Greetings !

OK, so my add-on hard drive is a tad screwed up - somehow my "My Pictures"
Folder has been converted into a file.

CHKDSK has been so kind(?) as to "recover" these "lost files", and name them
as FILE0001.CHK, etc. in folders called FOUND.000 etc.

As I understand it, some of those files are plain text files, so I could
simply rename those with the extension .txt

Well, that's not to difficult... ish !

I intend to get VBA to load up the first 64(?) characters of every file, and
compare these with those from the picture files I have back up, I can
eliminate those, leaving to be recovered only those files that I have omitted
to back up.

I have over fifty thousand .CHK file, in seven FOUND folders :(
That number will fit on one Excel WorkSheet.

If VBA checks that the first 64(?) characters are all between CHAR(32) and
CHAR(127), then (if they are), VBA can rename them with the .txt extension.

Now, using the incomparable and essential
-------------------------------------------------
LIST Version 6.4a 9/21/88
(c) Copyright Vernon D. Buerg 1983-88
139 White Oak Circle, Petaluma CA 94952
For personal use only. May not be sold.
-------------------------------------------------
it seems to me that
all .ZIP files seem to start with Hex(504B03) i.e. "PK"
all .PDF files seem to start with Hex(25504446) i.e. "%PDF"
all BitMap files (.BMP) seem to start with "BM"
all .TIF files seem to start with Hex(49492A) i.e. II*


So if SKS could
a) confirm that my logic is sound; and
b) advise me on how many characters I need to test; and
c) provide the information that is contained within
each file that identifies its type,

then I can rename the files with
the correct extensions and look at the contents !

Pretty please?

Or any other ideas - perhaps there is already
software "out there" that I could use ?

Others MUST have had this challenge before !

The Symantec help line couldn't (or wouldn't) advise.



Regards

Robin