Can Deleted Photos Be Recovered?
 

Can deleted photos on a digital camera be recovered? I'm a member at this place and some important photos were lost. I can't believe no one bothered to upload them onto a computer before deleting them. Apparently, they delete photos when they need room to take more photos. Someone obviously didn't think the ones we'd eventually need were important. That's the trouble with digital cameras I guess.

I'm not going to go into why they are important... but I just wanted to know if it's possible to recover them. The photos were taken two years ago. And there's been photos taken since, and photos deleted. Probably can not recover, right? I imagine they'd have to have been recent to do that.

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yes. u need a good recovery software.

unless you have..

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o...r-dolorean.jpg

don't think so :(

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quick google search

http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/60

It depends
 

Basically, it depends. It depends on how the memory was formatted and what file system it is using. It also depends on whether the actual memory space the photos occupied was overwritten.

Many digital cameras use the FAT or FAT32 file systems. These file systems do not delete files, they simply change the file header leaving the original data intact. If that is all that happened the photos might be able to be recovered (good recovery software can often retrieve files of this nature).

However, if the actual memory location of the photos was overwritten with other data, the pictures are most likely lost. (Depending on many factors, sometimes even this can be recovered.)

If they are very important to you, and you have the cash to spend, I would recommend a data recovery service. They are expensive, but they have the tools and the know-how to recover just about anything if it is possible.

2 years? 99% chance your are SOL... :2 cents:

You have been awarded BEST ANSWER. Thank you! BTW, I think the camera was a Sony Cybershot. Pretty small and silver. I'll look up the file system for this camera now.

EDIT: Also, do you know if a recovery specialist would be able to find by date? Because I do know the timeframe these pictures were taken. Or are we talking about looking through every single photo the camera has ever taken?

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No problem. I've been through the ringer a time or two myself, so I know what it's like to have your data on the line. I do hope your able to recover your data.

I am not sure if they could locate the file by date because I'm more familiar with the encoding of windows files, but the odds are good that is visible to their recovery methods.

Also, I found that the file format is generally based on the size of the card: Under 2GB is generally FAT16 (also known simply as FAT) and over 2GB is generally FAT32. Which is the same for Windows files as well, the FAT16 just runs out of memory addresses.

I also found a link for some software you can try; but keep in mind any further tinkering could lose recoverable data...so only try this if you are comfortable with the risks :)
http://www.photo-recovery-software.com/

Ok, just to round this out I have two sites for data recovery specialists you can look at. Now, I haven't dealt with either of these. The company I had in mind was from several years back and I can't honestly remember their contact or website information.

So, here's two sites that looked good and the second site offers a 'no recovery - no charge' guarantee, which I would recommend.

http://datarecoveryspecialist.com/usb_data_recovery.htm
http://www.werecoverdata.com/

Pricing started at $95 and up on the first site. The second site, I didn't see any prices up front. Which, can actually be a good sign and with the no recovery offer, probably a safe bet.

Just make sure that the offer is for the data you want, not just a blanket "any data we recover counts" kinda deal...which is still better than nothing. But better to know that up front, instead of when you get the bill.

LMK if you need anything else.

The photos were taken 2 years ago, but when were they DELETED? If it was recently then you may still have a chance.

Flash memory uses a wear levelling technique that spreads writes over different parts of the memory space (each cell has a finite number of writes before it goes bad) so in theory even if something is deleted it may still be residing in the flash somewhere. The person doing the recovery would probably need intimate knowledge of the chipset inside the flash card, and how it works...

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If they can do it with a hard drive im sure they can do it with your camera. Good Luck

unlikely....

take the photo again..