What was the exact wording of the message from Windows?
What kind of files were they? If they were DNG files, Windows might not know what to do with them?
If the files were encrypted, Windows will never be able to "read" them.
Files are JPEGs (according to Properties) range in size from 5,000kb to 13,600kb
First application I tried was the default Windows Photo Viewer, an got message:
"Windows Photo Viewer cannot open the picture because the file appears damaged, corrupted, or is too large"
Second app I tried was Photoshop Elements 7, and got message:
"Could not complete your request because a JPEG marker segment length is too short (the file may be truncated or incomplete)".
Lastly, tried Paint.Net, and got:
"System.ArgumentException: Parameter is not valid.
at System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(Stream stream, Boolean useEmbeddedColorManagement, Boolean validateImageData)
at PaintDotNet.Data.JpegFileType.OnLoad(Stream input) in D:\src\pdn\src\PaintDotNet\Data\JpegFileType.cs:line 78
at PaintDotNet.FileType.Load(Stream input) in D:\src\pdn\src\Data\FileType.cs:line 496
at PaintDotNet.Functional.Func.Eval[T1,TRet](Func`2 f, T1 arg1) in D:\src\pdn\src\Base\Functional\Func.cs:line 158"