strange data loss...

[bsh]

i have noticed some data loss on my pc. i'm running windows xp pro sp2, on ntfs partitions, with new hard drives and cables.
the system was recently reinstalled,but i still see the data loss.
i noticed, that some of my images (jpg) are getting corrupted. lower half missing, or image broken, etc. they were intact before.
i thought this could be some kind of hardware failure or broken ide cable or something. but i have bought a brand new hard drive, installed with new cables, and the data loss still occurs.
there are no signs of other data beeing corrupted, only images! there are no bad sector son the drive, there are no errors in the file system, there are no trojans/spyware/virii on the system, everything seems to be ok, but the images...
do you have any idea, what could cause this???
i use perfect disc 7 for defragging, i thought, maybe it corrupts the data on defrags... but it's jsut an idea...

[Starman*]

I can't offer a solution but what you describe is similar to what you get if you delete bmp or jpg from the Recycle Bin and use a file recovery utility. I've recovered files immediately after accidental deletion and found a significant portion are corrupt. In addition to the symptoms you mentioned, you can also get images that have had the colours inverted. Image files seem to be badly affected by corruption, especially if the header is damaged. Corruption of a text file won't have the same impact.

Any new applications installed around the time the problem started?

PerfectDisk does not normally corrupt files. You could try the Windows defragger for a while to see if the problem goes away.

You can check out the hdds with a number of utilities (such as those from the manufacturer). If the data loss has occurred since the hdds were new, does it occur on all drives?

You may want to copy/mirror the image files to both drives to have a backup. You can then also observe if just one drive is having the problem.

Starman*

[bsh]

It's hard to tell when the problem started and if it's caused by an application, but i don't think it's the case, coz i don't have many apps installed, and (theoretically) none of them modifies data. I recently had norton antivirus, which may scan all the data during copy processes, that might cause data loss/modification, but i banned that and now i use avast, and there's still the problem.
As for the different partitions: it's hard to tell, because i only have my images on the c: partition (in the ducuments folder)
Generally speaking, it's hard to tell what and when causes this, because i only notice this one or two times a month. to investigate, i should browse through the thousands of images i have, each and every day! :)
I don't delete files to the recycle bin, neither recover them, neither use data/file recovery software...
I believe the problem is caused by software and not by hardware. Some of the software where the images are going through, may corrupt them eventually. And these are: windows commander for copying/browsing/deleting/etc., antivirus software and disk defragmenter software. Never heard any problems about windows commander, neither avast, neither perfectdisk. so it's strange...
or maybe when i use windows explorer to show the images as thumbnails, or other software like photoshop to open files and show them as thumbnails in the open file dialog? maybe then happens something???

[Starman*]

Re partitions, as I said, copy the images to another drive/partition too, to see if they are affected. You've got to try a few things to figure where the corruption is coming from. Set up some identical folders in two partitions, use an MD5, CRC or similar utility to get a checksum comparison of the folders. If you edit or re-save any of those images, copy the modified file to the other folder to keep them the same. Repeat the check every so often. There are utilities that can compare/monitor folders for changes. I use ViceVersa but there are freeware utilities. Here's one (http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Utilities/File-Disk/Monidir-2000.html) just as an example. If you do something like an AV scan, defrag, check the folders directly afterwards.

Re deleting/recovery, I only mentioned that to compare corruption.

Re applications, none of those you mentioned will corrupt a file when viewing or opening, that's read-only. The image is loaded into memory without affecting the original. They could be corrupted if the application is saving in a corrupt manner when not supposed to. Not very likely.

Starman*

[bsh]

thanks, i'll try these!
not that if i care much about the images, but whatever causes this, can corrupt other files too, and that's not that obvious, as seeing a corrupted image!
i thought if something corrupts the data on my hard drive, can corrupt system files as well, and i should notice the system being unstable or soemthing, but this is not the case, seemingly. or how could i verify if other data is not being corrupted?