Phos,
Thank you so much for those references. They seem to have the same problem not recognizing THM files, but I have only superficially explored them. If I have this problem again (God forbid) I’ll look more seriously at them. Frustrated by the ineffective tools I did try, I resorted to changing the file extensions individually. It went faster than I thought—an hour and a half. BTW, the recovery program I used that produced THM files was "Image Rescue" by Lexar. Perhaps there are other recovery programs out there producing more generally readable extensions, maybe even jpg. Thanks again for responding and for all your pertinent responses to my posts and to others as well during the whole 2008 year.
George
You’re welcome, for, umm…whatever help I can offer, George.
I don’t know anything, really, about file recovery utilities. Fortunately I haven’t had a problem with my camera cards yet. But…did you even have a little poke around the Google results for a free batch-renaming utility?
Like I said, I have one for my Mac (A Better Finder Rename <
http://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/>), and something like that could rename many hundreds of filesaccording to naming conventions I setin just a few seconds.
Seems to me it would have been worth your time to investigate.
I know the command prompt is not a modern-day solution, but it is often a very effective one. Next time, try opening a command window in the directory where the files are located and type "ren *.thm *.jpg" (without the quotes) followed by the enter key. This should promptly fix things. You can also select all in Explorer and choose rename, but this often results in an odd sequence of file numbers.
For more help, type "rename/?" at the command prompt.
Trez
A number of responses in the referenced thread at Stevesforum.com suggest that the THM extension indicates only the thumbnails have been recovered. That I was able to get the full image simply by replacing the .THM extension with .jpg disproves that contention.
Now that I have recovered all the erased flash card images in readable format, albeit after tediously replacing each file’s extension individually, I can’t work up a head of steam to take even more time finding out how I could have done it faster. But I remain curious about the whole thing and expect to toy with other methods at my leisure. Not the least of my curiosity is why THM is used at all by Image Rescue.
TREZ
That seems like a great idea. When I try it, however I get a message saying "the system cannot find the file specified", despite having added THM to the registerd file types, having called for hidden files to be shown, and seeing the THM files explicitly listed at the drive/path specified in the REN command.
George
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TREZ
That seems like a great idea. When I try it, however I get a message saying "the system cannot find the file specified", despite having added THM to the registerd file types, having called for hidden files to be shown, and seeing the THM files explicitly listed at the drive/path specified in the REN command.
George
I just went in and tried to rename via the command REN and it will work. I had the .thm files registered as jpg in Windows. This allowed me to view them with the Windows Picture and Fax viewer, but I could not change the names. I then deleted thm from the registered file types and again attempted the command to rename. It works! I simply found my way to the folder while in DosinWin, then did the *. command as Trez indicated. Then I used the command to change them back.
I believe once the file associations were removed, then the renaming could occur. I don’t know if you must be in the actual folder to use the command or if you can simply type the entire path and destination info when using this command. To me, it was easier to go into the folder and type the short command.
TREZ
Trying your alternative approach, when I select all files and then right click expecting to invoke "Rename" for all highlighted files, all but the last file gray out leaving only that last file highlighted and affected by the rename action. Close but no cigar!
George
George, I just checked and the command prompt worked to perfection on a list of 100+ jpegs that I renamed to *.THM (and then reversed the process with no problem.) I’ll have to apologize for recommending the explorer method as I forgot that I had installed a shell extension from a utility package. In any case, I always prefer the command line: it’s faster and you have assurance of the exact results you desire. You don’t have to register a file type or do anything special.
Couple of thoughts: 1) I’m using XP Pro; if you’re using Vista there a slim, unlikely chance that the command syntax has changed; and 2) If your command window is not open in the actual folder/directory where your target is located and there are spaces involved, you will have to use quotes, thusly: ren "e:\foo bar\*.thm" *.jpg
But it is generally better to navigate to the desired folder or use the free extension from Microsoft that adds "Open Command Window Here" to your right-click menu.
Let me know if this helps,
Trez
Trez,
Wow! It worked. the quotation marks made the difference. Thank you!!
Where can I brush up on the syntax for other DOS commands—relics I have long forgotten.
George
Trez,
Sorry to have asked the obvious. I Googled "DOS Command Prompt" and the first site had all the commands laid out. Again, I am much obliged to you for resurrecting for me this beautifully simple tool.
George
Where can I brush up on the syntax for other DOS commands
command widnow. type: help 🙂
(without the smiley face!)
my first PC was the original IBM-PC
amber or green?!! 🙂
Amber or green? Hey, my memory is not that good! :^)
I recall using both–and I still remember how sharp and easy to read the text was. And I recall marveling at the screen when I got my first Hercules Graphics card. And it was all down hill from there…
And I recall marveling at the screen when I got my first Hercules Graphics card
yea, 4 colors was da bomb back then!
my 1st home system was green, work was amber.
FOUR colors? Wow! I’m talking monochrome graphics from Hercules. Which were actually sharper (in my memory) than the CGA cards & monitors. As best I recall, the darn card cost more than a modern day computer. Just think–Photoshop would never have come into being were it not for advances in display tech. Imagine editing nothing but green or amber photos…
I’m talking monochrome graphics from Hercules.
ah. OLD school! 🙂
My first computer was an Apple II+… can’t remember the screen color, but I bought an add-on that I’ve never seen in the Intel world… a plug in board with (I think) 1Meg of ram and an external power connection to keep the ram "on" even when the computer itself was turned off… flick the power switch on the computer, and by time the monitor was warmed up, the OS had booted from the ram card (and the ram card also had room for word processor and spreadsheet and space left over for quite a few data files)
Then I had to write a dBase III program, and later compile it, and since that couldn’t be done in the Apple world, I bought an IbmXt clone and have been Ibm clone ever since
dBase III and Clipper compiler for Dos are long gone in my past… but I’ve still never seen an "instant on" ram board like the one I had for that old Apple II box
dBase III and Clipper compiler for Dos are long gone in my past..
I can still lay my hands on my dbase 3 manual in about 10 minutes… 🙂
I now find that under File>Preferences in Lexar’s Image Rescue program one can select the file format to be recovered. I had not realized this and proceeded to use IR without specifying a format. In that scenario IR produced THM, whatever it is. (I also find that THM is not even cited under the optional formats listed in IR’s Preferences). Presumably, had I opted for JPG, I would have got JPG and the whole issue would not have arisen. But look at all the fun I would have missed!
so, um, i can put my dbase iii manual back then? 😉
is that a free proggie or paid app george?
Dave,
As you’ve just discovered, Image Rescue is free.
As you’ve just seen, DOS is still relevant. Keep that manual handy.
Happy New Year, Dave!
George
As you’ve just discovered, Image Rescue is free.
😮 says it’s 40 bux there!
happy new year to you too!
dave
George–glad it all worked out & that it has revived your interest in the command prompt. I have always found it to be very fast and handy, probably because my first PC was the original IBM-PC and the command shell was the only interface. I still find batch files incredibly useful for things like intermediate backups of new/modified files using the handy xcopy command.
Trez
FWIW, I helped my brother recover pictures he had accidentally erased from a flash card by having him download the FREE program "Recuva" from (not surprisingly) recuva.com. Worked like a charm, though YMMV.
And with that, Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night!
Dave,
As you’ve just discovered, Image Rescue is NOT free.
To rescue my image I’d like to blame my blooper on too many Mai Tais, but I’m a teetotaler these days. Perhaps the air was laden with their effluent. Mai bad!
There’s a New Year’s resolution in all this: In festive times of revelry, don’t breathe and drive!
Note: Image Rescue is free upon purchase of any high-end Lexar flash card.
George
Note: Image Rescue is free upon purchase of any high-end Lexar flash card.
ah. that explains it! 🙂
Note: Image Rescue is free upon purchase of any high-end Lexar flash card.
Yes it is, and if you buy a Lexar card, be sure to download the program from the card before you format it for your camera. Ask me how I know…
I have not yet reformatted the flash card, so I reran IR on it selecting the jpg file extension and unchecking all other optional file formats while leaving the "Show Thumbnails" box checked. Once more, the resulting recovered images all had THM extensions. So I reran one more time but with the Show Thumbnails box UNchecked, and that produced recovered files with jpg extensions. In both runs I used the "Low Level Search".
Unrelated to card image file recovery, but…
FWIW, Canon used the THM extension together with CRW for its D60 and 10D raw files. Each raw image from those cameras was a pair of CRW and THM files — same file name; though it was possible to process the just the CRW without the THM.
