Y
ou should have known it was a bad static-electricity day when balloons
stuck to your clothes and your socks clung together as if they were
made of Velcro. But you decided to pull the memory card out of your digital
camera anyway, didn’t you?
The end result is 4GB of scrambled JPEG images instead of proof that the
Loch Ness monster exists. Normally you’re screwed, as few “recovery” utili-
ties actually recover corrupted JPEG files, but PixRecovery 1.0 could save your
bacon. Rather than just recover files, PixRecovery also treats mangled files.
We tested PixRecovery 1.0 by first using QueTek’s excellent File
Scavenger to recover all the files from a failing 4GB CF card. About half the
images could not be opened in any photo viewer or with utilities designed
to read damaged JPEG headers. These photos were munched, and a good
portion of them were overwritten.
Using PixRecovery, we were able to open the majority of them.
Recovered files are outputted as BMP files, and in most cases, they were
full resolution; however, chunks were missing where the files had obvi-
ously been overwritten. Still, PixRecovery’s ability to recover images is
pretty impressive.
Not impressive is the batch mode—it just doesn’t work. The GUI itself
doesn’t feature a batch mode, but there is a command line mode that’s
supposed to work with batches. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to recognizewildcards, so you’ll be working with images one by one.
And that’s the sad thing. While we had some success with the pro-
gram, it feels threadbare. You drag a photo into the program, it tries to
recover and treat the file, and that’s it. You can’t specify if you want to save
your photo as a JPEG, and you can’t preview it; you just process it and
that’s it. End of story.
The app also has a rather steep price considering the interface
provided (although you can test your corrupt file using the demo version).
But if you’re desperate to get that once-in-a-lifetime picture of Nessie back,
$150 is a small price to pay.
—Gordon Mah UnGPixRecovery 1.0
PixRecovery can sometimes turn sausage back into steak
O
n occasion, we’ve clicked a link we knew we shouldn’t have. And before we
could say “virtualization,” the latest browser exploit was downloading some
spyware onto our PC.
In these cases, Trustware’s BufferZone Pro would have been a lifesaver.
BufferZone wraps browsers, instant messaging clients, and media players in a
virtualized cocoon at the application level. Unlike Virtual PC, which virtualizes
the entire OS, BufferZone virtualizes your computer’s file system, registry, and
services. While you’re not as isolated as you would be if you used a program
that created a separate virtual OS as a sandbox, BufferZone is far easier to use
and involves less maintenance. It also offers protection that antivirus programs
and malware scanners can’t by letting you erase any changes that come in
through an unknown browser exploit. BufferZone can even virtualize network
shares and CD-ROM or USB drives, so applications are forced to open in virtual
sessions as well.
We tested BufferZone on an unpatched XP SP2 install, and it worked as
advertised. Without it, our OS was borked in seconds, but with BufferZone, we
were easily able to undo any damage done. Responsiveness was fair to good on
a fast machine and poor to fair on an old P4 box with a full hard drive. The app
does have an issue with how windows are configured on multi-monitor setups,
but it’s more of an annoyance than a major problem. Restoring a window to full
size will cause it to jump from one monitor to the other. We would also like to
be able to make incremental dumps of the buffer, so we wouldn’t have to take
all of our applications back to day one if something fatal happens.
Maximum PC readers will find the program fairly simple to install andunderstand, but we’re not sure it’s appropriate for civilians. Saving a JPEG from
a website to the desktop, for example, places the file in the buffer. You can’t
copy the actual file to a USB drive without taking it out of the buffer—some-
thing that’s sure to confuse someone unfamiliar with the app. Still, BufferZone
is a pretty handy utility for those who occasionally want to walk on
the wild side of the web.
—Gordon Mah UnGTrustware BufferZone Pro
Think of it as Groundhog Day for malware
0 MAXIMUMPC june 2007
reviewsTes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized
8
bufferzone pro8
pixrecovery 1.0
$150, http://www.officerecovery.com$50, http://www.trustware.comUsing “GUI” to describe Pixrecovery’s interface is illegal in
some states.BufferZone Pro uses application virtualization to protect
you from exploits.