something like
that. At the least I'd like to recover the jpegs, I though they would be
easier but everything I've tried has yielded no results. The mp4 files I
would really like to get, as your kids first fish is a special moment.
This one especially because my 7 yr old hooked a 2lb trout, which is a
monster in this particular creek, and was hanging on to the rod for dear
life fighting the fish and the current while I was catching it on video.
So, anyone know of good utilities that may recover all or some of these
files? Or a place that will do it for me? These are special enough to me
I'll pay someone to do it if there is no utility out there that will do
it. I recall reading some time back about an mp4 utility that would at
least let me get the video out of the files, which is better than nothing.
thanks in advance
From the headers of your message, I assume that you're a Windows user.
Therefore, most all of the specifics of what I've written below are
based upon this premise. If you're a Mac user, the same general
principles apply, but you would be using different software.
Having dealt with data loss/corruption on Memory Stick PRO Duo media
(I do a lot of PSP work), the absolute first thing that you should do
is *not* to write any further files on the card. Preserve the card as
it is, such as if it contained critical evidence in an important legal
proceeding and you needed to turn the card over for a formal forensics
analysis.
I would strongly suggest that you start by checking the integrity of
the card's file system. If you have a computer - notebook or desktop -
that has a card slot that accepts Memory Stick PRO Duo cards that's
great. Else, perhaps you have a USB card reader that accepts Memory
Stick PRO Duo cards.
I use an old SanDisk model SDDR-107 MobileMate MS+, although the newer
model SDDR-108 will also do the job just fine. Here are some links.
SanDisk model SDDR-107 MobileMate MS+ at Amazon (J&R)
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-MOBILEMATE-MS-SDDR-107-A10M-Package/dp/B00064V6XK
SanDisk model SDDR-107 MobileMate MS+ at J&R
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4015471
SanDisk model SDDR-108 MobileMate Memory Stick Plus at SanDisk
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1219)-SDDR-108-SanDisk_MobileMate_Memory_Stick_PlusReader.aspx
You can also probably pick up a suitable reader locally, which would
be faster than ordering over the Net.
What you want to do is connect the card to your computer either via a
built-in card slot or through the use of a USB reader/adapter similar
to one of the ones that I've just mentioned. Do not insert the card
into the camera and then connect the camera to the computer. Use the
direct-attach method with either a built-in card slot or a USB card
reader/adapter. We want to take the camera out of the equation.
Once the card is directly attached to your computer and recognized by
Windows, the operating system will dynamically assign a drive letter
(E:. F:, etc.) to the media so that you can access it via ordinary
Windows applications.
The first step is to see if Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) is happy
with the card. See if Windows Explorer can properly display the
directory structure, list of files, etc.
Then run either ChkDsk (Check Disk) or ScanDisk - depending upon your
version of Windows - on the card and see if it reports any errors in
the file system. If no errors are reported, the probability of
successful file recovery is good, but not guaranteed, unfortunately,
as some individual files may be corrupt even though the file system is
intact.
If ChkDsk/ScanDisk reports errors, then you have to make an important
decision at this point: do you tell ChkDsk/ScanDisk to repair the
errors and then attempt file recovery operations, or do you go
directly to the file recovery step, knowing that you're dealing with a
corrupt file structure.
This is an important decision because if ChkDsk/ScanDisk repairs file
system errors, you may lose all possibility of recovering *any* files
off of the media including, possibly, files which are perfectly okay
and have no internal errors whatsoever.
You will have to make this choice. I cannot advise you on this. If I
had your card in my physical possession and were being paid ($) to
recover your files, I know what I would do, but that's not the
situation here; I'm merely offering free advice to you based upon my
personal experience.
After you make this decision and you're done with ChkDsk/ScanDisk, you
might want to use Windows Explorer and/or command line interface (CLI)
Copy commands to try to copy individual files off of the Memory Stick
and onto your computer's hard disk drive (HDD).
Note: be certain to do a Copy operation and not a Move operation, as
you don't want to write to the card until you've completed the entire
recovery process. This is especially true if ChkDsk/ScanDisk reported
errors and you choose not to correct them.
Once you've got some files on your HDD, try to open and display them
in various applications to determine whether or not the files are
corrupt.
Checking the individual files in multiple applications is a good idea
because some applications will ignore certain errors and display a
"bad" (slightly damaged) file, thus lulling you into believing that
the file is fine when in fact it's not. And then you don't discover
the problem until a month later when you try to use the file in some
other application and receive an error message that the file is
corrupt, damaged, not a valid file, unrecognized, etc. when you try to
open it. Meanwhile, you've formatted the Memory Stick and no longer
have access to the original file so as to attempt to conduct a proper
recovery.
Most likely, you'll be able to successfully recover some files using
this copy method, but some will turn out to be corrupt, even if you
were able to copy them without any error messages appearing during the
copy operation. For those files, I would suggest use of a software
recovery approach.
Although there are lots of data recovery programs out there, here are
two that I can recommend. One is a free download called PC Inspector
Smart Recovery from Convar of Germany.
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/smart_recovery/info.htm?language=1
The other is a collection of utility/recovery programs offered by Sony
for working with Memory Stick flash memory cards. I have a copy of
this software suite, but don't recall from where I got it, else I'd
post a link (they may have come off of a CD that Sony sent to me, I'm
not sure - and I'm still on my first cup of coffee). If you want a
copy, please contact me via e-mail and I'll see what I can do for you
(no charge).
Note that generally speaking, it will be easier to recover .jpg image
files than .mp4 movie files.
Commercial data recovery services can be expensive. A top example is
Kroll and their Ontrack division.
Kroll
http://www.kroll.com/
Kroll/Ontrack
http://www.krollontrack.com/
Ontrack Data Recovery
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/
Kroll/Ontrack has locations worldwide and does quality work. Back in
July 2006, Kroll acquired a company called Homeland Solutions, which
offers an interesting variety of courses.
http://www.homeland-solutions.net/CourseDescriptions.htm
The folks at Convar (mentioned above) are also good, having done data
recovery work for the NSA.
http://www.convar.de/
I realize that these JPEGs and MPEG-4 files are important to you, but
in this case I would recommend self-recovery rather than engagement of
a commercial data recovery service.
Hope that this helps, and good luck!
--
Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
[Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
Read Frank's thoughts on HDV at http://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/
(also covers AVCHD and XDCAM EX).
What a cool newsgroup this is! While I'm generally familiar with the
operations you describe, I'm going to add this post to my searchable
computer stuff document. Thanks for taking the time to post such a
comprehensive reply to the OP.
Steve King
.
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