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Really important chat logs i need to recover - Printable Version

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Really important chat logs i need to recover by rolando99 on 01-27-2012 at 06:23 PM

Hey, hope you are all well.

I've been searching the internet for ages trying to find info regarding some of my chat logs, that's how I found this forum as it flagged up some threads on here.

I was just wondering if someone would be able to help me, my fiance passed away 2 years ago and the only sort of contact so to speak I have now is that I was able to read our past msn conversations which was comforting, however I can no longer read them which is fairly gutting.

I got a new computer a while back so what I did was I transferred all the chat logs on to a memory stick and saved them all to my new computer and I was well, I was able to read them fine when I clicked on the file it would open up in Firefox.

However for some reason now when I open the file in Firefox, I can read the conversation fine but then as I go down through the conversation I get to a point where it just starts displaying a load of random symbols (lines, squares, Japanese)

It does it on every chat log, even ones I've had recently, does anyone know of any way I can sort this out as it would mean an awful lot to me if I was able to get these chat logs working again.

Thank you for your time


RE: Really important chat logs i need to recover by matty on 01-27-2012 at 07:05 PM

Sorry for your loss. You may want to discuss this with a psychologist to help you grieve.

However back to the issue at hand. What is the extension of the file? I assume it is a .PLE? If so then you will need Messenger Plus! installed and use the Log Viewer to read it by entering in the password that it has been encrypted with. Unfortunately if the password doesn't work the likelihood that the logs will work and are not corrupted is slim. But best of luck.


RE: Really important chat logs i need to recover by matty on 01-27-2012 at 07:33 PM

Can you post a screenshot as an example of what you are seeing?

Thanks.


RE: Really important chat logs i need to recover by rolando99 on 01-27-2012 at 08:23 PM

Sure, this is what happens, halfway through a conversation it does this....

It just seems odd as I would have thought if the file was corrupt, surely it just wouldn't open.


RE: Really important chat logs i need to recover by matty on 01-27-2012 at 08:55 PM

Try viewing it in the Messenger Plus! Log Viewer. But back up the folder of the chat logs just to be on the safe side.


RE: Really important chat logs i need to recover by CookieRevised on 01-27-2012 at 09:48 PM

quote:
Originally posted by rolando99
Sure, this is what happens, halfway through a conversation it does this....

It just seems odd as I would have thought if the file was corrupt, surely it just wouldn't open.
The logs are html. This is a pseudo-streaming format. This means that even if the logs are corrupt at some point, stuff at the beginning can be read (and interpretted) correctly. In other words, such corrupted files will still be opened up as if nothing is wrong.... until you indeed come to a certain point in the file where the corruption starts.

In short: it really looks like those files are corrupted indeed.
Try to open them in notepad. If you see the same garbage, you know 100% for sure they are corrupted (in case it is a FireFox bug, but I very highly doubt that).

Note: trying to view them in Messenger Plus! Log Viewer will not help (they are afterall just HTML files).
RE: Really important chat logs i need to recover by rolando99 on 01-28-2012 at 03:41 PM

Yes unfortunately they same thing happens in Notepad, any idea what could have corrupted them? As even the copies on my USB stick are the same and even recently conversations I've had say in the last few days show the same thing when I open them up.