Solved How to restore damaged files

[Barbee]

Two years ago my computer crashed. I now have a new hard drive. I had Geek Squad put all my file on a disk, however, a few are damaged. These are genealogy files that took me years to compile. Most are Jpg images of newspaper articles and censuses. I see online a lot of repair programs but when I download them, they only recover one file and then you have to buy it. I would buy it but I can't afford fifty dollars! Are there any cheaper ones or a cheaper way to recover these two folders?

 

[whs]

I would try 2 things

1. Recuva: Download Recuva 1.40.525 - FileHippo.com
2. A live Linux CD

Both options are free.

 

[Barbee]

I downloaded Recuva and all it does it retrieve deleted stuff... my files are in a folder, they are jpgs and my programs that open them say they are not jpgs, but they are. They must be damaged and I need to fix them. I clicked on that folder and ran recuva and it said it found nothing... it was looking for deleted files not damaged ones.

Isn't Linux a network? I don't have Linux.

 

[richc46]

If you put the files on a new hard drive and they are damaged, they are lost, unless you pay for software that can fix the problem. If you had them on the same hard drive where they were originally loacated you could use shadow explorer, but not in this situation.
For future use:
ShadowExplorer.com - About

 

[Barbee]

Such a shame... years of work down the tubes. Thank you for answering.

 

[richc46]

We dont give suggestions for paid software, but you may be able to Google.

 

[Barbee]

I did Google, but don't trust these sites. I'd pay $29 but not $49... my retirement social security won't stretch that far. They only allow you to do one file and then you have to pay. What if I buy it and it doesn't work?

 

[richc46]

It is because of questions like that, we dont suggest. The members would feel awful if we suggested something and you got ripped off. In regards to your question, I dont know.

 

[whs]

Isn't Linux a network? I don't have Linux.

Linux is an Operating System and it is free. You can try this: Computer First Aid Using Knoppix

Note: Knoppix is just one version of Linux. There are many others. The most used is Ubuntu. When you download the .iso (Knoppix or Ubuntu), you have to burn it to a CD and then load from the CD reader.