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Question

No Image Transfer

Mar 5, 2018 5:50AM PST

Images saved on one PC and transported to another PC via memory stick are not accessible. It also happens in reverse. Images saved on my office desktop, transferred to a memory stick, and then plugged into my home laptop, both PC, appear as blank icons (no access to images). Images saved on my home laptop, transferred to a memory stick, and then plugged into my office desktop also appear as blank icons. Surely I'm missing a setting or something?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: setting
Mar 5, 2018 5:59AM PST

No, there is no setting for such.

Either
1. You do something wrong (for example, copying a shortcut in stead of a picture), or
2. Something is wrong with your USB stick or
3. Something is wrong with the PC's and laptop.

#3 is unlike, so it's #1 or #3. Your task now to find out which of the two.

Is the file size on the stick the same as the file size on the hard disk?
Is the full filename (including the extension .jpg) the same?

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Simple Drag to Copy/Paste
Mar 5, 2018 7:48AM PST

It is very possible I copied a shortcut. I saved a series of images in a folder on my office desktop. I dragged that folder to the memory stick. All images were visible in the folder on the memory stick before I pulled it. I then went home and stuck the memory stick in my laptop. When I opened the folder, the jpeg icons did not appear as pictures, rather as the standard Windows 10 image icon. I could not 'open with' or in any other way access the image.

http://www.intowindows.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Thumbnails-now-showing-in-Windows-10-file-explorer_thumb.png

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Re: copy
Mar 5, 2018 11:18AM PST

Sorry to see you don't answer my questions. Let me repeat them:

1. Is the file size [of all copied files] on the stick the same as the file size on the hard disk?
2. Is the full filename (including the extension .jpg) the same?

You have to go into Detail View in (File) Explorer and set the options to show file extensions to answer this questions, I'm afraid. If that's asked too much, better ask local help.

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Answers
Mar 5, 2018 12:13PM PST

Sorry, yes to both of your questions. I didn't know you expected answers. I followed your suggestions/questions, compared the file sizes and file names, and finding them consistent, didn't think it necessary to provide you with an answer. You don't need to be condescending.

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Re: file sizes
Mar 5, 2018 12:51PM PST

If the file extensions and the file sizes are the same, as you say now, and the files still they can't be read on another PC, it must be the contents that's different.
The only way I know to look at the content is using a hex editor. I recommend HxD (free from https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/). View the original on the source PC, the copy on the stick on a laptop next to it. Start at the top, and page down until the end.

I didn't mean to be condescending. We're seeing here people with different compentencies. Generally, people who talk about icons and not about file sizes and extensions are more or less beginners and need other help than just the question "Did you check the original and the copy are the same?"

You wrote "It is very possible I copied a shortcut." A shortcut, indeed, is visible on the source PC, but points to nothing elsewhere, so is expected to give strange results. But File Explorer and especially dir from the command prompt immediately show the difference.
However, your answer didn't give me the idea you checked that. And that made me think you didn't know how to do that. Sorry if I was wrong.

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Thank You
Mar 5, 2018 1:02PM PST

Thank you. I will look into the hex editor. My sudden doubt about whether or not I simply copied a shortcut versus actual documents has more to do the distinct possibility that I was likely not paying much attention at the time, because all too often I am not. I do a lot of crap without paying a lot of attention. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

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Yes, shortcuts, I suspect ...
Mar 7, 2018 2:42AM PST

There may even be a setting somewhere in Windows that says "If I copy files within this computer let's just create a shortcut instead." Wouldn't be terribly helpful, especially if the destination is on a removable device, but I wouldn't put it beyond them ...

Anyone know ore about this?

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Different Memory Stick
Mar 5, 2018 8:14AM PST

I dragged/copied the folder onto another memory stick but received the following error on the images that appear only as the JPG/PNG icon: 'The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.' I took both memory sticks to a colleague's desktop where the same images from my home laptop are not accessible on his computer as well.

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Instead Of An Entire Group Of Pics, Do Them One At A Time
Mar 5, 2018 6:09PM PST

If there is one corrupted file in a group of pictures, it can mess up the copy/paste of the entire folder. So, copy them over in a small bunch at a time.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Answer
A test
Mar 5, 2018 6:52AM PST

Save an image on a stick.
Eject the stick.
Insert the stick.
Verify the image is on the stick.

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Answer
The "shortcut" answer is likely to be "it."
Mar 7, 2018 2:37AM PST

I am not sure how you managed to do that, but that is not terribly relevant just yet.

If you haven't got a hex editor handy, try notepad, like this:

Start Notepad - if you don't have your favourite way of doing that, go to whatever does the job of the start button on your computer and click the "run" option. A "command line" will open, Enter "notepad.exe" (with or without the quotes, should both work.) Notepad will pop up. Drag the name of a JPG file into it (or use the "file -> open" menu to navigate to one.) What you will see is not going to look terribly pretty. Hence my advice: Don't under any circumstances allow Notepad to save this mess back over the existing image! DON'T SAVE!!! Okay?

Now look at the mess: Do you see the characters "JFIF" or "EXIF" anywhere near the beginning of this file? Is there enough "mess" to fill the screen - and more? If yes you are looking at the picture. This file will display properly on any computer that has some image display software installed - in fact, a browser will do.

If however you see what looks like the path to the image including the image's file name and the "JPG" extension (typically double spaced seemingly interspersed with blanks) then you are looking at a shortcut. If you try to view the image using this Windows will point the viewing program at the path you have just seen. If at that path location the image can be found you will see it, if not you will encounter some error condition.

Now here's the logic: If the path in the shortcut says, for instance, "C:\FOTOS\MyPic.jpg" and at that location on the C drive there is indeed such a file the shortcut points at it and all is well. Nw, if that shortcut file is on your stick and you carry it to another PC it will still point at "C;\FOTOS\MyPic.jpg" - except that on this other PC it is unlikely that such a file will reside at that location. If it did you would be shown that file, which, of course, could be an entirely different picture, just under the same name.

So, that is what happens if you copy shortcuts around instead of the actual pictures. Shortcuts to files are usually much smaller than the files themselves, which is why they are sometimes useful. It can also be helpful if you have various places on a computer where you need to reference a file that gets updated a lot. Copies of that file in various locations would all have to be updated along with it, but shortcuts stay current, since they redirect your software to the only real file that there is.

But, as you can see, shortcuts carried to other computers can be a major disappointment. (They would work okay if they pointed at a shared network drive that is accesses via the same drive letter from all your computers.)

So, let's use this method to verify that the files you are copying are actual images and not shortcuts to start with. Then let's verify that what's on your stick is actual image files and not shortcuts. Once we have ascertained that that is the case, there is actually no excuse anymore for the files not working on the destination PC.

The only way I can imagine you could be copying shortcuts is that your source files are actually shortcuts already. If your start button menu shows a "recent files" category - that one is full of shortcuts to files all over your computer that you have accessed recently. But they are just shortcuts. If you wanted to copy all your recently accessed files to your stick you would have to locate each of these files individually and copy them from their actual location.

Okay, go have a look and let us know what you find!