How to Recover Lost Photo Files

You can recover photos deleted from hard drives, memory cards, and USB memory sticks.

Losing photos can be heartbreaking. Documents can be rewritten, but photos are unique memories of a time that has passed. Fortunately, if you act promptly, most photos deleted from a computer hard drive, a camera's memory card, or a USB memory stick can be recovered using data recovery software.

Instructions

1. Check your system trash folder if your lost photos were stored on your computer. On a Windows computer, deleted files go into the "Recycle" bin. On a Mac, deleted files are sent to the "Trash" folder. Look for your recycle bin or trash bin on your system desktop, open it, and search inside for your lost photos. If you find your missing files, use the system's undelete function to send them back to their previous location.

2. Switch to a different computer if your lost photos were stored on your computer. If your photos were stored on a camera's memory card or USB memory stick, stop using the memory card or stick. The more you use the device the photos were on, the greater the chances that your files will be overwritten with new data, in which case you will be unable to recover your photos.

3. Select data recovery software. If your lost photos were on your computer, you might select software designed to recover photos specifically, but any regular data recovery application should be able to recover photos. If your photos were stored on a memory card or USB memory stick, take care to select data recovery software that can recover files from those devices.

4. Download data recovery software. Most data recovery programs allow you download a version of the program for free. Use the download to search your hard drive or device for your lost photos before you invest in a fully-featured version of the data recovery program.

5. Recover your photos. If possible, save them to a drive other than the one they were originally stored on. Saving it to a different drive reduces the chance that your photo files will be overwritten before they can be fully recovered.

References

• TechPro.net: How To: Recover deleted files from Windows of MacOS
• # # Lifehacker: How to Recover Deleted Files with Free Software

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish