recovered .mov files refuse to play, convert, or behave in any manner PLEASE HELP

I recovered some .mov files from my sd card from my digital camera using a freeware undelete program. I used Picasa to download and delete and it didn't sve the mov's so I went back to recover them. Some will play and some will not. I've tried numerous conversion softwares, players, and I even tried screwing around with the hex headers and file endings to no avail (though I was really only guessing there). I tried VLC player and AVIDEMUX as I saw suggested here but neither of them recognize these as able to be opened. They can't be opened, rendered, forced, cajoled, played or anything else that I can see. The file sizes all seem to be appropriate though so it seems like it's just some indicator these programs are looking for that they are not finding. I just don't know what it is. I can open these in a hex editor but I don't know what a typical header and footer should look like. Can someone please help ??!!

 

You are on the right track with the hex editor.
Compare a good working file with those that don't play
to see if there are difference in the header.

 

What about QuickTime player by Apple?

The good MOVs should be playable with QuickTime instead of other apps.

 

I've tried comparing 2 working files in hex to find the common header and end of file data. Then I doctored the file that won't play. It appears to be missing the end of file. But that didn't work either. I went to the quicktime website to see if they had any info on what a header and end of file should look like, but couldn't find much help. I've tried mov to avi conversion programs, quicktime player, VLC player, avidemux, and a million and one undelete/file recovery programs to get these files back in shape. Does anyone have any other ideas for me? Or know the header/end of file hex info required to play a .mov file?