Problem Solving: How to Fix the Missing File Headers Error - Qiling  

Missing File Headers? We Can Resolve the Header Missing Case


What Is a File Header

A file header is a signature placed at the beginning of a file. Thus, the operating system and other software know what to do with the following contents. Many electronic discovery applications will use the file header as a means to verify the file types. File headers allow users to locate the contents of deleted files, user activity logs, registry entries, and other relevant artifacts.

However, some users encounter the issue - the file has no header, on their Windows computers. Therefore, some useful solutions are available here to help solve this issue.

how to restore missing file header

Solution 1. Repair Corrupted Files with Professional File Repair Software

This is an efficient way to resolve file header missing problems. Usually, a file header disappearing error arises due to file corruption. Qiling file repair tool can repair corrupted Office files and PDF documents with different errors.  

This file repair software fixes almost all types of corruption from any file, including .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, and pdf. Follow the steps to repair corrupt files and restore missing headers.

Step 1. Launch Deep Data Recovery. Select file types and click "Next" to start.

Select file types that you want to recover

Step 2. Select a disk location where the corrupted files are saved. Click "Scan" to start finding the broken files. Qiling file repair tool allows you to fix damaged documents, videos, and pictures in differnet formats. 

select a location and click scan

Step 3. After scanning, you can quickly find corrupt data by file type. If you want to repair damaged Word, Excel, or PDF, select Documents and filter a specific category. For pictures and videos repair, all the common types are suppored, including JPEG, PNG, BMP, MOV, MP4, GIF, and more.

recover and repair corrupted files

Step 4. Qiling file repair software will automatically fix broken files. You can preview the repaired files before recovery. Last, click "Recover" and save the recovered files to a different location to avoid data overwriting.

Solution 2. Restore File Header Manually

If you want to resolve the file missing header problem without software, then perform the following steps:

For Word Documents

Step 1. Open the Microsoft Word file and open any document or you can also create a new one by clicking on the File menu > New option.

Step 2. Make sure your Word file is in editable mode. If your Word file is in non-editable mode, then there is a yellow toolbar available that is asking you to edit the document.

Step 3. You can move your mouse just above the top of the Word page.

Step 4. After that, you will see that your mouse pointer has been changed to 2 arrows pointing which are away from each other.

Step 5. Once your mouse has the double arrows then double click on the file and your missing headers will re-appear on the top of the Word document.

recover missing word file header

For Pictures

Step 1. Launch the Paint application from your PC.

Step 2. Scribble or draw anything in the black space.

Step 3. Next, go to "File > Save As > JPEG picture". In the Save As dialog box, provide the location to save the newly created JPEG file.

Step 4. Enter the filename and click on the Save button. Next, proceed to import the newly created JPEG file and the affected file in the Hex editor. The Hex editor will attempt to repair the affected file.

get back missing  photos' header

Conclusion

A missing header is a very common issue. In this post, we provide you with two solutions to resolve the file header missing problem. The header stops showing itself due to file corruption. So, the most efficient way to solve this error is using a robust file repair tool to fix damaged files. 

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