The File Corruption Scenario

Most of you some time or the other witnessed sudden corruption of your files without any apparent reason and it is not always possible to have file recovery tools at your avail specially when you are in emergency and your file is important one, not to mention. Today we are going to discuss how you can by yourself repair corrupt files using HEX editor. Again not to mention manual fixing of corrupt files data requires basic knowledge of HEX. Get hands on HEX.

The concept behind repairing files using HEX leverages matching signature bytes of corrupt file against healthy one. If there appears to be some difference in signature bytes between the two then replace corrupt file headers with healthy one.

 

Recommended Move to HEX

It is recommended to take backup of your corrupt file before editing in HEX as if something goes wrong then you can revert back to the file you got corrupt but not edited in HEX as wrongly editing file in HEX Editor adds further complications to file data structures.

 

A Simple Case Study

There was a GIF extension image file (non-animated, GIF 87a standard) which now is corrupt and is not viewable to any image editing software. You like to view it but have no fate to purchase any image recovery software.

 

HEX VIEW to Repair Corrupt Application Files

Resources: Standard GIF 87a file signatures in HEX appears to be as 47 49 46 38 37 61

• Now Open your file in HEX and notice the first few bytes of your file (file signature). If file signature is different than that of standard then fix the modified bytes as appeared in standard.
• Save and Close the file.
• Open file in any image viewer program of your choice and BINGO!! Your file gets recovered and charmingly seen.

 

Similarly; you can recover other extension files matching corrupt file header bytes with standard one which you can easily Google.

Also note that this method of file recovery is effective only when file headers get corrupt. For other sort of corruption mainly corruption in data part of file this technique hardly helps you or require more technical details on file structure.

It's recommended to leverage Professional File Recovery Tools and Services to fix corrupt files mainly when corruption is in data part of file as it will save your time and efforts apart proving cost-effective and efficient to your file data recovery requirements.

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