Many of my photo files were accidentally deleted off my computer. Is there a possibility they are still on the hard drive somewhere or are they gone? If they are still there, how to I find them?
Provided you hadn't formatted your drive they are still there do a search for file recovery software. Sandisk used to do a free thing if you bought an SD card from them there seems to be quite a few free ones out there.
When you delete any file on your computer, it doesn't disappear completely until it's been overwritten by a new file. Deleting a file just tells the computer's operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) that the space originally occupied by the file is available for storage.
The first thing is to use the computer as little as possible until the files are retrieved. Have you checked the Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac) to see if they're there? If they're no longer in Recycle Bin/Trash, there are programs you can purchase that will recover the files, if they're still recoverable.
The photos will probably still be there unless you have written to the disk or formatted it since you deleted them. I've used a download called Recuva to successfully recover shots from a memory card - but the very act of downloading and installing Recuva might overwrite some of your shots. For the future, a second copy of your photos on an external drive would be a good precaution to protect your images.
If you do use a recover program, do not recover the images to the same hard drive they were deleted from, otherwise you run the risk of the recovery overwriting images yet to be recovered. Recover the images to any other storage device (i.e. thumb drive) and then copy them back onto your hard drive.
Usually, in order for the files to be stored at an online storage site, they have to reside on your computer initially. Go out and buy a USB thumb drive and use that as the recovery location.
You guys are going to think I am so ditzy - I have a flash drive - Scan disk and had most of the pics on that but today when I put the password in, I could not open the drive. I wrote the password on the drive package so I would not lose it but it keeps saying invalid password. If I can access these pics I will have all but the last month.
I once postponed a back up for a couple of days and within those days before I did the back up, suffered a corrupt hard drive, I lost lots of photos and a load of degree coursework, but a programme called Recover My Files got most of it back for me - it does a deep scan. If you google it, I'm sure you'll find it available somewhere on the net.
Did you just accidentally hit "delete" or did you do something more drastic? As @mercuria Ariel suggested, if the accidental delete key, they'll be in your Recycle Bin where you can simply select them (or a directory if you did the delete to a folder) and then "recover selected files." Unless you have cleaned your Recycle Bin, and then you'll need Recuva (or better) or something similar.
Oh Cheri. I have no suggestions, but am interested in reading the responses from those who do. Hope you recover them. All else fails, take your computer to the Geek Squad.
My sister in law lost her photos, she just went straight to the computer shop and they found them all. Dont muck around with programs if you do not know what you are going...go straight to the experts. Good luck
Thank for all your suggestions! I used Recuva and got pretty much all my files back - a few were broken. I did delete the Recycle Bin - I only deleted one file but for some reason all my recent files were deleted also - don't know how. I tried to download Carbonite to store my files in now but it won't open for me. I will continue to look for an online storage product to keep my pics safe int he future.
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The first thing is to use the computer as little as possible until the files are retrieved. Have you checked the Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac) to see if they're there? If they're no longer in Recycle Bin/Trash, there are programs you can purchase that will recover the files, if they're still recoverable.
Ian
Of course if you're running Windows you could look at the Recycle Bin and maybe restore some from there.