Reconstruct / extract image from thumbnail dat2/dbits file

[jojo666]

Hi,

i recently lost my picture folder that was incorrectly stored to an external drive. Recuva could not restore it, so to at least have some of the memories in a small version, I need to extract the image information from the dbits files of XY's thumbnail cache.

Is there a way to do that? Please help me for years of family and friends memories depend on that

[admin]

Hi,

it's theoretically possible, so keep the files, all will be good. But this does not work out of the box and right now I have not the time for it.

Don

[klownboy]

You should make a backup of the dat2 and dbit files or even the entire Thumbnails folder. If you did a "Refresh Thumbnails" of the actual folder of photos which no longer exist, it will wipe out those the subject thumbnails contained in the dbits file which obviously you don't want to do. Though if the folder no longer has any pictures the refresh thumbnail action would be grayed out of under View > Caches > Refresh Thumbnails unless you placed an image in that folder since your problem. Good luck.

[admin]

Still interested?

The next beta version can do it. It's not hard to do, but you might need a little help with it. Just ask here...

[klownboy]

jojo666, the OP should be pleased with this new SC rethumb. Though I think ExtractThumb may have been more fitting.

I tried it and it worked great. There probably wouldn't be a big use for it unless someone runs into a issue like the OP, but it's nice to have if/when needed and I'm thinking there could be some practical uses in the future. It wouldn't be hard to automate the process by providing / obtaining the folder desired, breaking down the dat2 files to locate the proper dats/dbit file combination for the image folder, retrieving the hash number to be used, and then plugging it into the new SC. Big thumbs up for your SC sync as well.
Thanks.

[admin]

jojo666, the OP should be pleased with this new SC rethumb. Though I think ExtractThumb may have been more fitting.

Yes, right. But I like the word Rethumb. I also thought of Uncache or Decache. Since almost nobody will use it (well, like you, I can imagine some uses actually...), who cares...

[Filehero]

Don, this is a very generous move!

[admin]

Don, this is a very generous move!

Well, looks like it wasn't so important after all... lol

[Filehero]

Well, looks like it wasn't so important after all... lol

Maybe a backup was found somewhere.

[PeterH]

Or maybe jojo666 didn't expect it so fast?

But as he never has shown any further reaction...

[PsychicDeath]

Still interested?

The next beta version can do it. It's not hard to do, but you might need a little help with it. Just ask here...

Just to confirm , you can resurrect the thumb images to view if you have .dat2 and .dbits files?
If so, what are the steps involved?
Thank you.

[jupe]

In the meantime until admin get a chance to reply, I can let you know how I think it can be done, but I haven't tested this recently with the old dat2 thumbnail format. Thumbnail storage format has changed in recent versions, so I think you'll need an old version to achieve what you want, eg. versions between 18.40 to 23.40 which can be downloaded from https://www.xyplorer.com/freezer.php

Then navigate to the folder where you have both the dat2 and dbits files, and select one of either extension (there needs to be matching filenames, 1 of each filetype) and run this command from the XY addressbar.

rethumb <curitempath>, <curbase>, "C:\folder_to_output_thumbnail_to";

Look to the statusbar afterwards to see if it was successful. You could write a script to automate doing it on all the files automatically if you need to do it on a lot.

[PsychicDeath]

In the meantime until admin get a chance to reply, I can let you know how I think it can be done, but I haven't tested this recently with the old dat2 thumbnail format. Thumbnail storage format has changed in recent versions, so I think you'll need an old version to achieve what you want, eg. versions between 18.40 to 23.40 which can be downloaded from https://www.xyplorer.com/freezer.php

Then navigate to the folder where you have both the dat2 and dbits files, and select one of either extension (there needs to be matching filenames, 1 of each filetype) and run this command from the XY addressbar.

rethumb <curitempath>, <curbase>, "C:\folder_to_output_thumbnail_to";

Look to the statusbar afterwards to see if it was successful. You could write a script to automate doing it on all the files automatically if you need to do it on a lot.

This absolutely worked. Thank you.
I was wondering now about how to write a script for this, as there is indeed lots.

[jupe]

Something like this should work:

Code: Select all

  $outfol = "C:\folder_to_output_thumbnail_to";
  foreach($file, quicksearch("*.dat2 /fn"), <crlf>) {
    $base = gpc($file, "base");
    if (exists("$base.dbits")) { rethumb <curpath>, $base, $outfol; }
  }

It will process the whole folder that is open in the active pane (not subfolders). If you need to modify the script, you can lookup in the help file each scripting command I have used for more info.

[Morpheus23]

Post this before I lose it. Thanks for the rethumb command. It works great.

This code will pull the thumbs out of all the files.

Hope you don't mind jupe, I used your code as a base to get all the subdirectories as well.

Code: Select all

// Loop through each .dbits file found in the search.
foreach($file, quicksearch("*.dbits /fn"), <crlf>) {
  // Get the directory of the current .dbits file
  $dir = gpc($file, "path");

  // Get the base filename of the .dbits file
  $base = gpc($file, "base");

  // Build the path to the corresponding .ini file using the same base name
  $inipath = $dir . "\" . $base . ".ini";

  // Get the Start Path from the .ini file.
  $aPath = getkey("SoftPath", "General", $inipath);

  // Concatenate the base output folder with the additional path from the .ini file.
  $finalOutputPath = "Z:\Rethumb" . "\" . $aPath;
  $newfinal = replace($finalOutputPath, ":","",,3); //replace all : with nothing past the first Z:
  new($newfinal, "dir",);  //xyplorer version of "make directory".

  // Regenerate the thumbnail for the .dbits file and save it to the final output path.
  rethumb $dir, $base, $newfinal;
}