HELP! I DELETED EVERYTHING!!!!
We’ve all done it, and if you haven’t yet… you will! I promise! Sometimes it’s an innocent accident. Occasionally, a memory card may get corrupt or wiped. What do you do when you delete your photos?
Cry… yes, that’s usually the first thing. But my Dad always told me it’s okay to have your pity party, but then you need to move on. But moving on doesn’t mean moving on WITHOUT them!
There is a chance that you could still recover those images. I recently deleted some files completely by accident and found a trusty piece of software, Recuva, that was able to recover 4 out of the 7 files I deleted. I’ll take a 57% success rate over a complete loss any day!
Download Recuva for Windows here.
Not a Windows user? No fear, there are alternatives to Recuva, see this link.
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
Does this software help recover pictures from corrupted external hard drive ?
Thank you..
I’m not sure, I don’t have a drive like that too test it on.
I don’t trust their pricing, free trial, one-year license strategy, and lifetime payments! They are not open and transparent about payments. It is difficult to find the application and price you mention in your article. I will never get caught in their pricing trap. Period. There are NO “world class” backup applications on the market (I use Carbon Copy Cloner) and most are 3rd grade-level applications. Can’t wait for an application advertising AI usage; another pile of marketing garbage.
Then don’t buy it and find an alternative if you need it. All I can say is over used it several times and paid for it when I needed it and it’s worked great.
Instead of looking for a magic wand, adopt a workflow that makes file deletion very, very unlikely. And stick to it. Here’s mine:
1) Copy/paste from your card to a NEW (empty) folder your computer’s hard drive.
2) Using your explorer’s Properties facility, compare the file count and memory size on the card AND your hard drive folder. They should be the same.
3) REMOVE the card from your computer and put it BACK IN THE CAMERA.
4) COPY the hard drive folder to an EXTERNAL drive.
5) COMPARE the hard and external drive folders.
Now your files exist in THREE places. Go to Bridge or equivalent and quickly scan the folders looking for corrupted files. At this point your files are safe and you can clean the memory card.
Been doing it this way for years. Too much work? Is trying to re-shoot once-in-a-lifetime images too much work? Pissing off a client unimportant?
I do very much the same thing almost to the letter. But there are times you get complacent it something interrupts your workflow and accidents happen ?
I would never use a camera with only one card slot. My two Nikon-Cameras are set to save the same file on two cards simultaneously.
My workflow is similar to the above:
– I copy/import the new photos from the memory card to a folder called import on a seperate SSD
– I do culling in this folder and copy the remaining photos to their final destination which is a subfolder of “photos” on an other SSD
– I delete all the files on the memory card
– A daily backup copies all files from the photos drive to my server
– A backup overnight copies all file to a NAS
– Next day or sometime later I delete the files from the import folder
In case I deleted something too early, I still have the files on two palces: the second memory card and the import folder
Recovery software is very useful, but should always be the last tool to be used if your risk management completely failed
Absolutely! ? That’s why I used it here…
The first step when you discover that you deleted the files is…
1) On the SD memory card, slide the write protect switch to the LOCK position to prevent any further writes to the card.
2) The maker of the Memory Card usually has a LINK on the packaging to download their recovery app.
3) I use 2 or 3 different file recovery apps. Sometime the other apps will recover files that the first app missed.
4) When done with the recovery process, UNLOCK the memory card and FORMAT it in the camera it will be used in.
The Native Format program in the camera will clean up any file structure anomalies back to factory structure.
If there are odd folders and such on the card, they get fixed. The RULE is, Always Format the card in the Camera between uses.
A few years ago, when I put my memory card into the computer to download photos, I got the message that the file was corrupt and that I should reformat the card. This would have caused me to erase all the photos on the card. I bought (not free) Rescue Pro Deluxe. It worked like a charm and I got all my files back.
Recently, I had the same problem again (different memory card). I already had Rescue Pro Deluxe on my computer so used it again and it recovered all the photos.
Easy to use and worked well.
I really appreciate all the saving workflow tips you guys are giving, they may be great for others.
Look I have a pretty great process on my end, this was a fluke. I figured I’d make this post for anyone who is wondering how to recover files.
When it comes to any workflow, I get it, everyone’s a critic ?
Sorry for your travails, but this is nice to know. Question: did you simply delete the files or reformat the card? I suspect it would not work on reformatting. There are those who say simply erasing files on a card leads to other problems, and you should reformat. That said, cards have gotten so relatively cheap I keep them as a constant backup. I prefer 32 GB cards simply to use them and then keep them safe and move on to a new card. Too, they are less expensive. The smaller cards seem to get harder to find. All said, thank you for sharing your experience — for when I need it.
Just deleted, I hadn’t formatted the card yet because I didn’t put it back in the computer.
Do you know if this process or something similar exists to get an external hard drive to show up again? For some reason I can’t get mine to show up.
That I’m not sure of.
Thank you. I had a card fowl out in the camera and had trouble finding any options, at that time, for recovery. I lost all but 7 images out of one of my best shooting days ever. I had to mail it to a company in CA and it cost a bunch. Again this was some time ago but left its mark and made me paranoid about having it happen again ever since. So having this information adds to my sense of calm when on the road. I also use smaller cards so if it happens again I don’t lose as much.
Years ago, when I was not as smart as today, I found a card in my jeans when I took them out of the washing machine. I actually was able to recover the files on the card with some software that was on the card. I believe it was a Sandisk card.
I used a free program put out by Sandisk to recover files. I was using that brand SD card. I almost lost all my photos of my sister’s wedding years ago. My workflow now is to make sure my files are in Lightroom and backed up before I delete them off the card in my camera by formatting the card in camera.