If "recover" is used in the meaning of simply copying files from a place that is behaving badly, the file format shouldn't seem to make any difference in most cases. All that's required is finding where the file starts and copying the bits that come after that. (Windows since Vista, at least theoretically, has a utility built in with the "Advanced Administration" Tools that's supposed to be able to do magic on "lost files." I don't know if anything similar is in WinXP, but it's apparently a well guarded secret even in later versions, and may not be in "Home Basic" kits. And since I haven't tried it I'm willing to assume it probably doesn't work, but ... .

Even if the file is in a form for which you don't have a program that can display that format it would seem that you should be able to copy the file from one place to another regardless of format, with tools commonly used for hard drives, floppies, and such.

Finding the bits and making a copy depends on features of the storage medium, and quite a few programs seem to be able to handle both HDs and Memory cards easily enough, but the copying capability has almost nothing to do with what kind of file you're messing with.

That random and arbitrary leap in logic seems to lead to the suggestion that perhaps programs mentioned also attempt to "put the bits back" in the individual files that are corrupted in some way in the original storage place. It would be reasonable that the program would need to know an original format to restore a corrupted file back to a good copy, and that likely would require a fairly specialized program that would be dependent on format of the files.

Recognizing that getting a software seller (or distributor) to actually tell you what a given program is supposed to do is usually an impossible task, does anyone know, or care to speculate on, what exotic capabilities the programs mentioned may have in addition to the ability to make copies from one place to another - if any? (Aside from being "wonderful" and "necessary," which all distributors are willing to proclaim for them all.)

John