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Corrupt File
Recovery Quick Links

Word Processor File
Corruption Recovery Freeware

Spreadsheet File Corruption
Recovery Freeware

  • http://www.adrc.net/data_recovery_resources/
    library_topic/office_tips... - MS Office corruption tips.

  • http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010346561033.aspx - Overview of Microsoft recommended steps for recovering a file.

  • http://www.s2services.com/excel.htm - My steps you can try to recover an unopenable or corrupt Excel spreadsheet.

  • http://groups.google.com/group/
    microsoft.public.excel.misc/browse_thr... - Similar to my steps above.

  • http://skp.mvps.org/wrd00015.htm - If you are one of those brave souls who believe in saving only at the end of the job then you are in deep trouble when Word crashes/hangs. Yet, you may be able to recover it or at least some part of it."

  • http://chicago.sourceforge.net/xlhtml/ - The xlHtml program will take an Excel 95, or 97 file as input and convert it to highly optimized html.

  • http://www.45.free.net/~vitus/ice/catdoc/ - CatDoc is now accompanied by xls2csv - program which converts Excel spreadsheet into comma-separated value file."

  • http://download.microsoft.com/download/excel97win/
    util/1/win98/en-us/... - If you can open the workbook in Microsoft Excel 97, you can use the Microsoft Excel 97 File Recovery Macro to re-create Excel worksheets, XLM macro sheets, and module sheets in a new workbook.

  • http://www.s2services.com/hosted-freeware/bytefix.zip - "The BYTEFIX utility is designed to address a situation in which 123 Release 5 for Windows (123W) is unable to open certain corrupted .WK4 files. Under a particular set of circumstances, which are unrelated to the operation of 123W, data files of different types are corrupted when extra bytes (characters) are appended to the end of the file. 123W is unable to read a .WK4 file that has been corrupted in this fashion; consequently, the program generates an "Error Reading File" message. BYTEFIX is designed specifically for those .WK4 files that have been corrupted by the additional bytes appended to the end of the file. Important : BYTEFIX does not correct 123W files which generate the "Error Reading File" message but have been corrupted by other circumstances (such as disk-write caching, magnets, incompatible network software and so forth)."

  • http://www.s2services.com/hosted-freeware/backfour.zip - Richard Warr developed the BackFour WK4 file recovery program back in 1996. The software is able to overcome most problems encountered with corrupt WK4 files by converting them back to the simpler WK3 format.

  • http://www.s2services.com/hosted-freeware/FIXWK4.zip - In January of 1994 reports appeared in the press saying that users of 1-2-3 were experiencing file problems. Issues like this are not widespread but when they do occur are most often are not caused by 1-2-3. File problems can result from magnets, disk write caching, certain network software, etc. Lotus has tracked these issues and found in a very few cases 1-2-3 is inadvertently saving files which cause a General Protection Fault (GPF) when the files are opened. The enclosed utility (FIXWK4.EXE) can be used to correct problems with files that are causing GPF's if the problem was caused by this one issue that has been identified by Lotus. All the data in the file should be intact.

  • http://www.s2services.com/hosted-freeware/kvlot32.exe - will open Lotus 123 files including possibly corrupt ones.

Presentation Corruption
Recovery Freeware

Structured Storage File/Ole 2/Doc File Viewers - Take
Apart Files Into Their Text, Images, Maybe VBA Etc.

Office File Viewers - May sometimes
open files when native app cannot

A corrupt file recovery trick is to open the files in another office suite's programs. Try below for some free ones:

Web Based Suites

Freeware Office Suites

Online Stand-Alone
Word Processors

Freeware Stand-Alone
Word Processors

  • http://www.abisource.com/ - AbiWord is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft® Word. It is suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks.

  • http://www.rssol.com/shared/download/exec/
    atlant10n_en.exe - Atlantis Nova is a full-featured user-friendly Word Processor with the power and functionality to satisfy the most demanding word processing tasks effortlessly.

  • http://cryptedit.chat.ru/ - Crypt Edit is one of the most powerful freeware word processors. It is a nice replacement for the standard Windows NotePad and WordPad.

  • http://www.hushpage.com/Delphad/delphad.html - Delphad supposed to be a Word Pad replacement, because it includes all the word pad features plus plenty of additional functions. With Delphad you can almost open any file, edit text or rtf, open Word Docs.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieroglyph_word_processor - Hieroglyph is a freeware Russian language word processor written by Michael Morozov. It supports typing in both English and Russian, including using English letters to type in Russian by transliteration with automatic conversion to Russian alphabet.

  • http://www.jarte.com/features.html - built around Wordpad engine with extra features.

  • http://www.xtort.net/xtort/qjot.php - QJot is a relatively small alternative rich text editor that saves .doc files, inserts images and more. It is basically meant to serve as a good WordPad replacement. It supports Unicode and runs under Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Its native format is RTF, but it can open, edit and save Word and WordPerfect files (though not with all of their features).

Online Stand-Alone Spreadsheets

Freeware Stand-Alone Spreadsheets

Freeware Stand-Alone Presentation Apps

Freeware File Viewers (sometimes
corrupt office files will open here)

Access Database Repair

  • http://accesstools.narod.ru/repair.html - Serge Gavrilov's Access Database Repair Steps.

  • http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/corruptmdbs.htm - Corrupt Microsoft Access MDBs FAQ.

  • http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/corruption/
    corruptobjects.htm - To Retrieve your data from a Corrupt Microsoft Access MDB.

  • http://www.ally.ru/downloads.phtml?id=1&page=1&lang=eng - "This software is meant to restore corrupted MS Access databases. After have been run, it attempts to extract all integral information. All the information that had escaped destruction, is stored inside a new database."

  • http://www.accessdatabaserepair.com/jetcomp.htm - "The Jet compact utility, JETCOMP.exe, is a stand-alone utility that compacts databases created with Microsoft Jet database engine 3.x and 4.x. This utility may be run in conjunction with Microsoft Jet database engine 3.x and 4.x for recovering corrupted databases."

  • http://www.division-by-zero.de/dbz/index.asp?main=/dbz/tools/fixit_ma... - MDB repair and compress.

  • http://www.matpie.drw.net/PBSystems/products/
    retired/MDBDeco.html - "MDB Decompiler is a simple tool used to decompile a Microsoft Access mdb file (A97 or A2000). Typically, an Access database grows over time due to updates, deletes, and additions. With updates and deletes, data is discarded but not removed. Typically, a compact database operation will remove cleanup and remove this extraneous data."

  • http://www.matpie.drw.net/PBSystems/products/
    retired/MDBRepair.html - "Microsoft Access databases can become corrupt to the point that a standard repair or compact will not fix the problem. MDB files this badly damaged can only be fixed with a compact-repair-compact cycle. Some MDB files may be even worse, to the point that they will continually re-corrupt unless you rebuild all objects by exporting them all into a blank database, finishing with another compact. MDB Repair Tool automates this repair process for you on otherwise unrecoverable MDB files." - Only Access 97.

  • http://www.matpie.drw.net/PBSystems/products/
    retired/MDBTask.html - allows you to schedule mdb repair.

  • http://accesstools.narod.ru/index.html - "This small utility is intended for decrypting databases created by MS Access 95/97/2000. This can be useful if the encrypted database has been damaged and can't be restored by authorized tools and it is necessary to get the contents of the database's file decrypted for further recovering."

  • http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/freeware.htm - "Perform compact and repair on all your Access .mdb files, Create an index of all Tables and Fields in your databases, and Create an index of all Queries in your databases." Comment - Will not let you repair a file that Access can't repair because it seems to require Access (it opened it on my machine before appearing), but if you have a need to perform mass compact and repairs this is it.

  • http://www.simtel.net/product.php%5Burl_fb_product_page%5D29904 - "MS Access 2.0: Repair & backup utility."

  • http://www.alexnolan.net/software/
    mdb_viewer_plus.htm - "MDB Viewer Plus is a freeware viewer plus an editor for Access MDB files. It requires no install to run provided that Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) is installed on your PC (In most versions of Windows this is the case). MDB View Plus has been written to provide a free and quick easy way to view, edit and search MDB files without having Microsoft Access installed. It is not a full database development solution but does allow you to view MDB files without an Access license." Viewers can sometimes open corrupt files.

  • http://www.matsoftware.it/software/utility/
    mdb_view_en.php - "MDB View is a very useful software that allows you to view mdb files on system without Microsoft Access installed. All you need are the MDAC 2.1 components or higher ( that you can get for free on Microsoft download page )." Try opening a corrupt Access file in this viewer here.

  • http://www.jansfreeware.com/
    jfdatabase.htm#myMDB - "myMDB is a client for Microsoft Jet Databases (*.mdb) and requires the free MDAC 2.1 components from Microsoft. Features: auto-form, form designer,
    html-reports with print preview, integral html-viewer, integral syntax highlighted SQL and HTML editor, integral SQL tutorial, execute SQL statements, sample JanSoft database." Another MDB viewer.

  • http://www.trigeminal.com/lang/

  • 1033/utility.asp?ItemID=16#16 - Have you ever found yourself with a database that has a password on it, yet you never set one? You may be suffering from the problem in Q243895. Basically, opening an Access file in Word can hopelessly corrupt it. Well now, the simple utility TSI Word to the Wise prevents these files from being opened and saved in Word 2000.

  • http://www.mvps.org/access/modules/mdl0061.htm - prevents Access files from being opened in Word, causing corruption.

  • http://www.bullzip.com/products/a2m/info.php - try converting corrupt Access database to MySQL.

Paradox Database Repair

SQL Type Database Repair

DBF Type Database Repair

  • http://www.chaossoftware.com/products.asp - "While database damage is a rare occurrence, this database repair utility can help bring many problem databases back to good working order. Works with ISAM databases used in many of our products." Comment - According to here, the definition of ISAM databases is: "ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) refers to indexed databases such as Btrieve, dBASE, FoxPro and Paradox."

  • http://stofi.host.sk/en_titan.htm - "This small program can save our data from damaged disk DBF file. Any disturbance in power outlet or switching PC off in the inappropriate time can damage our files. DBF files used by XBase, Clipper Fox Pro or FORCE are sensitive to changes in file header. After a unnecessary change of one byte in header is this file no more accessible by our programs."

  • http://cratchit.org/download/index.htm - FIXDBF.ZIP "Broken headers in XBase have caused as much consternation as any other "feature" of the language. It's a unique situation in which a networking problem has caused the program to lock up between the time a record is written and the header is updated. It's so prevalent that Visual FoxPro 5.0 now AUTOMATICALLY performs fixes of the header. However, versions prior to that don't, so I wrote this. It's an interactive data file scanner/fixer that will repair broken headers and allow you to BROWSE the broken file PRIOR to fixing it! In addition, it will analyze the damage and will refuse to "repair" a file that is broken in some way other than having a broken header (if this is the case it will suggest the proper utility to use to fix the problem!)"

  • http://cratchit.org/download/index.htm - RETROPSNART - "When FoxPro version 2.5 was introduced, there was a utility called the "transporter" included. This converted your FoxPro 2.0 code to version 2.5. Unfortunately, the process was one way. While working under a tight deadline I found the hard way that the FoxPro 2.5 memory manager was not compatible with the LIM expanded memory that we had to use under Alloy's operating system. So, the "reverse transporter" was born. Retropsnart converts all of FoxPro's system components from version 2.5 or 2.6 to version 2.0. It's also available in the FoxPro Forum on CompuServe."

  • http://cratchit.org/download/index.htm - SHIFTDBF.ZIP - "This fixes one of the most frustrating and flat-out weird problems I've run into yet. There are cases where the data in DBF files can be shifted out of their fields. The data in the record is actually rotated a number of characters left or right while remaining within the record. This rotation occurs on a byte level, without regard to the data types of the fields in the affected record. The damage occurs to specific records, not all records in the file."

  • http://www.alexnolan.net/software/dbf.htm - The idea here is that a corrupt DBF file might open in this program if nowhere else. After that data can be exported to a CSV file.

  • http://www.jansfreeware.com/jfdatabase.htm#mydbf - "myDBF 3 is a small database program that can handle DBase IV files. FEATURES: Form designer, HTML template based reports, integral syntax highlighted HTML editor, zoomable print preview, integral HTML 3.2 viewer, table designer, smart filter, mail merge. INCLUDED: jansoft sample database, form, report and help file; janScript support. NEW: Cascading Style Sheet support for reports."

  • http://alxsoft.narod.ru/ENG/dbfnav.htm - "DBF Navigator is a Windows utility for viewing and editing DBF files....The program does not use external drivers for access to databases (for example ODBC, BDE, MS Jet) additional libraries (dll, ocx)."

  • http://alxsoft.narod.ru/ENG/mdxview.htm - "MDXView is a Windows utility for viewing index files dBASE IV, dBASE 5.x (.MDX)."

  • http://www.burtonsys.com/ - "Convert .DBF files to .CSV text (comma-separated values). Includes Perl source code, and 3 tiny Perl interpreters. New to v.5: it now handles FoxPro's 'I' (binary integer) and 'M' (memo) fields. New to v.6: now translates nearly all PC850 accented characters (thanks to Jacky Bruno and David Marin)."

Misc. Database Repair

Outlook Repair

  • http://www.data-recovery-service.com/pst-file-recovery/2006/05/pst-fi... - various pst/Outlook file recovery freeware (there are 6-8 of them).

  • http://www.slipstick.com/
    problems/scanpst.htm - how to use the default Windows installed scanpst applet to recover corrupt Outlook files. \\Your OS Disk\Program Files\CommonFiles\SYSTEM\MSMAPI\1033\
    SCANPST.EXE - may be the location of scanpst on your computer. It is an easy quick start at corruption repair. Do a search for scanpst.exe if its not.

  • http://www.slipstick.com/problems/repair2gbpst.htm - Instructions on how to repair Outlook 2002 and below pst files that have gotten over 2 GB in size.

  • http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=296088 - Oversized PST and OST crop tool.

  • http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=5120 - An Outlook personal folder (.pst) file that exceeds the 2 gigabyte (GB) size limit is unusable. Download PSTsize, authored by Harry Bates, to report the when a .pst file exceeds the limit that you set.

  • http://outport.sourceforge.net/ - "Outport aims to be a generic program for exporting data from Outlook (Outlook + export = Outport. Original eh? :-) ) to various email/pim programs. It currently it can export to
    the Contact, Calendar and Task formats of Evolution, plus a number of generic formats supported by Outlook itself (Rich Text Format, HTML, vCalendar, vCard, iCalendar, etc). I've tested this with Outlook 2000 and most releases of Evolution 1.0.x and 1.2.x. I have not tested this with any other version of Outlook. I've received some reports of success with Outlook XP (and some bugs)."

Outlook Express Repair

Thunderbird, Eudora,
GroupWise, Pegasus, Pine,
Lotus Note and Domino Recovery

Chat Repair

  • http://www.dark-e.com/products.shtml - Chat Recovery is a program we created to recover and move chat accounts. This version can now recover the buddy list for each account. Note that this product only recovers this info off your computer, it does not do this to a remote computer, or anyone on your buddy list.

Misc. E-mail Repair

  • http://www.gaijin.at/dlimmxtr.php - IncrediMail Message Extractor.

  • http://www.pchell.com/ - Everyone has been to PC Hell at one time or another. It's that place you visit when your personal computer is driving you insane with problems, glitches, and so on. To try to soothe the frustration, we'll provide some tips, hints, and troubleshooting remedies to help you get out of PC Hell. Be warned however, sometimes there is no exit....

  • http://www.securitysoftware.cc/apps.html - corrupt files in predictable ways then uncorrupt them.

Corrupt Image Repair

  • http://www.floborecovery.com/ - "Flobo PSD Recovery is a UNIQUE FREE application that performs recovery of PSD Photoshop file format to new jpg files. If your graphic files needed for your web site or graphic designed are corrupted this is the right solution."

  • http://www.s2services.com/jpg-repair.zip - "...During my testing, I discovered that by adding one byte at a certain position in the jpg file the corrupted picture was restored. So all we need is a tool that would add a byte at a user-defined position. JPEG-Repair, the program I wrote, will allow you to do this..."

  • http://ddsv2.xhost.ro/ - I don't know how to use it but there is a JPG artifact remover on the "Effects" Menu of DDS, under the Retouch entry. By the way another kind of repair that can be done on JPGs is deconvolution, which is a way to get rid of motion blur in these images. My experience with both of these, just hacking really though, is it doesn't work very well.

  • http://filerecovery.biz/files/hosted-freeware/zefrjpg.zip - "Demand continues for this widely used tool, which recovers JPG images after they have been lost to a LoveLetter worm attack (or any other reason). Archive now includes an NTFS version along with the FAT version. Millions (by now perhaps billions) of files have been successfully recovered by ZefrJPG over the years."

  • http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/
    astifftagviewer.html - "It does not contain an actual pixel color data codec, and thus it is not sensitive to raster encoding and decoding issues, making it the ideal superfast and robust solution for discovering what TIFF tags and values are actually present in any TIFF file. Whenever a customer reports your software doesn't handle this or that particular TIFF, use AsTiffTagViewer and discover why." May help with TIFF Files that appear to be corrupt or otherwise won't open in certain programs. Appears to be an expert level program.

  • http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/hotpixels.htm - " Hot pixels is a known problem of all CCD cameras during long exposures (1s and up). A hot pixel is created by an element with a higher rate of charge leakage than its neighbors. On long exposure the leakage may cross the exposed value threshold thus producing a white dot on the image. HotPixels, the program removes such noise with preserving details."

  • http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/
    blackframe.htm - "Hot pixels is a known problem of all CCD cameras during long exposures (1s and up). A hot pixel is created by an element with a higher rate of charge leakage than its neighbors. On long exposure the leakage may cross the exposed value threshold thus producing a white dot on the image. BlackFrame NR uses a black-frame method to removes such noise with preserving all details."

  • http://luminous-landscape.com/contents/DNG-Recover-Edges.shtml - Solving a problem that few people knew even existed, Thomas Knoll, one of the original authors of Photoshop, and the creator of Adobe's Camera Raw, has written a free utility program which recovers all of the pixels that any supported digital camera records, whether it's hidden edges or intentionally cropped formats."

  • http://udpix.free.fr/ - "This program helps to locate and fix LCD screens dead pixels. You can fix the stuck pixels by calling them to do rapid changes. You need to run this program for a couple of hours. There is no warranty on the result, but you don't really have anything to lose trying it out."

Corrupt Video Repair

  • http://www.divx-digest.com/software/divfix.html - "This program was created to be able to watch partially downloaded DivX (AVI) movies. It can rebuild or strip the index part of the movie, which is at the end of the file. There are also a basic error detection, which can detect serious errors in the audio/video stream."

  • http://divxrepair.sourceforge.net/ - "Using DivXRepair, you can repair corrupt avi files and eliminate freezes. This program automatically detects and eliminates bad frames."

  • http://paul.glagla.free.fr/filmerit_en.htm#Lecteur - fix corrupt DirectShow filters

  • http://www.virtualdub.org/index - "VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms(95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images."

  • http://www.stokebloke.com/software/
    index.php#overnetjoiner - "Overnet Joiner tries to take *.part files and make a usable joined file. This will normally only work on files which can tolerate missing bits. Like AVI or MPG files. The first part (1.1.part) must have the header information for the files to be playable. If part 1.1 is missing Overnet Joiner will not work. "

  • http://proletsoft.freeservers.com/mmb/steeper.html - "Steeper enables you to repair, modify, join and cut out fragments from ASF and WMV files. It is based upon and is using ASFCut, a command line utility by RadioActive. Steeper requires Window Media Services at least with version 9.0."

Corrupt Music File Repair

Dedicated Zip Repair
Functionality Freeware

Zip Suites With
Repair Functionality

Specialized and Misc
Zip Repair Apps

  • http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/hacking/
    download.html - "I had a jaz drive cartridge sector go bad on me, corrupting my most recent backup during an OS upgrade. Thus was born this small project, which automates the recovery of files and data out of corrupted gzip and tar files. This was a lifesaver to say the least."

  • http://www.ntutility.com/freeware_2.html - "SEA is a free utility that lets you repair self-extracting ZIP files created by Winzip. It rebuilds a file's header if it were damaged by a virus or download corruption. The process is fully automatic and returns a message indicating the level of success achieved. Tested with WinZip Self-Extractor Personal Edition (1285) and WinZip Self-Extractor 2.1."

  • http://www.securitysoftware.cc/apps.html - This simple program can be used to ->predictably<- corrupt and then repair a file. I use this to add an additional layer of security to password protected zip files and other types of encrypted files.

  • http://legroom.net/modules.php?op=modload&name
    =Open_Source&file=index... - extract individual files from archives of many types, perhaps including corrupt ones.

Fix Windows
Help Problems

  • http://dougknox.com/utility/scripts/fixwinmehelp.vbs - "This VB Script will restore the associations for Windows Help (Millennium version) that Easy Cleaner removes. Your antivirus software may report
    this script as potentially malicious, or a possible virus. This is because the script writes to the System Registry."

  • http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/
    fix_windows_xp_help.htm - "This small VB 6 utility will restore the associations for Windows® XP Help and Support that Easy Cleaner removes. Other registry "cleaners" can cause the same problem." (For XP)

Fix Windows
Logon Problems

Font Folder Repair

Icon and
Desktop Repair

  • http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_showdesktop.htm - "This utility will allow you to quickly and easily restore the Show Desktop icon to your Quick Launch bar. This utility is freeware."

  • http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_aifw.html - "ActivIcons makes it simple to change properties for various icons on your Windows desktop and in Explorer, plus attributes for many other desktop settings. You can save and restore the desktop layout, repair corrupted icons, increase the size of the Windows icon cache to prevent future problems, and much more.

  • http://camtech2000.net/Pages/Useful.html - "You may have noticed that sometimes the Desktop and Windows Explorer start to display the wrong Icons for some file types. Running RefreshEm when they do repairs the Windows Icon Cache so that the proper ones are immediately displayed. It does not stay in memory, immediately terminates after using it and has no visible Window. Just click or double click the Icon each time you want to refresh the icons."

  • http://dougknox.com/utility/scripts/drives.vbs - Restores the Open and Explore options on Start Button in Win95/98

Internet Explorer and
Networking Repair

Explorer and My
Computer Repair

Auto-Play Repair

Permissions and
Association Repair

  • http://djlizard.net/tech/repair-permissions-associations/ - "Much like Mac OS X, Windows XP can suffer from permissions problems (in the file system, registry, or other objects) which can be easily solved by applying the default permissions that originally came with the operating system. The tools required to repair the permissions are standard in Windows XP Professional, but they are not present in Windows XP Home. I have included all you will need in order to perform this repair..."

  • http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/
    fix_windows_xp_help.htm - "This small VB 6 utility will restore the associations for Windows® XP Help and Support that Easy Cleaner removes. Other registry "cleaners" can cause the same problem."

  • http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/
    xp_sysrestore_blank.htm - "This small GUI (Graphical User Interface) utility will check the Registry associations that cause this problem (Fix System Restore Calendar), and notify you if they need to be corrected. You will then have the opportunity to correct them, by clicking the Repair button. This application is freeware."

  • http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/SysRestoreCalendar.zip - This small GUI (Graphical User Interface) utility will check the Registry associations that cause this problem, and notify you if they need to be corrected. You will then have the opportunity to correct them, by clicking the Repair button.

  • http://dougknox.com/utility/scripts/fixpix_2k.vbs - This is a Visual Basic Script file which will restore the File Associations for various image files, so that they can be previewed in Windows Explorer when View As Web Page is enabled. Third party image programs often change these values, and break the "Image Preview" in Windows Explorer. This script will also repair the Registry associations for Thumbnail View mode, since they often get damaged at the same time.

  • http://dougknox.com/utility/scripts/fixpix.vbs - (for Win 98/ME) - This is a Visual Basic Script file which will restore the File Associations for various image files, so that they can be previewed in Windows Explorer when View As Web Page is enabled. Third party image programs often change these values, and break the "Image Preview" in Windows Explorer. This script will also repair the Registry associations for Thumbnail View mode, since they often get damaged at the same time.

CHK File Identifiers

  • http://www.ericphelps.com/uncheck/ - "So what is a CHK file? Well, any time a program or Windows crashes, any files that were open are not closed properly. Part of closing is writing all the file location information in all the right places. Without this info, Windows can't find all the parts of the file. When SCANDISK or CHKDISK is run, all the parts are identified as "lost file fragments" and converted (if you want) into CHK files. Face it. Stuff crashes all the time. If you only run SCANDISK once a month, you get a month's worth of old crash junk. If you were working on (and lost) something important just before a crash, you might want to try to recover any data from any CHK files that exist. On the other hand, if you aren't in a state of panic over lost data, just delete any CHK files. A handy tip: Keep your disk defragmented. That way if you ever do lose it all, the lost file fragments will be more likely to be complete files. Important: Save yourself some trouble. The CHK file recovery programs offered here do not "recover" files. They simply rename them to have the correct extension!"

  • http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/zchkmate.htm - "CHK-Mate will examine the contents of the CHK files and determine if the contents are known file types, such as MS-Word files or GIF files. When contents are recognized (for example, as a Word document), the CHK files are copied to a new file with the correct file extension (Filexxxx.CHK -> Filexxxx.DOC). The new file extension allows you to easily open the file using the associated program."

  • http://www.garykessler.net/library/file_sigs.html - FILE SIGNATURES TABLE. Identify files by looking at the first few bytes.

Windows and Office
Key Identifiers

  • http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.html - "The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder is a freeware utility that retrieves your Product Key (cd key) used to install Windows from your registry. It has the options to copy the key to clipboard, save it to a text file, or print it for safekeeping. It works on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP /Server 2003, Office 97, and Office XP. This version is a quick update to make it work with Windows Server 2003."

  • http://korben.othersystem.net/web/RockXP.html - "RockXP allows you to retrieve and change your XP product key that you used when you installed Windows XP. This can come very handy if you need to reinstall but have misplaced or lost the CD cover with the serial sticker. In addition, the program also lets you save the product activation to a file, enables you to recover usernames and passwords contained in the Windows Secure Storage, recover your Microsoft Windows Products keys and have password generator."

  • http://dougknox.com/utility/scripts/productkey.vbs - Productkey.vbs is a Visual Basic Script file which will check your System Registry and retrieve the product (CD) Key that was used when you installed Windows 95/98/98SE/Millennium.

Misc. Single Windows
Problem Repair

  • http://software.hitoma.com/WURT/download.htm - "WURT works by simply repairing anything Windows Update is dependant on. For example, WU depends heavily on Internet Explorer. IE depends on many other Windows functions, which have other dependencies."

  • http://paul.glagla.free.fr/filmerit_en.htm#Lecteur - fix corrupt DirectShow filters.

  • http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/SysRestoreCalendar.zip - This small GUI (Graphical User Interface) utility will check the Registry associations that cause this problem, and notify you if they need to be corrected.
    You will then have the opportunity to correct them, by clicking the Repair button.

  • http://www.moreal.net/cr.htm - Clipboard Recovery 2.0

  • http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install.

  • http://dougknox.com/xp/utils/
    xp_sysrestore_blank.htm - "This small GUI (Graphical User Interface) utility will check the Registry associations that cause this problem (Fix System Restore Calendar), and notify you if they need to be corrected. You will then have the opportunity to correct them, by clicking the Repair button. This application is freeware."

  • http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm - This application allows you to Repair and Customize the Quick Launch, Taskbar and Notification Area in Windows XP.

  • http://www.fpns.net/willy/msbackup.htm - "This page discusses some of the internal structures I've observed/discovered in the backup programs distributed with the Win32 versions of Microsoft's Windows Operating systems. It also introduces two freely available programs I wrote based on this information to recover data from backup archive files (*.QIC and *.BKF) created with these Windows backup programs. As of 2004 I've made the source code for these programs available under the GNU Public License..."

Freeware for Fixing
Multiple Windows Problems

  • http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm - This application allows you to Repair and Customize the Quick Launch, Taskbar and Notification Area in Windows XP.

  • http://www.download.com/Advanced- WindowsCare/3000-2086-10407614.html - "Slow down, freeze and blue-screen crash are over. Advanced WindowsCare thoroughly examines the Windows system, accurately detects the bottlenecks for slowing down and crashing, fixes these problems and repairs Windows. All work will be done with 30 seconds and 1 click. The intuitive interface makes Advanced WindowsCare the perfect tool for big dummies."

  • http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4054.html - "Designed to provide the user with the best computer experience possible, SmartFix is an all-in-one system and security repair tool that allows you to fix and eliminate the pesky bugs and problems that may slow down your computer via easy one-click menu options and a user-friendly interface."

  • http://djlizard.net/software/dial-a-fix/ - "Dial-a-fix is a collection of 'known fixes' that repair common Windows issues, such as Windows Update, SSL, Microsoft Installer, and other problems. Most of the fixes are found in Microsoft Knowledgebase articles. When you see a list of DLLs that Microsoft is telling you to use REGSVR32 on, chances are they are already included in Dial-a-fix.

Free Site to Help
Troubleshooting Windows

  • http://www.pchell.com/ - Everyone has been to PC Hell at one time or another. It's that place you visit when your personal computer is driving you insane with problems, glitches, and so on. To try to soothe the frustration, we'll provide some tips, hints, and troubleshooting remedies to help you get out of PC Hell. Be warned however, sometimes there is no exit....

  • http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/
    windowsxp/categories/Troubleshoo... - Windows troubleshooting articles.

  • http://www.webtree.ca/ - Windowsxp/repair_xp.htm - XP repair articles.

  • http://www.computerhope.com/index.htm - Computer Hope is a collection of free services that allows any user to access its database of extensive free computer related information. With these resources available, Computer Hope has become a popular destination for end-users as well as computer support facilities for answering computer related questions.

Text Extractors - At
Least get your text back

  • http://docmorph.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/ - The DocMorph Web site allows users to convert files into PDF, TIFF, text, and synthesized speech. The downloadable MyMorph software allows users to mass migrate files to PDF only.

  • http://www.ultima-thule.co.uk/ - TextExtract is a small but powerful program that scans one or more files for text strings, extracts them and saves them into a separate file. Useful if, say, you have a corrupted word processor file, or if you just want to see what text, if any, is inside a file. Configurable extraction. Lovely interface. Very straightforward to use.

  • http://members.fortunecity.com/bigg5/frw/diagn.htm - This allows you to recover the text from a file if nothing else.

Misc. Corrupt File
Recovery Freeware

  • http://www.pchell.com/ - Everyone has been to PC Hell at one time or another. It's that place you visit when your personal computer is driving you insane with problems, glitches, and so on. To try to soothe the frustration, we'll provide some tips, hints, and troubleshooting remedies to help you get out of PC Hell. Be warned however, sometimes there is no exit....

  • http://www.securitysoftware.cc/apps.html - This simple program can be used to ->predictably<- corrupt and then repair a file. I use this to add an additional layer of security to password protected zip files and other types of encrypted files.