Unreadable x3f files repair

Couple of days ago, while I shot with DP1s, I found that the pics could not be viewed with the camera. When I returned home and connected the SD card to PC, most files could be copied to PC but were unreadable by SPP. The others could not even be copied from the SD.

It should be a problem of the SD card, this happened before. The other day I mistakenly took it with me.

I later tried to use several software to repair the unreadable files including this one (http://www.x3frepair.com/) but did not work. Then I used “7DataCardRecovery” tried to recover the files from the SD card again. Strangely, the uncopyable files now can be recovered. They are also readable by SPP. The others, still not accessible by SPP.

I traveled a long way from Tokyo to Shirakawago for these pics, I don’t want them to be lost just like that. Here is an example of unreadable x3f RAW. Is it still repairable?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7a8khjc3wh62j1r/SDIM1200.X3F?dl=0

It's hard to say if the X3F files can be repaired.  I would look at the Kalpakana threads and perhaps try using them to open the files...

The other thing to look for is something that would extract the JPG file embedded in the RAW files, so then at least you'd have the base image.

Scythian wrote:

Couple of days ago, while I shot with DP1s, I found that the pics could not be viewed with the camera. When I returned home and connected the SD card to PC, most files could be copied to PC but were unreadable by SPP. The others could not even be copied from the SD.

It should be a problem of the SD card, this happened before. The other day I mistakenly took it with me.

I later tried to use several software to repair the unreadable files including this one (http://www.x3frepair.com/) but did not work. Then I used “7DataCardRecovery” tried to recover the files from the SD card again. Strangely, the uncopyable files now can be recovered. They are also readable by SPP. The others, still not accessible by SPP.

I traveled a long way from Tokyo to Shirakawago for these pics, I don’t want them to be lost just like that. Here is an example of unreadable x3f RAW. Is it still repairable?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7a8khjc3wh62j1r/SDIM1200.X3F?dl=0

Unlikely, I deleted some files on an SD card after taking some shots and then my hard drive crashed. Obviously the files are not really deleted, just the reference to them, so in theory they are easily recoverable. Unfortunately, no matter what I tried I could not recover them from the SD card. I had a similar problem a few years ago and had no problem recovering RAW files from other brands. It seems that X3F files are particularly tricky when there are problems.

Scythian wrote:

Couple of days ago, while I shot with DP1s, I found that the pics could not be viewed with the camera. When I returned home and connected the SD card to PC, most files could be copied to PC but were unreadable by SPP. The others could not even be copied from the SD.

It should be a problem of the SD card, this happened before. The other day I mistakenly took it with me.

I later tried to use several software to repair the unreadable files including this one (http://www.x3frepair.com/) but did not work. Then I used “7DataCardRecovery” tried to recover the files from the SD card again. Strangely, the uncopyable files now can be recovered. They are also readable by SPP. The others, still not accessible by SPP.

I traveled a long way from Tokyo to Shirakawago for these pics, I don’t want them to be lost just like that. Here is an example of unreadable x3f RAW. Is it still repairable?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7a8khjc3wh62j1r/SDIM1200.X3F?dl=0

All the meta data is inaccessible or gone, according to ExifTool.

Without meta-data, the pointers to the image data (thumb, JPEG, raw) are gone

In support of that, FastStone Viewer will neither show a thumbnail nor a JPEG review image.

File size is 13MB - did you shoot low res? If not, the prognosis is not good, sorry.

maceoQ wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

File size is 13MB - did you shoot low res?

Yes, it's a DP1s, its "low resolution" is very well implemented

Nice camera, had one for a while.

I'll try ArvoJ's recovery utility for SD14 on it. Ya never know . . .

. . . .

the good news, courtesy of ArvoJ's 'X3FRestore':

the bad news: nothing I've got will open the X3F so as to see either the raw or the full-size embedded JPEG.

Looks like the image data might be in there somewhere but I lack the hacking expertise to find and display it. Maybe someone else can . . .

Thanks for the attempts. Here are a couple of pics I managed to recover using "7DataCardRecovery".

Nice and quiet village, hope more pics can be eventually repaired.

If that can help, below is a display of the beginning of the data in the top half, and then an undamaged X3F file in the bottom half, with X3F headers and pointers.

Your data looks like compressed chunks with five x"FC FF D9" delimiters, so jpg recovery are more adapted that X3F-oriented tools or utilities as I don't find the common X3F raw section delimiters in the data.

The file 14072352 bytes in size (multiple of 32)

Chris

Hexadecimal view ; top is recovered file, bottom is normal X3F

Scythian wrote:

I traveled a long way from Tokyo to Shirakawago for these pics, I don’t want them to be lost just like that. Here is an example of unreadable x3f RAW. Is it still repairable?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7a8khjc3wh62j1r/SDIM1200.X3F?dl=0

Unfortunately this file is corrupted beyond repair. Thumbnail can be saved, about 20% of JPEG preview image too - but RAW data is gone (or blocks of it are fragmented over entire file, what makes similar result).

You can try my utility for other corrupted files - some of these may contain more recovereable data.

http://www.stv.ee/~donq/sigma/X3Fix-20141124.zip

Unpack both files into same place, run X3Fix.exe. Choose one working X3F file from same camera and of similar shooting conditions for template, select single corrupted file (or entire folder) to recover. My utility saves recovered files under new names, including signature of recovered parts (other parts are copied from template file), like this for example: SDIM1200.__tj_.00.X3F - means that thumbnail and jpeg part are somehow recovered, other parts not.

ArvoJ wrote:

Unfortunately this file is corrupted beyond repair. Thumbnail can be saved, about 20% of JPEG preview image too - but RAW data is gone (or blocks of it are fragmented over entire file, what makes similar result).

Looks the other files are also beyond repair, if I applied your tool correctly.

Most files were classified "medium":

https://www.dropbox.com/s/49ay44wqcvpmu28/SDIM1196.X3F?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ge1mcwir23jrj1/SDIM1199.X3F?dl=0

When tried to open some repaired x3f, I saw the "template" image only. Other files still unreadable.

Template file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/25o8bxnu24e8f5a/SDIM1187.X3F?dl=0

Seems no way to get images back.

For me, SDIM1196.pctjr.00.X3F (repaired) displays different image than template (thumbnail and RAW are different from JPEG preview either). Sure it can be some other file content - looks like your files parts are mixed.

("r" in file name "pctjr" part means that raw data is taken from current file, not from template; this of course doesn't mean that it is properly readable. I reencode all data to ensure SPP will read it, but sometimes decoding/encoding may succeed with corrupted data too and then SPP may crash anyway. Analyzis result (low/medium/etc) is not very reliable - it doesn't decode data, it just searches for file sections.)

You could try different recovery programs first to recover image files from card. My utility can read data from sequently numbered files (while recovering entire folder), but for that files need NOT to be truncated to correct file length. Good recovery programs usually read file size from directory and cut their length; bad recovery programs may leave file size as multiple of SD card cluster size. For bad programs file names tend to be incorrect too - could be good sign for you

Sometimes you can get different results even with same software - if memory card has some internal instability, then different sessions may give different results. Put your SD card into freezer for an hour, then let it warm to room temperature (another hour to avoid condensation) and try again.

Another file allows to save JPEG part - file name like SDIM1199.pctj_.00.X3F means that raw data is unreadable, but "j" (JPEG preview) is usable (and for this file it looks pretty good). You can check "Save JPG sections of corrupted images" in my utility, this way it saves JPG files along recovered files too.