Hello everyone,

I have a problem and I was wondering if anyone could please help me. I had problems with my windows xp SP2 so i decided to install a fresh copy on my pc but because i didnt want to lose the data i had ( pictures, music and stuff ) i decided to zip and copy them on a DVD. But I created exe files as i thought it would be more safe and I wouldnt lose the data. As you can see from my actions I'm a rookie so please can anyone tell me if I can get this data back ? The only thing I get is an Ms Dos window which says on the top INACTIVE MY_PICTURES.EXE and on the main window : The file is too big to fit in memory. I've tried to repair the EXE file but I only get the message that the file cannot be repaired..

Thanks in advance

I thought you might have had me stumped but I think I have a possible solution. I'm assuming Winzip self extractor is trying to extract the file, and the problem lies with the fact that this is gigantic considering you put it on a DVD. WinRAR allows you to right click the file and choose where to extract it, rather that initially opening it first.. I *think*. At least with one of my massive self extractors I could right click and "extract here"... it might be a simple way around it. You may have to drag the file from the DVD into a directory you wish to extract the files to on your hard drive, like My Documents. You can safely download a free version of winRAR here.

Well thanks Episteme for the response. When I’m trying to extract the file ( using RAR ) says there is no archive in the selected folder. The size of the folder is 372MB and after I tried to repair the exe file I ended up that the header is corrupted. Any suggestions on how to repair it?

I guess at this point it stands to question how badly you want the files and what you're willing to risk. There are plenty of software tools available that will repair a compressed file, but getting the software from a trusted source without infecting your machine is the key.

I do trust Tucows, I've had to download many tools from them and have yet to have any trouble, and they've been around for many years. I found a program called Advanced Zip Repair which seems to be very highly rated when it comes to dealing with these issues. It's not free but there's a demo/shareware version available. I don't know if this version will allow you to repair the file but this would be the first thing I'd try, you can download it here. There is also Advanced Archive Repair on Tucows (not rated) which you can download here. I didn't see any notes on how limited the versions were, but it looks like the Zip repair was only $30 USD so if you have alot of photos it may be worth that (if it works at least)... too bad you couldn't know for sure if it would fix the file before you pay.

Searching I also found a program called "Easy Zip 98" that supposidly repairs damaged compressed files, but I didn't find any sources to download from whom I trusted.

I believe this can also be done manually but I am not a software engineer so I have no clue as to how to go about doing this.

Thank you very much for your help Episteme I will try this and hopefully it will work !! You know when you have all your pictures and memories in there is hard to let it go and delete it.. I will let you know what the story is..

Exe files or executable files are essentially programs. Videos, photos and media are not exe files and there lies your problem.

Have you tried to change (rename) the extension to .zip instead of .exe?

He's got a self extracting executable. You can make any combination of files into a self extracting executable, the same way you would make them into a zip file. The problem lies in when the file was created there was a glitch and the file wasn't created properly. I guess the lesson here is to always test your compressed files before you trust that they compressed properly and delete the originals.