Retrieving "lost" photographs on memory card.

[Wacky Racer]

Quick question from a numpty.

I know sometimes (if you are lucky) you can retrieve photographs which have been accidentally deleted from a computer hard drive, but can you do the same with the memory card from a camera?

I have "lost" all my family photographs from 2015-18, when I had to re-install Windows on my laptop (Omitted to back them up doh!) and I cannot get them back despite trying, not the end of the world, but I was thinking....they were all taken with the same camera, a cheap Canon Sureshot A560 (If that makes a difference)

The memory card is still in, we are talking maybe 150-200 pictures.

Thanks in anticipation.

[Nimby]

"Recuva" might work. There is a free version.

[AlexC1981]

It should be possible. I did this about 10 years ago so I can't remember what software I used. It was for recovering data from hard drives, but I plugged the camera in the USB and through the software I selected the camera as a drive and it worked.

[ReverendCounter]

Yes, you can Subrosasoft do Filesalvage in addition to the aforementioned Recuva.

But I don't quite understand - you've wiped the laptop but you've still got the original pics, or you've reformatted the card and now you want to retrieve?

Both can be done but the more you use the card or computer the higher the difficulty in getting good recovery.

Have you deleted them off the card? If so, should still be recoverable. But if you've taken pics after the deletion, same issue with poor chance of recovery.

[rich888]

You have a pretty good chance of recovering your photos if you haven't used the camera much since taking the pics because they probably won't have been written over.

I've used https://www.isobuster.com/ in the past to recover photos from a CD that hadn't been closed and nothing else would even recognise the CD let alone recover the pics, it's now evolved to recover files from other media such as SD cards, etc.

The actual software has been around for an awful long time so the developer must be doing something right.

Hope this helps to recover your pics.

[Simpo Two]

I use Lexar Image Recovery which comes free when you buy a Lexar card. The stuff it finds it remarkable!

Contrary to popular belief, deleting files then using the card again does not render the previous files extinct.

[andrewrob]

I've used photorec for recovering both raw and jpeg images and had good results. Make sure you set the output path to your hard drive rather than the card

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

ETA It's free

[Wacky Racer]

Firstly thanks for the replies.

It's really strange. My pictures from '04 to 2015 are still on my computer, because they have been saved on Microsoft's one drive fortunately, but the newer ones from '15 on have gone.

Microsoft's support couldn't help me

That is probably because I changed my laptop in 2015, and I still have my old one which hasn't been "wiped". They are probably still on one drive from that one.

Regarding the camera memory card I have deleted my old photographs, several times so that the memory card did not fill up, and of course further photo's have been added "on top".

[rich888]

You have nothing to lose from trying one of the recovery suggestions made, am sure isobuster has a trial period for you to try it out.

Good luck with it.

Edited to add that the 'Lexar Image Recovery' suggestion by Simpo Two sounds pretty good to me, I gather he does take an awful lot of wedding pics so must occasionally come up against this issue.

Edited by rich888 on Wednesday 19th September 11:33

[IanJ9375]

Nimby said:

"Recuva" might work. There is a free version.

That's the one I use - brilliant for a free version to be fair

[Simpo Two]

Wacky Racer said:

Regarding the camera memory card I have deleted my old photographs, several times so that the memory card did not fill up, and of course further photo's have been added "on top".

Not necessarily a dealbreaker, as I said.

rich888 said:

Edited to add that the 'Lexar Image Recovery' suggestion by Simpo Two sounds pretty good to me, I gather he does take an awful lot of wedding pics so must occasionally come up against this issue.

When I did weddings I was extremely careful with the files and backed them all up immediately, so I never lost one.

Now I tend to take only a few dozen photos at a time, transfer them to HD and delete them from the card. So the card/s has been through the 'delete/add photos on top' cycle many times. If I delete a photo by mistake, Lexar Image Rescue not only finds it but hundreds of others. So if you want your photos back, try it; you have nothing to lose. Or send it over and I'll give it a beasting for you.

[Wacky Racer]

Simpo Pm sent

Thanks to all for your advice.