Category Archives: repair

Wondershare, Stellar photo repair tools, scams or ..

Observation: YouTube videos and ‘honey-pot’ articles on Stellar and Wondershare website addressing the issue of grey blocks in, or half grey photos. Example: In the video we watch the miracle happen, and a few clicks later the files are repaired. Well, let me tell you, that I have tried the same with numerous files and… 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 »

USB Flash drive not detected after fall

Will a USB flash drive survive a drop? Modern USB Flash drives are quite solid and will most likely survive a fall due to their monolithic design. Older USB keys typically consist of several components micro soldered to a flimsy PCB. Apart from the smaller chip (the controller) and the large chip (NAND flash memory),… Read More »

Why is photo repair more expensive than photo recovery?

In this post I’ll try to explain why photo repair is relatively expensive compared to photo recovery. Why is it many photos can be recovered at a fraction of the cost of repairing just a few images?

Recent changes to JPEG-Repair Toolkit

2.8.191 – Jan 1, 2022 update # Had to reset expiration date of JPGRepair.exe. 2.8.189 – Nov 1 update # JPEG-Repair, MCU editor resizable, re-worked file save mechanism to get rid of clutter of files produced during repair. # Updated URL to check latest version, it was pointing to dead URL. # Removed preview from… Read More »

JPEG restart markers to the rescue

Restart markers make the difference This YouTube channel by my friend and colleague Nguyễn Vũ Hà has many great examples of JPEG-Repair being used to repair STOP/DJVU ransomware affected files. This video in particular is a great showcase on how JPEG restart markers prevent corruption propagating through the JPEG image stream. As you can see… Read More »

Alternative method for half grey or truncated JPEG photo repair

There are various examples on this website of repairs of half grey or truncated JPEG images. In those cases all image data is actually present, but due to an error or corruption only a part of it is visible. If data is simply missing because for example the file is partially overwritten or cut-off, repair… Read More »

Repair, Recover JPEGs encrypted by ransomware STOP Djvu

This article shows repair of JPEGs that fell victim of ransomware. This particular ransomware only encrypts part of the file. Due to this the JPEG header and some 150 KB of JPEG data are lost. Using a reference file and weeding encrypted data we can repair the photo.

Unknown or invalid JPEG Marker

If you get a Unknown or invalid JPEG Marker this means one of two: The photo viewer or editor encountered a JPEG marker it isn’t familiar with. The JPEG file is corrupt. To rule out cause 1, your photo viewer editor doesn’t recognize a certain JPEG marker, update your software and if that does not help, try… Read More »