deleted photos

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Guest

I thought I copied my photos to a disk so I deleted my photo files and then
emptied my recycle bin. I know I should have checked but... These photos are
important to me and I would like to get them back. I don't know my computer
very well. Please someone help me. Thank you.
 
Shauna said:
I thought I copied my photos to a disk so I deleted my photo files and then
emptied my recycle bin. I know I should have checked but... These photos
are
important to me and I would like to get them back. I don't know my
computer
very well. Please someone help me. Thank you.
Click to expand...

You have just learned (the hard way) one of life's most valuable lessons.
You may or may not be able to retrieve your photos.

The more you use your computer, the less your chances of retrieving your
photos.

There are several programs available at your local computer store that can,
in some cases, retrieve deleted files. Many factors affect how well they
can do their job, such as how many photos there were, if the disk was kept
defragged, and how much you have used the computer after emptying the
Recycle Bin.

An alternative would be to use one of the professional data recovery
companies, but they will *ALL* be very expensive. If the photos are truly
unique and important, it would be your best bet.

Good luck.

Honu
 
Shauna said:
I thought I copied my photos to a disk so I deleted my photo files and then
emptied my recycle bin. I know I should have checked but... These photos are
important to me and I would like to get them back. I don't know my computer
very well. Please someone help me. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Since you state that you "don't know my computer very well", the
smartest thing would be to take the machine to a local professional
skilled in data recovery. This will not be a BigStoreUSA type of place.
In-shop data recovery is usually not exactly cheap (for ex., my charges
are generally $150-350USD), but it normally costs less than sending the
drive to a professional data recovery company like Drive Savers. You
need to make the determination of the value of your data and decide what
to do. Otherwise, here is some standard data recovery information:

DO NOTHING FURTHER ON THE DRIVE. The data is still on the hard drive but
if you overwrite it, it will be extremely difficult or impossible to
recover it. If you use data recovery software, install it on another
machine and either use it from that operating system or create a
bootable cd/floppy and work with that.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software “Undelete†-
http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
File Scavenger - http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Malke
 
Shauna said:
I thought I copied my photos to a disk so I deleted my photo files
and then emptied my recycle bin. I know I should have checked but...
These photos are important to me and I would like to get them back.
I don't know my computer very well. Please someone help me. Thank
you.
Click to expand...


"Deleting" a file doesn't actually delete it; it just marks the space as
available to be used. There are third-party programs that can sometimes
recover deleted files. The problem is that the space used by the file is
likely to become overwritten very quickly, and this makes the file
unrecoverable.

So your chances of successfully recovering this file are decent if you try
recovering it immediately after deleting it, and rapidly go downhill from
there. If you've been using the computer since then (for example to write
this question and read this answer), your chances may be very poor by now.

But if the file is important enough, it's worth a try anyway. Stop using the
computer in question immediately, if you haven't done so already. Download
an undelete program (here's one:
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html but there are several others
to choose from; do a Google search) on a friend's computer and bring it to
yours on a floppy to try.

How about the camera's media card. Are the photos still there? Even if
you've deleted them, if you haven't reused the card yet and overwritten the
files, you may be able to recover the files from the card. If you insert the
media card into a card reader, the card appears to the computer just like a
removable hard drive and programs like Restoration work on those media cards
too

If these fail, your only other recourse is to take the drive to a
professional file recovery company. This kind of service is very expensive
and may or may not work in your case.
 
The makers of ccleaner have a new recovery product (beta). I've tested it,
and although it's not the best, it does a fairly good job at recovering
files. Keep in mind that you should try to recover them as soon as possible
as there is always the chance that they will be overwritten with new data.
If you want to try it for yourself, go to:

www.recuva.com

It's a very basic recovery utility without a lot of options, but it may help
your situation. Good luck!

darkrats
 
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