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COArgosy78 · 05-01-2003, 03:46 PM

I write this for 2 reasons. One, to see if anybody has experienced this before and two, if so, could it be fixed??

I have been trying to figure out how to move some of my digital pics from my computer to this forum. Here is what happened:

My pics are stored in a folder called "My Pictures" thru Micosoft Millenium software. This provides thumbnail pictures in a folder. Anyone know of what I speak??

Anyway, I have been trying to change the size of some of them to fit on the forum. While I was in the MY PICTURES folder, I went up to File, pulled down menu, saw something called "Imaging" went to that and pressed. A window called Microsoft Imaging came up and immediately a box came up indicating an error and indicating it was shutting down. I could not tell that anything shut down, but somehow in the process of all this ALL THE PICTURES stored in the My Pictures folder disappeared!! The folder is still there, but now there is nothing in it??? I have looked everywhere, but, no they seem to be GONE. I am heartsick as all our new Utah trip pictures were on there. Anyone, got any ideas on what happened. They are not in the trash or recycle. Leigh

JPAIRSTREAM · 05-01-2003, 04:08 PM

if you knew when you created the pictures. you could do a search and narrow it down the that day and do a search on all created files. ... from your search program that you pc has.......

sounds buggy....... if you need help to resize them I would be more then happy to do it tell me what size and I can help you out...

53flyingcloud · 05-01-2003, 05:59 PM

Leigh
Before you do anything further..
Can you check and see if you might be able to do a system restore back to an earlier date stamped before this incident??
I'm using XP that allows this and, I think you have a similar function with ME..right?
If it does and you can find a date that predates this awful event..you just might be able to "capture" the pictures.
KWIM?
If by some chance this works...I'd download them to a CD to save a copy of them..
My best wishes..(I know what you're going thru with this)
ciao
If I can help further, let me know and, after work tomorrow..I can swap out my XP harddrive and, insert the Win ME harddrive to work with you on this..
later...

Pahaska · 05-01-2003, 06:51 PM

The XP restore function restores programs and settings, but it doesn't restore data. This is intentional because it preserves any work that you did between the restore checkpoint and the later restore.

Rog0525 · 05-01-2003, 07:20 PM

Leigh, it is possible that your pics were moved to a new folder.
I suggest you do a search (Start menu/Files or Folders/Find)
and use "jpg" as your keyword. I did this and found some pics I didn't even know I had. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
53FlyingCloud's idea of using a CD for backup is a good idea. For those who don't have a CD burner, numerous free photo-sharing photo sites are available on the web. I keep copies of many of mine on Yahoo. They allow 30mb's of free storage.

Rog

COArgosy78 · 05-02-2003, 07:59 AM

Hi Guys - We tried the search with all kinds of thoughts including the jpeg and pdf search. Found all kinds of pics (mostly seem to be ones included in the Microsoft program, but NONE of mine. Thought about the restore function (mentioned it to husband last night), but now that doesn't sound promising. I work in a library and there are techs who come in for their computers. If I see one today, I am going to ask their opinion also. I keep hearing that nothing gets truly lost on a computer... guess I can only HOPE at this time that it is true.... and yes, I expect that these WILL get on a backup disk if ever recovered. Thanks for the tips so far. I'll let you know if any other ideas emerge. Leigh

85MH325 · 05-02-2003, 04:42 PM

Wow. You've got a problem! If you haven't written any new files to your computer since your 'oopsie', you may have a chance to recover them using a program in Norton Utilities called 'unerase'. You are correct in that nothing is ever really erased from a hard drive. Things are just re-written over. When a file is erased, it is really only the first letter of the old file name that is 'zapped'. After that, the file management system can't find it any more, and so it thinks that the area that used to be assigned to that file is available space and will re-write to it.

Norton Utilities Unerase looks for all of the files that have had their names changed, and then allows for recovery by prompting you for the first letter of the old filename. Your computer techies ought to be able to give you a hand with this one.

The caveat here is that in the old days (DOS and early Win 95) there were only eight character file names with three character file extensions. Win XP, 2000, and ME may handle file names differently. I've been out of the tech world too long to have a good feel for that. I believe Norton is still out there though. There may even be freeware or shareware out there that might work for file restores.

Best of luck on this one!

Silvertwinkie · 05-02-2003, 07:17 PM

I'm stayn' far away from this one after my last image fiasco I posted here. Still trying to digest my shoe!

Rog gets this tech supp call!

Eric

53flyingcloud · 05-02-2003, 11:22 PM

Leigh

I, alone with a very good friend of mine, together tried to recreate what happened with your picture on our old harddrive equipt'd with Win ME..
First, nowhere under the headings of files did I/we find "imaging" (that's a big ??)
The assumption that files are never "gone" is correct as you and, others have noticed. BTW, until you recover these pictures..I'd refrain from installing any new program, etc.
85MH325, mention

Quote:

Norton Utilities called 'unerase'

as a tool for recovery. That may do the trick..(I've stayed away from Norton for years, so I can't say one way or another about it's use.)
What Graphics View program were you using when all of this happened? Just curious..When this is all over and, it will be..lol
You might consider looking into something like ACDSee or Xnview.
For example, XnView is fast, free browser supports a staggering 400 file formats!~!
Plus all of the following:

Quote:

Quickly view images, browse thumbnails, print, sort and manage image, audio and video files.
• Image editing and manipulation: rotate, flip, resize, crop, adjust color, sharpen, set DPI, etc.
• Special effects: blur, emboss, oil paint, edge detection, enhance, mosaic, add/reduce noise, etc.
• Batch processing: convert, rename, scan, and capture screen shots all in batch mode.
• Web Page creation option for generating simple hyperlinked thumbnail pages.
• Add image descriptions and view file properties including EXIF information for digital camera files.
• Generate file lists, display images in a slide show, rotate JPEGs losslessly, set wallpaper.
• Many options for customizing interface appearance and behavior, including skinnable toolbars.
• Available for Windows in 36 languages. Free for non-commercial or educational use.
• Also versions for Linux, FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD, Solaris, Irix, HP-UX, AIX, MacOS X, BeOS, QNX, and more.

.XnView

ACDSee's latest version 5.0 is similar to many programs as well.

Quote:

If you're into quick photo optimization or artistic enhancement, ACDSee and its built-in photo editor ACD FotoCanvas Lite will serve you well. Right in ACDSee, you can quickly resize, rotate and adjust image exposure for single or multiple images. Likewise, you can use ACDSee's graphics converter tool to save single or multiple images in any of 10 different formats.

ACDSee version 5.0
Just a few thoughts, for your edification, when you're recovered from this..
ciao

COArgosy78 · 05-05-2003, 09:07 AM

Hi Guys - Yea, I am wishing I could be hypnotized into figuring out just what I did to create this mess. The Windows Imaging that I have is in the Accessories area when I pull up the Start Menu. It showed up when I had the My Pictures folder open and was a side bar in the File dropdown when I went to Save As. When I pressed it, the computer started to bring up the software, but then it froze and a box came up indicating the computer had performed an illegal act?? and was shutting down. No shutdown occured, but it did take me back to original startup screen with icons. When I went back into My Pictures folder from there, the folder showed up, but everything in it was GONE.

I have located Norton Recover and will try that.

Let you know asap. Thanks, everyone. Leigh

PS I didn't have any Graphics view program open (that I know of), I thought that Imaging would be it. Or at least I thought that Imaging was what I was looking for in order to change the size of the pictures for posting here in the forums.

53flyingcloud · 05-05-2003, 09:21 AM

leigh

COArgosy78 · 05-05-2003, 09:25 AM

OK, at least now I have a smile to get going with!!! TEE HEE, Leigh

53flyingcloud · 05-05-2003, 09:31 AM

Thought that would tickle your 'funny bone'...GOOD LUCK~!~

ciao

COArgosy78 · 05-05-2003, 01:54 PM

Update - Boy, do I have a headache!!!!

The original error message occuring in the My Pictures file was in the Open As option in the File pulldown which gave me the Imaging sidebar. The Imaging software is Kodak Imaging. The error message was a MFC42.dll error message, which I have run into before with Paint. (In fact the computer has been giving me that message today). I went into Add/Remove Programs and attempted to clean that up. Was successful with the Imaging Program, it now will run - but Paint still gives the error message. Anyway, after getting Imaging to run, I started it and low and behold the 1 picture I had been trying to send over at the start of all this mess was in Imaging. Unfortunately, none of the other pics were.

Haven't been able to use the Norton restore feature yet. It indicates I need floppy disks. I don't know where they are or if we even have any. Will ask Price when he returns from work.

I'm going to look at that frog again and see if I can work up any more energy for this..... %%$$$**@@@@ Boo Hoo

53flyingcloud · 05-05-2003, 02:30 PM

leigh
Could you or Price meet me in the A/S chat room??
I could send you the MFC42.dll file and, walk you thru the process of reinstalling it..
Vern

COArgosy78 · 05-06-2003, 12:41 PM

Hey Vern - we are both here. Shall we try?? Will this help with the pictures?? Looking forward to our chat - just don't want the computer to byte me again!!! Thanks, Leigh

COArgosy78 · 05-07-2003, 09:23 AM

I want to try to clean up this puter so I don't risk losing more important stuff. Since our little meeting with Vern didn't pan out...I know you tried, Vern!!, I need to ask if anyone is familiar with something called a "Clean Boot". Got info off the Microsoft.com site re:invalid Page Fault", which is what I got when I lost pics (specifically, a MFC42.dll error message). Vern tried to e-mail us a clean MFC42.dll file, but didn't work. So has anyone done a Clean Boot. All this relates to a program (in my case it was the Imaging Program) that improperly attempts to use RAM or that has corrupted the virtual memory area. I hardly understand most of that, I am quoting from the pages I printed from the Microsoft.com site. As I told Vern, I am a little goosy now trying something new as that was what got me in trouble way back when....need moral backbone support here. Leigh

Rog0525 · 05-07-2003, 10:51 AM

It sounds like a visit to your local pc repair shop might be your best course of action. I recall that you were having the same problem with your Paint program last fall when I referred you to a site that listed step by step instructions on how to reinstall.
You quite obviously have some files that are missing or corrupted.
The 'clean boot' is a bit complicated. You can download the MFC42.dll file HERE if you still want to try that, but a repair shop can save everything on your hard drive and install the latest Windows version. Most experienced repairmen can do this within a 1 hour labor charge plus the price of the software update.
Best of luck to you in whatever you decide.

Rog

Pick · 05-07-2003, 12:08 PM

For some reason, I have more problems with Microsoft's own programs running in their operating system, than any others.

A full time computer technician told me it is a good idea to reformat you hard drive once a year, and do a CLEAN install. (not a REINSTALL over the old one) I have been following his advice and have minimal computer problems as a result.

COArgosy78 · 05-07-2003, 01:03 PM

Hi Rog - Yea and the Paint program is the one that still keeps coming up with that error message. I tried the Add/Remove, restart puter deal on it, no go. I used it on the Kodak Imaging program at the same time and now that works. Thats how I recovered the pic that I was working with when this whole fiasco started. The funny thing is the Paint program was working (don't ask me how or when it started working) when I started out on this venture, but after the freezeup, it went back to giving the error message.

This computer got used by everyone for everything up til last year. I think there is a lot of garbage in it. Guess I better admit defeat go for the pro.

Hey Pick - Thanks, guess when I find a Pro (?) I will ask about that! Later, Leigh