Well it definitely was encryption.

Adam - the files didn't show any differently in Windows Explorer or identify them as encrypted in any way, and unfortunately the encryption procedure is completely behind the scenes.

Basically the business laptop automatically encrypts files written to the hard drive and removable media. The program then automatically decrypts it when accessed by the same user. My problem came from when the HD partition table was fixed, my OS assumed I was writing that information and the encryption process started (it runs in the background so it is invisible to the user except for noticing the HD activity).

It's actually a pretty slick encryption program (Credant) and keeps any files from being accessed outside of the company network user base. And of course protects data from stolen laptops, etc.

The program was also set to only encrypt file types that are at risk of having sensitive information ... jpeg files were encrypted but my music files were not.

Anyway - IT has created a solution for me to get them back! And Adam - I will immediately take your advice to enact a thorough and frequent back-up process!

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

Well it definitely was encryption.

Adam / Jume - the files didn't show any differently in Windows Explorer or identify them as encrypted in any way, and unfortunately the encryption procedure is completely behind the scenes. And apparently I can't just decrypt them myself ... it's a more secure encryption policy / program that's setup on my business laptop.

Basically the business laptop automatically encrypts files written to the hard drive and removable media. The program then automatically decrypts it when accessed by the same user. My problem came from when the HD partition table was fixed, my OS assumed I was writing that information and the encryption process started (it runs in the background so it is invisible to the user except for noticing the HD activity).

It's actually a pretty slick encryption program (Credant) and keeps any files from being accessed outside of the company network user base. And of course protects data from stolen laptops, etc.

The program was also set to only encrypt file types that are at risk of having sensitive information ... jpeg files were encrypted but my music files were not.

Anyway - IT has created a solution for me to get them back! And Adam - I will immediately take your advice to enact a thorough and frequent back-up process!

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:18:16 -0700, Michael Thomas wrote:

Well it definitely was encryption.

Adam / Jume - the files didn't show any differently in Windows Explorer or identify them as encrypted in any way, and unfortunately the encryption procedure is completely behind the scenes. And apparently I can't just decrypt them myself ... it's a more secure encryption policy / program that's setup on my business laptop.

Understood. I thought (incorrectly) you were using the build-in
encryption that's part of Vista business and shows encrypted files in
Explorer as green text by default. Glad you finally were able to
recover.

Years back I had a interesting experience with some Norton Encryption
software, that they long ago took off the market. Lucky for me I was
just playing around with it to see how it worked, others weren't so
lucky and couldn't access their data since they had encrypted it and
had no way to get it back. Was a bug in the software that prevented it
from accepting even valid keys.

I was hoping this would solve my issue also, but mine sounds different. My
pictures all open, but they are pixelated and messed up. I do not think my
issue is encryption. How can I upload an example of one of my images for you
to look at?

"Adam Albright" wrote:

On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:18:16 -0700, Michael Thomas wrote:

Well it definitely was encryption.

Adam / Jume - the files didn't show any differently in Windows Explorer or identify them as encrypted in any way, and unfortunately the encryption procedure is completely behind the scenes. And apparently I can't just decrypt them myself ... it's a more secure encryption policy / program that's setup on my business laptop.

Understood. I thought (incorrectly) you were using the build-in
encryption that's part of Vista business and shows encrypted files in
Explorer as green text by default. Glad you finally were able to
recover.

Years back I had a interesting experience with some Norton Encryption
software, that they long ago took off the market. Lucky for me I was
just playing around with it to see how it worked, others weren't so
lucky and couldn't access their data since they had encrypted it and
had no way to get it back. Was a bug in the software that prevented it
from accepting even valid keys.

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:32:04 -0700, tewkes
wrote:

I was hoping this would solve my issue also, but mine sounds different. My
pictures all open, but they are pixelated and messed up. I do not think my
issue is encryption. How can I upload an example of one of my images for you
to look at?

Anyone that doesn't have their own web site to put up images can
always use a free feature of Google called Picasa. Go to the Google
main page, click on 'more' then photos to learn how to set up an
account. Then upload and make them accessible to the public if you
want anyone in the newsgroup to be able to both see and download them.

Adam,

Thanks. I didn't even think of using Picasa. Please check out 5 samples
that I posted as "public". This is a good cross section of what they look
like. Thanks a lot for the help with this. I can't tell you how many hours
I've invested already with no improvements or answers yet.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tewkes/ScrewedUpPics/

Kris

"Adam Albright" wrote:

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:32:04 -0700, tewkes
wrote:

I was hoping this would solve my issue also, but mine sounds different. My
pictures all open, but they are pixelated and messed up. I do not think my
issue is encryption. How can I upload an example of one of my images for you
to look at?

Anyone that doesn't have their own web site to put up images can
always use a free feature of Google called Picasa. Go to the Google
main page, click on 'more' then photos to learn how to set up an
account. Then upload and make them accessible to the public if you
want anyone in the newsgroup to be able to both see and download them.

On Sat, 4 Aug 2007 19:44:00 -0700, tewkes
wrote:

Adam,

Thanks. I didn't even think of using Picasa. Please check out 5 samples
that I posted as "public". This is a good cross section of what they look
like. Thanks a lot for the help with this. I can't tell you how many hours
I've invested already with no improvements or answers yet.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tewkes/ScrewedUpPics/

The dog picture is the most telling. Note how the bottom third of the
picture is shifted to the right and there is a distinct break from
that point where the color values shift as well. Classic signs of the
file being corrupted. You see that a lot due to transmission problems
is you download something off the Internet and you can get if there is
some miss match in color profiles.

So I downloaded a copy and opened it in Photoshop. It reported that
the image has an embedded color profile; sRGB IEC61966-2.1 JE which
happens to be color space Vista will use as default.

I no longer have access to your original post, I clear out old headers
daily, so just guessing...

If you are importing images form a camera or scanner and they only get
messed up if you work or try to view them in some build-in Windows
application like Photo Galley that suggests whatever color space your
importing devices uses isn't converting properly between the
variations in the color spaces, hence you get what you see.

About the only suggestion I can offer is go to Control Panel, Color
Management and under Devices make sure your actual graphic card you
have installed is reflected at the top. You may want to check if there
are newer drivers for it just in case that's causing the problem.

Going further you're getting in the deep end of the pool. You could
look under the All Profiles and Advanced tab in the Color Management
window and see if there are custom profiles listed for other devices
you have like a scanner or printer. I happen to have a whole bunch of
different ones. One of these could be throwing Windows off or there's
just a bug in Vista that it can't handle certain flavors of certain
color profiles. So it may be a matter of trial and error to try to
find out which if any causes problems.

If you use Photoshop or another higher end graphic application you
maybe would get lucky if you change the color space it saves images in
and just that may make the problem go away. There are other older RGB
color profiles that worked fine in prior versions of Windows and the
differences are so slight compared to what Vista wants as default
nobody would probably notice the difference.




Kris

"Adam Albright" wrote:

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:32:04 -0700, tewkes
wrote:

I was hoping this would solve my issue also, but mine sounds different. My
pictures all open, but they are pixelated and messed up. I do not think my
issue is encryption. How can I upload an example of one of my images for you
to look at?

Anyone that doesn't have their own web site to put up images can
always use a free feature of Google called Picasa. Go to the Google
main page, click on 'more' then photos to learn how to set up an
account. Then upload and make them accessible to the public if you
want anyone in the newsgroup to be able to both see and download them.

I tried messing around with the color profiles with no luck. What is odd is
that sometimes it is different pictures (same program). One day a file will
look okay and the next time I open it it's pixelated. Thumbnails always look
good too - even when opened very large.

"Adam Albright" wrote:

On Sat, 4 Aug 2007 19:44:00 -0700, tewkes
wrote:

Adam,

Thanks. I didn't even think of using Picasa. Please check out 5 samples
that I posted as "public". This is a good cross section of what they look
like. Thanks a lot for the help with this. I can't tell you how many hours
I've invested already with no improvements or answers yet.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tewkes/ScrewedUpPics/

The dog picture is the most telling. Note how the bottom third of the
picture is shifted to the right and there is a distinct break from
that point where the color values shift as well. Classic signs of the
file being corrupted. You see that a lot due to transmission problems
is you download something off the Internet and you can get if there is
some miss match in color profiles.

So I downloaded a copy and opened it in Photoshop. It reported that
the image has an embedded color profile; sRGB IEC61966-2.1 JE which
happens to be color space Vista will use as default.

I no longer have access to your original post, I clear out old headers
daily, so just guessing...

If you are importing images form a camera or scanner and they only get
messed up if you work or try to view them in some build-in Windows
application like Photo Galley that suggests whatever color space your
importing devices uses isn't converting properly between the
variations in the color spaces, hence you get what you see.

About the only suggestion I can offer is go to Control Panel, Color
Management and under Devices make sure your actual graphic card you
have installed is reflected at the top. You may want to check if there
are newer drivers for it just in case that's causing the problem.

Going further you're getting in the deep end of the pool. You could
look under the All Profiles and Advanced tab in the Color Management
window and see if there are custom profiles listed for other devices
you have like a scanner or printer. I happen to have a whole bunch of
different ones. One of these could be throwing Windows off or there's
just a bug in Vista that it can't handle certain flavors of certain
color profiles. So it may be a matter of trial and error to try to
find out which if any causes problems.

If you use Photoshop or another higher end graphic application you
maybe would get lucky if you change the color space it saves images in
and just that may make the problem go away. There are other older RGB
color profiles that worked fine in prior versions of Windows and the
differences are so slight compared to what Vista wants as default
nobody would probably notice the difference.




Kris

"Adam Albright" wrote:

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:32:04 -0700, tewkes
wrote:

I was hoping this would solve my issue also, but mine sounds different. My
pictures all open, but they are pixelated and messed up. I do not think my
issue is encryption. How can I upload an example of one of my images for you
to look at?

Anyone that doesn't have their own web site to put up images can
always use a free feature of Google called Picasa. Go to the Google
main page, click on 'more' then photos to learn how to set up an
account. Then upload and make them accessible to the public if you
want anyone in the newsgroup to be able to both see and download them.

My advice: keep jpeg's off of Vista. Either the OS or a new virus
destroyed 5 years of my photos. AVG could not find any virus. YMMV. Rob.
ps. there are JPEG recovery programs but the one I tried worked on only
1/2 the photos.

"Jume" wrote:

just as a little info, i did exactly the same (move big quantity of pictures
from xp to another partition), though most of them were ok, i lost a
complete trip, and over 80% of other misc images that were not photos (and
they are redownloadeable, tx god lol)

curiously, the corrupted images (in the case of the trip, literally
nonexistant, xp did not even copied them, it did just only created the
folder structure and no more), were OUT of "my pictures"

my advice, when moving big quantities of pictures, to every one that want to
move pictures over different partitions with xp (tried with vista and did
not happened, but may as well take the same advice): DONT MOVE, COPY, and
until you are sure they are copied fine, not even think on erasing the
"originals", moreover, do a 2nd copy somewhere else