Disaster And Hundreds Of Photos

I'm so sorry I have to ask for help again!

First, a nasty 'bug' - and thank you again for all your great help, Etavare.

And then my ports not working ... am still trying to fix it so please have patience with me, kind ones.

But this, this has shot straight to the top of my priority list - and for anyone who treasures family photos, well it'll be hearbreaking if there isn't a 'fix'.

I don't know whether the 'bug' I had caused this but just discovered when I open Document>My Pictures and click on any of the hundreds upon hundreds of them ... the tiny picture I highlight is NOT the picture that shows up on the screen nor is it the picture if I try opening it.

1. Have tried changing extention ... for instance, if a .tif to .jpg - with the result the little picture changes to the wrong one permanently.

2. Have tried renaming the entire picture - with the same result as above.

Here's an example



And, to make matters even worse, before I realize it was a 'bug' and thought it was just my computer acting up, transferred the entire lot of photos to the external hard drive ... and now the ones there are sadly having the same woe as above.

Will be so grateful if anyone can figure out a 'fix', please.

 

Hi Mara. Please don't keep trying to fix this problem.

Please wait till you get advice on what to do.

Someone will help you as I have to go out right now.


Try resetting the folders via Folder Options View tab. This should reset the
thumbnails assigned for all folders. You can customize the folder views
again.

Also try refreshing the thumbnails.

 

I won't do a single thing, Doug, really I won't!

How odd that a computer hiccup, whether a 'bug' or 'hardware' issue can make one gnash our teeth but when something like this happens, one's scared to breathe lest the most important possession in one's life are lost.

 

Hi Mara,

The thumbnails for those photos are usually stored as a cache file which looks like it is probably corrupted, the easiest way to fix it would be to go to disk cleanup.

So if you go to My Computer > Right Click on your hard drive > Select Properties, you should then get the window with disk cleanup on it.

If you select disk cleanup it will load up another window, tick the checkbox for 'Thumbnails' and untick all the other checkboxes (you don't have to worry about the other tab) and then click Ok, let it do its magic, then logoff and log back on again, now if you go to view those pictures it should have rebuilt the thumbnail cache and they should all hopefully show correctly

 

Further to Woodyblades Post.
I don't see the "Thumbnail" option in XP, Woody.
Mara uses XP.

 

Woody, I ran the disk clean and while there doesn't seem any rhyme nor reason as to which ones, about a dozen photos actually open matching what shows in the wee pictures along the bottom - so thank you so much for even those!!

Doug, it's the strangest thing as while all the other folders in 'My Documents' that contain pictures friends have sent to me are just fine, it's 'only' the photos within 'My Pictures' that have gone wonky. Would rather have lot anything and everything else within the computer than my photos ...

Who knew a computer could become so, so muddled - sad sigh.

 

Here's how you to disable thumbs.db:

For Windows XP:
Open My Computer
Click on Tools
Click Folder Options
Click the View tab
Put a check in the box next to "Do not cache thumbnails"
Click on Apply then OK.

 

Hi Mara,

Didn't realise XP didn't have the option for that Thumbnails thing, I use XP at work but don't do maintenance/cleanups on them.

I think DSTM posted about it earlier but must have removed his post, you could try the options mentioned on this wikihow site to try and recover the rest of the thumbnails if you haven't already (just go through the clear thumbnails bit for XP) - http://www.wikihow.c...ache-in-Windows

EDIT: Remember to undo the show hidden files and folders part at the beginning, so the files are hidden again, just to be safe.

 

Yes, Doug had, but poof, the post disappeared .... anyway, thanks for posting this here, Woodyblade.

The instructions worked perfectly - wahooooo!!! - and thanks for the reminder to 'hide' the files again, too.

 

Great your pictures are sorted, Mara.
Thanks Woody for coming to the rescue.

I remember I posted the link, then I tried to post a screen grab
and it wouldn't stick for some reason.
In frustration I deleted the post and then forgot to repost the link. DUH!

Sorry about that, Mara.
I am blaming Senility. :nod:

 

Not to worry, Doug - I'm blaming the heat for my brain melt-down. Yup, actually have an ice bag tied on top of my head and surely that's a sight to behold - grin!