Author Archives: Joep

WD MyBook Live drives wiped – Data Recovery

Earlier this week ‘rumors‘ started spreading about WD MyBook Live NAS devices were remotely instructed to return to factory settings. Well, this is no longer a rumor, it is happening. I write this blogpost as I learn new stuff about this issue so nothing of this is written in stone and I will update and… Read More »

Can corrupt NEF (Nikon RAW) files be repaired?

Can corrupt NEF (Nikon RAW) files be repaired? A question I frequently get from people that discover my JPEG repair service. Can corrupt NEF (Nikon RAW) files be repaired? The answer is similar to the question ‘can a JPEG be repaired?’: If actual data is present then often Nikon RAW files can be repaired. The… Read More »

Data Recovery from corrupt 7-Zip (7z) archive, a lucky break ..

I was looking through a 7-Zip file in an attempt to repair it using HxD. The archive was created by ZArchiver, an Android backup app. Once the backup was created the phone was reset. Repairing a corrupt 7z file. The maker of 7-Zip has some hints on repairing a corrupt .7z file. Header of the… Read More »

Recover lost or deleted Bitcoin Wallet.dat using R-Studio

While this blog post covers my initial ‘research’, intention of this blog is to give an easier to digest guide into recovering or undeleting a Bitcoin wallet.dat file. Note that if you delete files or lose files due to formatting on a SSD, they are beyond DIY Recovery!! In that case you increase chances of… Read More »

Can data be recovered from an erased or zero filled drive?

Overwriting Hard Drive Data: The Great Wiping Controversy Okay, this is another one that annoys me: The claim, the myth that certain three letter agencies can recover data from erased or zero filled hard drives. The claim that those can magically ‘read’ and reconstruct data from ‘latent magnetic residue’ (I am not making this up,… Read More »

Corrupted Micro SD Card freezes computer

If inserting a corrupted Micro SD Card, that you need to recover data from, freezes your computer, then this kind of puts you into a catch 22 situation. For recovery software to work the card needs to be detected and ID correctly. As long as it doesn’t you will be unable to recover your data.… Read More »

JpegDigger’s JPEG repair feature explained

JpegDigger features a JPEG repair option. What is this and what can it do? Repair will not per se result in a perfect image. It can however repair JPEGs to a degree where they can be opened and viewed, including their flaws. JPEG structure Let’s first look at how a JPEG file is organized internally.… Read More »

RAW file recovery and duplicates

Recovery is resulting in duplicate photos One of the drawbacks of ‘raw recovery’ is that generally files are recovered with auto generated meaningless filenames. To conclusively identify files you have to open them although initial culling can be done by sorting by size, or with help of a tool that can sort files by creation date,… Read More »