Will someone explain these instructions in layman's terms?

I'm trying to repair some RAW images that I recovered after accidentally deleting them. I have the images on my computer, but I am unable to open them. All I see is an icon.

So I downloaded this program, but I really don't understand what the instructions.

Is the command line shell what comes up when you go into "start" and then "run"?

What does it mean to "change to the directory"?

What is the pathname?





1. Open a Command line shell

2. Change to the directory where you unpacked repair_ciff.exe

3. Type:

repair_ciff INPUT.CRW OUTPUT.CRW

where INPUT.raw is the path to the defective RAW files and
OUTPUT.raw the pfad to a new filename that is created by
repair_ciff.

Alternatively you may use the 1-operand form:

repair_ciff INPUT.CRW

In this case INPUT.raw is replaced directly.

e.g.

repair_ciff d:\my_images\christmas04\image1234.CRW

If your path contains spaces put a " before the pathname and a
" after it.

repair_ciff "d:\my images\christmas 04\image1234.CRW"

4. Try the resulting RAW file

1. Open a Command line shell

In Windows-speak, this basically means a DOS prompt. You should have a shortcut to this under Start > Accessories (if I remember correctly), or you can click Start > Run and type the word "command" in the field and click OK. That should open a window with a prompt allowing you to type in commands.

2. Change to the directory where you unpacked repair_ciff.exe

Your hard drive is organized into a file system with a directory tree. Windows calls these folders. Assuming the drive is referred to by the letter C:, the top of this tree is C:\, and everything else is under that, e.g. C:\Windows, C:\Windows\System32, etc. This is also known as the path, as in the path to a directory. The expression C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\Desktop where <your name> is replaced by your name, e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\RoyGBiv\Desktop, is the path to the files on your Desktop.

You change to a directory by using the command "cd." If you were in the C:\ directory and wanted to go to the C:\Windows directory, you would type
"cd Windows" to get there. Then you could type "dir" to get a list of the files in that directory. However, it's not that quite that simple.

I *think* when you first open a command shell in Windoze (been awhile) you are first in the C:\Documents and Settings\<your name> directory, which means you can't just type "cd Windows" to get to the Windows directory since it is in another part of the tree. You'd need to type cd C:\Windows. The addition of the backslash "\" tells the shell command "cd" to look in the top-most directory for the directory named Windows.

So, what this means to you is this. You need to know what folder/directory your files are in. You first need to know this for the program. If it is on your desktop, it is C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\Desktop. If it is somewhere else, you'll need to figure out where it is in the directory structure. If it is in its own folder on the Desktop, for example, the directory path is C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\Desktop\Name_of_Directory.

You'll need to know the same information for the files you are wanting to fix.

Also, the command command shell cannot interpret spaces properly in a path on a command line without you telling it how to interpret them, so in order to change to a directory, you have to include quotation marks around that path.

For example:

cd "C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\My Pictures"

Including the quotation marks would change the directory to that path.

3. Type:

repair_ciff INPUT.CRW OUTPUT.CRW

where INPUT.raw is the path to the defective RAW files and
OUTPUT.raw the pfad to a new filename that is created by
repair_ciff.

If the name of your .RAW file is Picture.RAW and you want it to be called PictureFixed.RAW when it is fixed, you do this:

repair_cliff Picture.RAW PictureFixed.RAW

If the .RAW file is in a directory other than the one where the program repair_clif is located, you need to include the path, as defined above. For example, assuming the .RAW file is in your My Pictures directory, you would type:

repair_cliff "c:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\My Pictures\Picture.RAW" PictureFixed.RAW.

This would take the file in that folder, fix it, then write a new, fixed file in the current directory called PictureFixed.RAW. You could also include a path to PictureFixed.RAW if you want. Just make sure the name of that file is not the same as any other file in that directory.

4. Try the resulting RAW file

Try to open PictureFixed.RAW with a graphics viewer.

Did this help any?

I will give it a try and hopefully repair those damaged files. Thanks a lot, RoyGBiv.

:toast: :yourock:

around the directory, and I keep getting the following: Parameter format not correct - "C:\Documents

Now I'm going to have to boot Windoze. :-(

I'll get back to you. It's been long enough I've forgotten exactly how this is done.

Ignore what I said about clicking on Start > Run then typing "command."

That gave you a prompt like this? c:\DOCUME~1\NAME~1>

Command.com can't deal with spaces at all.

Type "cmd" instead, or alternatively

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt

You should get a prompt that goes something like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\RoyGBiv>

That is, if the prompt is showing spaces, it can deal with spaces. Then what I mentioned previously should work normally.

I finally got it figured out. The only problem, it's not really repairing my files. I have to go through each image individually so maybe I might get lucky.