A solution to corrupted NEF files

So you’re looking through your vast amount of images and you come across an old favorite and you decide to rework it in capture NX to reprint it only to find that NX won’t open it anymore! You’re in shock, because this is one of your favorite images and you don’t have a backup!
But don’t panic, yet. I have had a few images in the past that wouldn’t open as well and I have pretty much nailed the cause of the problem and thankfully the solution is easy as long as they aren’t really corrupted because the problem is not corruption but a bug between versions of Nikon Capture.
I first thought my files were corrupted by Windows Vista defragmenting tool since I first came across such a “corrupted” file when I first switched to Vista. I was so convinced I switched back to Windows XP. Now, a few months later and still coming across “corrupted” files, I thought I look into this with more vigilance.
I searched the net and honestly couldn’t find a solution anywhere. What I did find was a tone of pages reporting similar problems, so then I knew I had to try harder and figure this out for myself.
During my search, the only tool I did download was ExifTool. Now this tool won’t fix Nef files, but it was the information that it revealed to me that got me thinking in the right direction. I was surprised to note that my corrupted file actually had information recorded regarding when and in what program it was last edited. This happened to be Capture NX 1.2. Then I thought maybe I need to use that version to open it. But why then are all my other files opening in version 1.3 with no hiccups? Anyway I tried this and quite surprisingly it worked!
So without changing anything, I saved it with a different file name and tried to open it in version 1.3 with no success. I then remembered that quite a while back and a way before using Vista, I had a similar problem which was solved when I removed the cropping. (But without realizing it at the time, I had used two different versions of Capture since I used two different computers, my office PC and a laptop)
So I removed the cropping from the edit list and saved the file. It still did not open in version 1.3. Next I reloaded the original settings and saved the file. Still no go. So I looked deeper and found that the file still had more information embedded in it in the form of different editing versions. So I removed this and the file magically opened in Capture NX 1.3.

So to recap, the files I had problems with were files I had edited in a previous version of Capture but had also used two certain questionable actions:

1. Saving different editing versions within the NEF file
2. Saving a crop as a separate step in the edit list

This doesn’t seem to affect all files but I am from now on restricting the use of the “editing versions” and the cropping tool.
If and when I hear more from Nikon I will reuse them.
Obviously, the lesson learned here is to keep all your previous copies of Capture in case you ever come across the same problem. Another little program you may want to have handy is ExifTool. With this little tool you can find out what the last version of Capture altered the file.
So much for “corrupted” Nef files. The problem was buggy software all along. Ok, so a lot of you are saying, why use Capture in the first place, but I like this software very much. Personally I can’t really blame Nikon for this bug, considering other software’s have more serious problems in nearly every version released.
So if you come across what seems like a “corrupted” file these are the steps I recommend:

1. Remember or find out (ExifTool) what version of Capture last edited your corrupted file.
2. Find a computer with the version of capture you need or load that version to yours after removing the current version.
3. Then hope to god that the file opens.
4. If it opens your in heaven. Now remove any different versions saved within the NEF and then load original settings and save. You may want to try removing any cropping as well.

Happy shooting and editing