I was organizing photos on an old hard drive and discovered six images totaling less than 1MB without an extension. I tried adding all the ones I could think of and opened the files in NotePad hoping to find a clue. No luck. The files are dated 2001 and were probably digital images that came on a disc with film prints. They could also be Mac-specific, since I had a PowerBook back then.
Any suggestions on opening them (online openers didn't work) or anyone want to try? The file names are all "Cougar 1, Cougar 2", etc. I believe they are of a '90 Cougar I had, but they could be of older gals. Perhaps one of those possibilities might motivate someone.
I could give it a try, or maybe you could if you have access to a Linux PC. What I would do first is try file (for identifying files by content) and photorec (data recovery tool that specializes in photo content) on them.
Edit: You can email them to my username at gmail if you want me to give it a try.
Could be a file that only the camera recognizes, any idea what camera took them?
I would try opening them in IrfanView. https://www.irfanview.com/
Steve_Jones said:
Could be a file that only the camera recognizes, any idea what camera took them?
I thought most cameras shot in .raw or .jpeg?
My guess is they were accidentally saved without the extension.
Yeah if that's the case the "file" utility would identify it easily, and some cleverer image manipulation apps like irfanview or GIMP might figure it out on their own. There were a few ancient digital cameras that saved to proprietary formats and relied on a desktop app to convert the images into something usable.
I tried irfanview or GIMP with no luck. I had an Apple QuickTake 200 then a Sony of some type back then, but I mostly shot film with a Pentax K1000. I'd guess they were taken with one of those digitals, if I took them. Otherwise, they came on a CD when I had film developed, which was an option in olden times.
z31maniac said:
Steve_Jones said:
Could be a file that only the camera recognizes, any idea what camera took them?
I thought most cameras shot in .raw or .jpeg?
My guess is they were accidentally saved without the extension.
Gotta remember that was the early days of digital cameras. Sony and Canon had proprietary formats in the beginning, you would use their software to export as jpg. Sony version of .raw is .arw for some reason. Canon is .CR2 or .CR3 usually. Older Mac used .UDF.
Can you email them or toss them in a link somewhere so we can give it a try?
They are 320x240 so they are early digital photos, lol
QDraw, and it's a black Cougar. Converted to Jpg for you.
berkeleying GRM, man. there's nothing this group can't figure out.
Wow, thanks so much!
It was an engine-less XR7 I bought to swap over the better factory parts and 5-speed to my 5.0 T-bird. It was parked at a friends house along a busy road. Before I got finished, someone hauled it off along with the MGB GT in the background I also had there. There is also a 914 pictured, but it wasn't taken. I assume both the cars were scrapped.
Steve_Jones said:
QDraw, and it's a black Cougar. Converted to Jpg for you.
Cool. Nice job. Did you recognize the file format or do you have a tool that did it for you?
In reply to APEowner :
Qdraw is an old Mac format, was the 4th one I tried.
What program did you end up using ?
Just in case we need to do this in the future ,
Thanks
SV reX
MegaDork
1/5/24 1:52 p.m.
I'm so sad. That was NOT the kind of cougar I was hoping for!! 
You guys are awesome!
californiamilleghia said:
What program did you end up using ?
Just in case we need to do this in the future ,
Thanks
Permute
https://software.charliemonroe.net/permute/
I don't know if you're an expert with ancient photo formats or got lucky with that program, but those files easily could've been lost to history. The file utility had no clue what they were and the only information on or reference to the qdraw image format online is in this page:
https://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php/QDraw
In reply to GameboyRMH :
I've been involved with digital photography since the mid 90's and have used Apple about as long, so it's a little of both. Once I tried Qdraw and could see the car in the thumbnail, I used permute to open them as mp4 files, then convert to gif. At that point I could see the full size (320x240) image and save it as jpg. I figured they were an old, obscure format, so I saw it as a puzzle to be solved. I'm happy with results in about an hour or so :). With the age and format of those images, the quality of them above is crazy good results to me.
My first digital camera could hold (6) 320x240 photos before it was full, and had no screen.
I was slightly disappointed it was not vintage "cougar" though.
I have a copy of paint shop pro. From 1998 that still works fine on windows 11. It has a list of maybe 50 file formats it can open and save to. I keep it around as my company has used so many devises both Mac and pc that old archived jobs can have any number of photo formats.
Had an idea and found something interesting, VLC plays these files as 1-frame long videos...
