Opening/viewing .DB thumb files? (And restoring/enlarging images from thumbnails)

Kahilia

Kahilia

Okay, this sounds nonsensical, but can .DB thumbnail files actually be opened in photo viewer in any way at all? From what I've always seen, it can't, since they are system database files.
But some articles oddly suggest this should be possible:
https://askinglot.com/how-do-i-convert-a-thumbnail-to-a-full-size-image
https://itstillworks.com/convert-db-thumbnail-files-8608551.html

The reason I wonder about this is because I have lost a lot of image files after CHKDSK had ran from start-up and corrupted them a while back. The images' files are without actual content - but the thumbnails still appear on most of them. If I could enlarge the thumbnails into larger versions maybe I could get something at least resembling the lost images. (I tried extensive data recovery with no luck.)
 
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Chkdsk will usually retain lost clusters so you should be able to find those files in the root of the drive, just named differently. They will still have the data. Your best bet is to not use the drive AT ALL and do some manual image recovery on the drive. Or you will end up losing them all.

There is no way to get larger images from the thumbnails as the images are resized for thumbnails.
 
If the thumbnail is showing on the screen, hit the 'print screen' button (usually to the right of F12), then use Paint, (I much prefer paintdotnet). You can cut/crop image & zoom in. The larger you make it, the worse the resolution, at some point, it will be unrecognizable.
 
Doesn't seem SQL deals with that kind of database, but there are thumb viewers that can open .db's directly and view the miniature images. (If only I hadn't seemingly changed the thumbs file merely by having 'Do not cache thumbnails' at default setting in another OS I booted with the same hard drive.)

Chkdsk didn't retain them, it mass-deleted lots of file index posts without restoring them. They became corrupted afterwards. But true, best not to touch the drive after loss.

Sure, Paint is a good ol' tool and is good for simple edits, but there are some editors that can enlarge images with bit better detail. (I did btw try paintdotnet in hope of the ability to restore unsaved images in case of crashes but no such luck)
Thanks for the replies and sorry for budging back in late.
 
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