[NoPunIntended]

I reformatted my harddrive on my old computer and backed everything up to CD-Rs. I went back to open these files after I formatted and they worked. Now a few months after, I am going back to view these files and they do not work on my new computer nor on the computer with the hard drive I formatted. Mostly pictures and video from my digital camera will no longer play. Newer videos from my camera do seem to work though. Some older files just don't. I have the newest version of VLC, the files are .avi, but when I go to properties on the file, it says its a Windows Movie. It also says Windows movie for the new newer videos. By newer I mean newer than these older videos. When I use VLC there just isn't any video. When I use Windows Media Player it says:

Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

When I go to the files properties of the ones that work, under the Summary tab, in the Advanced option, it will give me info on the file, yet on the videos that don't work, it will not give me info. Some picture files don't work. I open them and some just say, "No preview available". Some other pictures work.

Some videos that I burnt downloaded from the internet work and some don't. I don't get it.

[mistawiskas]

Hmmmm....I seem to be having a similar problem too. Probably some shit assed microsoft update BS.
I turned MS update off and do my updating manually now. All my icons have changed and I have to go in and reassociate some files to get them to play. Did you install any new/or even old programs that may be highjacking associations?

[NoPunIntended]

I have MS Updates turned off also. What kind of new/old programs would you be referring to?