Well, I am not getting into the criminal underbelly, but just jabbering about a long existing software that makes it possible to recover deleted files from a memory card used on digital cameras. PC Inspector Smart Recovery (v4.5) is a free, Windows only software that does one job (actually two… as we shall see) and does it well.

Primary job: PC Inspector Smart Recovery is a freeware data recovery program from CONVAR for Flash Card/USB Flash Drive, Smart Media, SONY Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, Multimedia Card, Secure Digital Card or any other data carrier for digital cameras.

Secondary job: While it goes about its first job, it also offers a way to check the memory type for any errors.

I call PC Inspector Smart Recovery a ‘doomsday’ software. This one and others of its ilk help us to recover from our errors or those committed by our digital devices. If you think that the chances of losing some precious photo or video among the thousands we shoot with our digital cameras is one in thousands then give this software a miss. Otherwise, let’s give it a rip…

The download size of PC Inspector Smart Recovery is fairly compact at 6.1MB. The software is compatible with Windows XP (not tested for Vista).

These are the formats and digital camera types supported by PC Inspector Smart Recovery:

JPG, AMR, TIF, BMP, GIF, AVI, MOV, WAV, DSS, MP4, Canon (.crw) , Fuji (.raf) , RICOH (.raw), Olympus E-XX (.orf), Olympus C5050 (.orf), Nokia (3gp), Kodak (.dcr), Minolta (.mrw), Nikon D1H/D1X (.nef), Nikon D2H/D2X (.nef), Nikon E5000/E5700 (.nef), Konica Minolta, Sigma – Foveon (.x3f).

Installation is a no-brainer. And so is the use – in five simple steps.

1. Connect your memory card through your computer’s memory card reader or connect the digital camera/mobile phone with the provided data cable.
2. Start PC Inspector Smart Recovery. Select the drive letter (Select Device) used by the memory device from the first dropdown.
3. Select the file type (Select Format Type) that is to be recovered from the second dropdown. The Enhanced Options is for JPG format only. The default Automatic setting recognizes the format on its own. The With Thumbnails option assumes that your picture format includes thumbnails; the Without Thumbnails option assumes that your picture format does not include thumbnails.
4. Select the destination folder (Select where the images are to be recovered). Create a specific folder as opposed tp recovering them to an area like the desktop because the sheer number of images might create a mess.
5. Click on Start and the software indicates the progress through the progress bar.

   

Change the search mode…

The Settings menu lets you change the way the recovery is done. The Fast Mode is the default mode. The Intensive Mode scans more thoroughly and takes longer to complete. The recoverable file size can be limited optionally.

Check Media found under Menu – Function is a way to check the memory device for errors. Once started, the progress is reported by the software under the Media Check section. Any read errors like a ‘Not Available’ alert could indicate problems in the memory device, the card reader or the driver.

So has it helped me avert my doomsdays?

On my 4GB memory card with a sample of 160 pictures, I recovered all but six. Yes, the process was slow – about 160 minutes for an intensive scan. But the success ratio was great so I guess I can live with the slow speeds. Getting the lost pictures back at no cost is a definite deal maker for me.

There are a few others which fall under the broad category of file recovery software. Check these out. They might save your day –

3 Remarkable File Recovery Tools
Recover Lost Computer Files with Undelete Plus
How To securely Retrieve and Delete PC files

So, what do you do when you unintentionally lose your Kodak moments (minus the teeth gnashing of course)? How do you recover deleted picture files from a memory card? Do you have your toolkit of ‘doomsday’ software?

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That’s right, kiddies! I have an awesome free program that attempts to get your data back for you lickity split! Here’s how you can read and retrieve all the data from scratched CDs and DVDs.

To start my testings, I whipped out an old spindle of CDs circa 2003. These things were scratched to high hell and they worked (a little) in my CD-ROM but not reliably.

Next, I downloaded Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier version 3.56 from here: http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29 and simply ran it without installation. I saw this screen below:

It looked pretty straight forward so, I decided to give it a whirl. I hit the browse button for the source field and then for the target field; and proceeded to select my CD-ROM and a blank folder respectively.

Then, I hit the Copy button and it took off! It read and copied my whole disk in a few minutes flat! I tested the files and they were working just fine.

I grabbed another disk that I knew was seriously flucked up and again hit Copy. When I say seriously flucked up, I really mean it – I took a screwdriver to the disk and made a scratch from end to end!

This time, the copying process took a bit longer and the drive made some crazy noises but it did successfully copy all my files. This is awesome. I wish I had something like this 5 years ago after my great CD disaster. But hey, that can be a story for another time.

Let’s check out the programs settings:

Everything is pretty straight forward and you will not find yourself looking to use them unless your disk is beyond repair and files are erroring out. Strangely, I could not make this happen. My slider was also on the best data recovery side but you can also push it towards the faster side if the CD is not horribly damaged.

And of course, batch mode can be used to do multiple disks extractions:

This is great if you have multiple drives. Just add the locations and they will do their thing in order from top to bottom.

Do you have a free CD/DVD recovery program that is reliable? If you do or aware of any alternative way to read scratched DVDs or CDs, let us know about it in the comments.

If your disc is broken beyond repair, or at least, that’s what you think — then read Varun’s post on How To Repair Damaged CD’s Or DVD’s & Recover Data. You’re bound to learn something new.

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I’ve got just the mate for you to help you recover from your loss. Welcome to the Data Game! 

Let’s meet contestant number one!

Recuva

Yo peeps! This is Recuva representin’ Piriform. I know ya seen me around. You know my homies – CCleaner for your optimizing needs and Defraggler regulating yo fragments in yo disk! Check this out…I Recuva da files from your bin, ain’t no sin, that’s just the world we’s livin’ in. Bringin’ back yo files in style, that’s how I profile, now ya go on and make yo boss smile! Check it!

Fo’ real, I work on all Windows boxes, MP3 players, memory cards and I can work on bringing back more than one file at a time. Beat that!

And now for contestant number two!

FreeUndelete

Dude, I’m like free and I undelete. Simple is like, how I am. No frills, just focused on the zen of recovery, y’know. Like, when I need to bring back a file that got some bad karma, I just say, “Whoa, stop! Reflect for a moment. To move is to erase.”

I don’t really think about it or clutter my mind with icons and pop-ups. I’m just, like, free, y’know. I’ll catch the wave on your 2000, XP or Vista, I’ll ride where I’m needed, bro! But I don’t do the corporate sell-out. You can only use me for yourself. I’m all about the interpersonal, bro. And I like to play the bongos naked.

Last but not least, let’s give a big Data Game welcome to contestant number three!

ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools

Good evening, I am ADRC Data Recovery Software Tools, but you may call me ADRC. On the surface, I’m a simple program with functionality and ease of use always in mind. I’m thinking of you. But deep down I’m very well rounded, somewhat complex even. One could say that I’m the Renaissance Man of free data recovery.

When you undelete with me, I give you so much more than your lost files back. I bring to the table the ability to back up a disk image and restore it. I can copy files from your hard disk with bad sectors, perform disk cloning, as well as backup, edit and restore your boot parameters. Really, is there anything I can’t do? That’s a rhetorical question, my dear.

There you have it, contestant One, Two and Three. So which one will win the Data Game? Well, that’s up to you, our lucky Data Batchelor or Batchlorette!  Tell me, which one will it be? Or do you have a special someone else in mind?

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So what exactly does a DLL file do? Well DLL files provide certain basic underlying functionality that is needed by other software. Diving a bit deeper, you would unravel that they provide certain functions which can be called upon by other executable files. Ironically, although the whole idea of DLL files was to simplify application creation and development, they can cause some nasty errors if things go bad.

Most common types of errors you encounter with DLL files is that they mysteriously go missing, and you get a ‘so and so’ dll file not found error. There is however, no real mystery in this, the causes can range from removing an installed software to a bad sectors or corrupt disk to installation of a new software, so on and so forth.

In this article however, we are going to look at how to fix missing DLL files. So let’s chalk out a strategy to achieve this:

Get Some Information About the Missing DLL File

First off, get some information about the DLL files you are missing. Here are a few resources that can help you out:

• Check the Microsoft DLL help database . It lists all the DLL files used by common Microsoft products. You can search by name or product to determine which files are required by a specific product or which file was installed by a particular product. This is great information for solving version conflicts in DLL files.

• If you cannot find the file in question in the database mentioned above, try Process Library. You can search for Process names (from Windows Task Manager) or DLL file names and get more information about the offending file. I use it all the time to look up a running process that I find suspicious. More often then not you will get some kind of helpful information to aid you along.

• If none of the above helps, then just try and Google the name of the file and see if you can find some information on the DLL.

There is a good reason why you would want to do get all the information first. If you are able to extract some information from any of the above sources, you would know the offending software and confirm whether the file you are looking for is really required, or some malicious piece of code is the real cause of concern.

With that risk out of the way, your best bet is to re-install the software that the DLL pertains to (or restore back if you recently installed or uninstalled a software). We could get the DLL file and replace (or place) it at the appropriate location, but trust me these files have more to them than you can discern. There are all kinds of versioning issues, multiple files having the same name and what not. Most likely this will fix the issue. In the event that this doesn’t help we would have to get our hands dirty.

Find, Get and Register Missing DLL files

If you search for the offending file on Google you will most likely get a number of results offering downloads of the file. You can check them out and get the file in question. One excellent source for finding such files is dll-files (MakeUseOf review).

Search, download and extract the file you want. Now we would have to register the DLL with Windows before applications can use the file. Follow these steps to register the DLL file:

• Open up the command prompt (Start > Run > type cmd)
• Type “regsvr32 <name_of_dll-file>”
• Reboot the computer

If you did everything correct, hopefully you will not see the error again. In case of the contrary, you have your work cut out, do some research, ask around, and if nothing seems to help, I am afraid it may be time to get your Windows disc into the drive and attempt a recovery or re-install altogether.

Have you ever resolved a similar error? How did you go about it? Any clever ideas? Feel free to mention them in the comments.

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FormatFactory is one such tool that can assist you in most of your media conversion needs.

FormatFactory is a multifunctional media converter that supports:

Video Conversion:
From all formats to MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF.

Audio Conversion:
From all formats to MP3/WMA/MMF/AMR/OGG/M4A/WAV.

Image Conversion:
From all to JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/PCX/TGA.

Using FormatFactory you can not only convert between all the various formats but you can also perform certain other functions like reducing multimedia file sizes. This can be done by shortening the video/audio (by changing the duration) or by changing the quality with which you want to encode/convert.

You can also attempt to repair damaged audio and video files that just won’t play in your players.

FormatFactory has a special section for converting media files specially for your portable players. FormatFactory allows you to convert your media files to formats supported by your iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP, BlackBerry and 3GP for supported devices

Last but not least you can use it to rip CD/DVDs to video files or convert them to ISO images.

Usage:

• 1. Download and complete the simple installation.
• 2. Choose the category and file format you want to convert to from the side bar.
• 3. Add in the desired files. Optionally you can change the output settings (click on output settings).

• 4. Once you have them all queued up hit the start button.

• You can also play with the options to tweak the overall settings and output folder for all your conversions.

Let us know what you think of FormatFactory in the comments. Do you have another preferred program for your media file conversion needs?

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