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Digital photos stored on external drive have gray bars on them, help!

Apr 30, 2010 6:41AM PDT
Question:

Digital photos stored on external drive have gray bars on them, help!


Some of my digital pictures that have been stored on an external hard drive since 2002-2003 have gray bars on them. The gray bars differ in size, from 1/3 to 1/2 coverage of the picture, usually from bottom to top. There are also some digital pictures that have ?split?, whereas the top part of the picture is not in line with the bottom half. Again, these digital pictures have been stored on a external hard drive for 7-8 years. I first noticed this problem about two years ago. The current external drive is about one year old. All of the problem pictures were shot from a Minolta 4mp digital camera purchased in May 2002. Sorry I do not know the model number. I thank CNET for considering my issue for feedback of possibly resolving the problem. Thank you.

--Submitted by Ted V.

Here are some featured member answers to get you started, but
please read all the advice and suggestions that our
members have contributed to this question.

Not enough information given... --Submitted by Watzman
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7809_102-0.html?messageID=3296319#3296319

More information would be helpful --Submitted by timhood
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7809_102-0.html?messageID=3296417#3296417

Incomplete photos --Submitted by GEO2003
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7809_102-0.html?messageID=3296388#3296388

Suggestions to check --Submitted by marketrue
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7809_102-0.html?messageID=3296334#3296334

Silent Corruption?" --Submitted by Flatworm
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7809_102-0.html?messageID=3296643#3296643

Gray Bars and split --Submitted by HeadHancho
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7809_102-0.html?messageID=3296578#3296578

Thank you to all who contributed!

If you have any additional recommendations or suggestions to help Ted solve this mystery, please click on the reply link and submit away. Please be as detailed as possible when providing your solution. Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Sharey solution
Sep 2, 2010 1:50PM PDT

Please share your solution. My email address is alartius@gmail.com.

Best regards,
anil

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corrupt photos solution
Sep 14, 2010 4:39PM PDT

hi, can u give me solution for corruped photos. i have many corrupt photos and i confuse how to solves that.

thanx

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Gary Hocking Photographs
May 14, 2010 6:41AM PDT

Hi Roy

Not too sure if have contacted the correct Roy Thorogood (just googled the name) ... but hear goes. I am research a book about Gary Hocking the 350cc and 500cc World Motorcycle Champion in 1961. I have seen an image on the TT wesite copyright to a Roy Thorogood.

Appologies if this image has nothing to do with you, but if you did take the photo I am just enquiring about using the copyrighted image should the book finally get to print. I am particularly interested in any images of Gary but more generally interested in motor cycle racing events 1958-1962 (year he raced in Europe). Sorry this is nothing to do with hard discs but not sure how else to follow-up my enquiry

Many thanks
Nick Taylor

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Gray Bars and Split
Apr 30, 2010 9:39PM PDT

Have you tried copying the file and pasting to a different drive? It may read differently.

Tried a different viewer?

In PhotoShop it may be possible to repair the "splits" by creating a personal "action" and batching the results, assuming all your images and splits are relatively the same.

It is difficult for anyone to recommend a cure for the "bars" without actually examining the files.

This is a good warning for others re: the shelf-life of digital images on storage media. They will not last forever. You need backups and it's a good idea to transfer digital photos onto new media every 4-5 years.

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You can try to look at the thumbs.db file

You can try and check the thumbs.db file on your external drive to see if it holds the full copy (thumbnail) of the original file or a corrupted one like the full size image you have.

thumbs.db is a hidden file so you will need to show hidden files first.

You can get a freeware copy of a thumbs.db viewer here http://wareseeker.com/Graphic-Apps/thumbnail-database-viewer-1.0.zip/297389

If the thumbnails are also corrupt I think you've lost the pics for good.

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Similar problem when downloading from camera to PC
Apr 30, 2010 9:57PM PDT

While I don't have a solution to Ted's problem, I can describe a scenario in which I also experienced the problem of vertically 'split" .jpg photos.
In my case I could isolate the problem to when I downloaded photos via USB from my Canon A620 camera to a specific Fujitsu Siemens Amilo notebook that I previously owned. After downloading a batch of photos I would typically find that anything from 1 to 5 out of maybe 50 photos had the misaligned horizontal split when viewed on the PC. (I soon learned to do a careful inspection immediately after each download).
I would then re-download those photos individually, and the problem would disappear, usually after just one atttempt.

This never happened when downloading from the same camera to another computer, including my current Thinkpad.
I put the problem down to a glitch in the USB data transmission on the Fujitsu Siemens notebook, and just lived with the problem till I replaced the notebook.

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Well you're quite unlucky here....
Apr 30, 2010 10:48PM PDT

See here's what the problem is-all external HDs are magnetic storage devices. So in 7-8 yrs they'll go corrupt like this, unless you're aware and store them properly. Why this doesn't happen with the comp HD is cuz its used very frequently and its stored in that small dry place in your comp. I think you'd placed it in some moist place. See if the Hard Disk Recovery guys can help. They're costly, but if those pics are worth, give it a shot. The recent one, which is showing splits, is on the verge of becoming like the one before. So now store them in a proper box/plastic container, dry, and away from anything magnetic. Mildly magnetic things can also do this over a long time. I think your pics can be saved, but you need to have a good HDR Centre, and ya, good luck too... I Hope they can help. You've got to take this last resort. May God help you...

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"Silent Corruption?"
Apr 30, 2010 11:02PM PDT

Silent Corruption? No, I don't think so. If that were the case it might affect one file, but not all the files on the drive, and the corruption would certainly not be limited to image files alone.

The problem here is one of rendering, not storage. I believe that either the software that rendered the files originally to what I presume are .jpg files (because the kind of corruption you describe is easier to explain if it occurred during compression or decompression), or by the software you are using to render the files now.

I have dealt with literally millions of image files in my life and I have frequently seen the kind of corruption you are describing, but never originating at some point between the camera, hard drive, and/or monitor. However, the only place I have seen it is with .jpg files transferred over a communications medium, like email or UseNet, where a secondary encoding or compression scheme like Mime, UUE or Yenc overlays additionally over the original already compressed .jpg file, and the corruption took place at some point during the data transmission or in the secondary encoding/decoding.

If your hard drive failed in a way that affected numerous images, the error would certainly NOT have been "silent."

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I'VE SEEN A SIMILAR PROBLEM WITH VM BASED .JPG & DATA FILES
May 9, 2010 1:51PM PDT

Grey lines at bottom, looking like unfinished export for jpg file....
I see them all the time - working in, and saving data outside a VM on a host drive!

Problem encountered when running XP in a VM under Vista. (I thought it was at first a Vista or program (software) issue. - NOT SO.)

The problem also occurs on Windows 7 running XP mode too. (Even with high powered hardware using hardware assisted virtualization.) I can't run our legacy POS or accounting software in a Microsoft based VM either. Occasionally data corrupts without any notice / notification.

Totally separate VM's on totally separate hardware on different versions of Windows hosts. IMHO, I think there's a deeper related windows issue here with something in common with your experiences....

Interestingly enough, if the data corrupts. (no indication except for looking at an exported picture) All I have to do is export it once or twice to the same place. Usually the second save results in a good copy.

It's worthwhile noting that in my scenario - Although I'm running software in a VM... I'm storing the data outside the VM, on the host's drive.

This whole thing leads me to believe that under certain circumstances, windows "looses track" of what it's doing with data, and continues onward without acknowledging a write error has occurred.

An analogy here: Almost like when you sneeze or yawn hard, during which time you can't hear well and thus you aren't sure if you'v missed something or not..... Actually, Windows behaves more like it passed out, comes too, and doesn't want to admit anything happened......

IMHO - I THINK THERE'S A REAL SERIOUS ISSUE HERE WITH REGARDS TO SOMETHING GOING ON IN WINDOWS. ** PROCESS / TIMING UNRESOLVED (UNKNOWN?) RELATED ISSUE **

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Had a Similiar Problem
May 1, 2010 4:53AM PDT

Had a similiar problem with my graphics program with 2 different cameras. Tried other graphics programs and found some that worked to show the photo and then saved them again. These were then able to work with my original graphics program.

Hope this helps for the gray bars -

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re:Digital photos stored on external drive have gray bars on
May 1, 2010 5:39AM PDT

I suspect that the file is not all on the disk any longer possibly due to sectors going bad.

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Corrupted images from your old external hard drive
May 1, 2010 7:39AM PDT

I had similar problems (split/partial images) years ago, trying to read back images from floppy disks I had created. The problem was caused by a defective floppy drive that was corrupting the files as I wrote them. Once I noticed the corruption on my images I looked more carefully and found that other type files were corrupted too - but harder to see as a missing bit/byte in a text file for example will not be as noticeable as a corrupted picture without careful observation.

So I agree with the others - your files were probably written badly when you wrote them on the external drive back in 2002-3 - and you didn't check them at that time. As a long-retired mainframe computer engineer I can tell you that it was accepted/expected design practice to build in automatic read-after-write checks whenever writing data to devices like discs and tapes. Unfortunately this is rarely done in the personal computer world. So, if you want to be certain of the integrity of your files you should read them back immediately after creation, preferably by using the read-back option offered by some disk writing programs (Nero for example) or, much less effective, by reading them back into your computer with 'standard' programs and then viewing them very carefully. But, be aware that just opening the disc and viewing its folder and file content is not enough - every individual file has to be read in and then checked.

If your images are important you should be able to recover most of them but you'll probably have to pay someone who has the tools and knowledge needed to do data recovery. I hope you find someone that can help you.

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file problems
May 1, 2010 9:21AM PDT

before i blame the drive, i would use a different program to display the pictures. There have been some odd formatted JPGs which don't always work with every program, kinda rare now but earlier cameras had this problem and I'll bet you used a different display program in 2002 than you do now.

Another reason i say this is that hard drives are usually good about reporting errors if they can't read the drive. They try like 16 times if the internal quality checks say the file is bad and then report an error. Its super rare for a drive to deliver a file with a read error and not report a problem... the drive interfaces were designed to be very reliable in this respect because of the importance of not allowing errors to creep into data.

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Could be the files were always that way
May 1, 2010 9:18PM PDT

Unless you can confirm that the pictures did not originally have the split and gray bars, I would think that they are how the camera took them in the first place.
I had some pictures sent to me recently for an explanation taken just a few days before.
It was a new camera and several shots had been 'split' as you describe.
I cannot see how the age of a digital file could be affected unless it is corrupted by some process or other but then in all likelihood it would not open at all.

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Corrupted files
May 7, 2010 10:33AM PDT

I forgot who gave me the info on this, but his suggestion worked. My Canon 20D was giving me this very same problem when I first transferred files from Camera to Computer directly with the USB that came with the unit. Advice given to me at the time was simply NEVER to xfer files that way. Use instead, a card reader which by itself is a speed governor. Having doubts about this, I bought a Sandisk multicard reader and then gave it a whirl. To this day, I have never had the problem occur. Not much help to you now, but today would be a good day to start using card readers. Split files (pics) and gray bars. Brings back bad memories !! A good card reader is going to cost you $50-75. Just FYI.

...Steve

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Do not overlook a faulty USB cable
May 2, 2010 1:19AM PDT

I would blame the viewer if the bars were uniform in their size and position.

Otherwise, your files are probably corrupted and/or cross linked. The question is why. Bad hard drive is one possibility. It happened to me due to a faulty USB cord. In any case, some other files may be also corrupted.

Before you try anything, copy everything to another drive (with a different cable.)

Then, try a good data recovery. Someone may know a good freeware but I have had excellent results with easus. (This is not an advertisement)
http://www.easeus.com/

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corrupted photos
May 2, 2010 3:23PM PDT

I have seen this more when someone has asked me to retrieve files off a corrupted memory card (sd, minisd, compact flash, sony memory stick). The files that are retrieved are sometimes alright, sometimes have corruption in them... I would possible try another machine to read the existing files.

If this is an external drive that has been in regular use for eight years I would definitely think of getting files off of there (remember a backup is having 2 copies or more of important stuff... so when one place goes *poof* ... you have another place to depend on).

you might try a error check on the drive (chkdsk on this, or in more familiar terms [assuming you are using a windows machine] open up my computer, right click on the drive, go to tools, error checing, and check now... checking the two check boxes 'Automatically fix...' and 'Scan for...')... if these are the only copies of the files you have ... get another drive and copy the files first before attempting repairs.

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Corrupted external storage media
May 2, 2010 7:20PM PDT

Hi
unfortunately it sounds as if the JPEG information was damaged i.e the image was stored on a faulty sorage media

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Always multiple backup
May 2, 2010 7:34PM PDT

Do not thrust on any media!
I always make at lease 2 difference DVD backup.

Magnatic state on HD may lost itself.
Burn state on DVD may lost itself too !!!!!

Good luck

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Disco duro con sectores danados
May 3, 2010 12:41AM PDT

El problema que tienes con tus fotos es que tu disco duro esta con problemas(sectores erroneos). la posible solucion es tratar de usar los programas de windows(chdsk /r) para tratar de recuperar esos sectores con error, ahora si esto no funciona debes tratar de correr progrmas que recuperan informacion.
Generalmente con la primera solucion se recuperan el 90% de los archivos danados.
saludos

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Might be the drive, solvable or software
May 3, 2010 4:45AM PDT

This sort of behavior could be caused by a problem with the drive (although it does seem more likely that the problem is due to software incompatibility).
First, I'd verify and fix any problem with the hard drive itself. The best answer I've found -- by far -- is a program called "SpinRite 6" by Gibson Research (www.grc.com). This program is amazing. Written in assembly language, it is very small, and runs under Windows to generate a bootable floppy disk or CD image (.iso files). One floppy disk has everything needed to boot and to run the program on any PC, with lots of space for log files of the scans run by the program. Do plan on giving the program lots of time -- it can literally take days to run, but you can stop it safely at any time. The program costs about $90, but does represent the state of the art in software hard disk repair. It does not matter what operating system is used by the PC, as long as you can boot from SpinRite's bootable media.
Second, you probably have a software incompatibility. The formats of many image files have changed over the years. Try Piscasa (from Google, free), or (on a PC) IFRAN view (www.irfanview.com, also free.

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its your hard drive having issues
May 6, 2010 2:31AM PDT

Most likely it is your external hard drive having hardware issues. I just experienced this 2 weeks ago on my EHD with ACDSee. ACDSee was displaying my thumbnails with grey lines covering portions of thumbnail. I looked at some of the images and they couldn't be opened by other software saying there was corruption. ACDSee tries to build the thumbnail with the actual image and builds what it can and greys/black out the the rest. Windows explorer was showing the thumbnail correctly -- the one that is stored in the image. But again the file was corrupt and not openable by any editing software. So it hasn't anything to do with ACDSee software.

Unfortunately if you don't have a backup of those files, it is going to be difficult to recover those images. The manufacturer of the EHD might have some tools to help recover so start there. There is also other tools if you search for them.

In my case, the EHD was a backup of my images -- thus one of my backups was corrupted. I reformatted the EHD which should detect and not use bad sectors of the disk, and re-sync'ed my backup back to the EHD.

Your images should be backed up to different types of media in case one fails or is damaged. You should also keep one of your backups offsite so if there is fire, you will still have at least one backup.

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Picture format version

Please check with the manufacturer of the camera with which the pictures were shot what the output format and the output format version of the camera was. You are probably opening old versions of the .JPEG or other picture compression protocol with software that is not able to recognize the older format. Your pictures (provided you copied them directly, rather than convert them when you originally saved them) should then be unscathed. If you saved the pictures with software, however, rather than copied them from your camera to the storage medium, it is possible that the software corrupted them during saving. Either way, it is unlikely your problems have anything to do with the storage medium or file corruption. The manufacturer of the camera will probably be able to give you the original software that came with the camera, that would be your best bet, but: you may not have a computer that is still able to run this. Some picture formats have both a small "view" image and the main picture in the file - it is possible you are seeing the "view" image, and not the picture itself, due to software incompatibility. I use the XNview (XNView.com) free media package, which has every picture format known to man built in, BUT: you need to go through the myriad of settings in fine detail to find "your" camera format, if you don't take the time to do that, it will not work. Good luck.

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Grey bar on photo's
May 7, 2010 10:25AM PDT

HI , I had the same problem and this was my solution.
The pictures have to be stored in the same software program that produced them.
Kodak pic's taken with a Kodak camera downloaded onto your computer into the Kodak EasyShare software , now if you want to store them on an External HD you must also store them on the Kodak Software on your EHD.
This solved my problem , hope it helps you.

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Digital photos stored on external drive have gray bars on th
May 7, 2010 10:28AM PDT

That you'll never fail to know if a file is changed is an oversimplification. There might have been a problem at some point that damaged the files and there was a notification and scandisk was run. But the user had no ideas which files were "repaired". Often such repairs of files can leave damage to the contents of the file in the process of making the file retriavable.

Please keep in mind that I'm very out of date. I've done many manual drive recoveries and 20 years ago I had thorough knowledge of the various fat file systems. I'm making assumptions that some of the same principles apply in NTFS. And those assumptions are remembered from over 2 decades ago. So please take this as something to consider, not as fact.

Barry

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RE: Digital photos stored on external drive have gray bars
May 7, 2010 10:34AM PDT

Your photos are likely JPEGs and are missing the latter part of the file or those parts are corrupted. The JPEG header contains enough information for most viewing programs to render as far as it can get, but when it gets to the corrupted/missing part, the viewer displays the grey bar.

If you were to send an image to someone with a hex editor and who knows what they're looking for, he or she could let you know if the file is truncated or corrupted.

Often happens if there is an interruption during file writing (i.e. saving to hd or copying/moving from someplace else).

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Incompleted photos
May 7, 2010 11:19AM PDT

They are incompleted pics it is the same as downloading pics lets say from a torrent and while they are downloading you can view them from whatever file you are downloading them to and if they are incomplete they either have partitial grey lines or split offset unfinished pics. When the torrent is completed they are normal. So the program has not completed the transfer.

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Troubleshooting
May 7, 2010 11:30AM PDT

I would first try to determine if the problem is really with the images, or whether it can be in the software you use to view the images, or with the computer you are viewing them on.

Copy several of the files from the drive in question to a different drive.

1.- try to open them in several different software packages (Corel Photo Paint, Photoshop, Irfanview etc.) Irfanview is a great, free package for viewing and editing raster images available for download on the irfanview website.

2.- if you still see the stripes, open it on a different computer, to see if it could be a problem with the particular operating system you use.

If the files were getting somehow corrupted on the external drive you have been storing them on, most likely the file woudl not open at all. raster images are not like photographs. If mice eat half the print, the other half is still visible. If a file gets corrupted, it won't work at all.

Can you post one of the problem images or email one to me? rkolarsky@yahoo.com

Cheers,
--Radim

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Gray bars on photos
May 7, 2010 11:49AM PDT

My first action would be to try different picture viewers and editors. Use all that are available in Windows and some of the trial or free picture editors available. I vaguely recall a similar experience a long time ago and seem to remember that one of the file editors would bring up the picture just fine and then, when I would resave it, other editors could view it without the stripes.

JMB

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same issue
May 7, 2010 12:18PM PDT

I've had the same issue with my pictures stored away on a drive. It was mainly that my hard drive was partially currupt that this happened. Another time I had the same issue with pictures on a cd, the cd was very old and scratched and half of the files were unreadable. Again another time this has happened to me after the smart protect on some hard drives signaled a problem on my hard drive. So in general, I think its safe to say that the image files have just become currupt. I dont know in your case is your external itself is currupt, it may just be a couple (or a lot) of files. Unfortunately I lost of a lot of pictures this way on my seagate freeagent external (it was out of the batch of drives that had known issues after a few months use) when after a while things were just getting currupted and eventually i started to see missing files.