How to Recover Deleted Photos

Deleted Files in the Data Storage Device

We generally have a thinking that once the photos or any other data is deleted from their respective folders and also from the recycle bin, it is completely deleted. There are many ways in which files get deleted; such as accidental deletion of the files, accidental formatting of the memory stick, the memory card goes corrupt or unreadable, or similar other reasons. No matter how the photos are deleted from the computer's hard drive or the camera's memory stick, surprisingly, the files are still there, unless they are not overwritten by new data.

When photos or any type of data accidentally gets deleted from the memory stick or the hard drive, the space on which the data was stored is not wiped off completely. That space is tagged as 'available' for other replacement data to get stored in its place. When the system finds such space, it overwrites and store other data on it. At this point of time, the computer will not recognize the deleted data, though it is kind of stored in the data storage device. If new data overwrites the deleted data space, then unfortunately your data is in no way recoverable. Read more on laptop data recovery.

How to Recover Deleted Photos from Memory Card?

If you have accidentally deleted photos from the memory card of your digital camera and want to recover them, make sure you do not use the memory card further for storing any more pictures. Remove it from the camera or camera phone, and keep it in a secure place for data recovery. You will need a file recovery software for getting back your image files. You can download free or trial versions of such applications from the Internet, or purchase them from the computer shop.

Install one such software on your desktop or notebook computer by following the setup instructions. For starting the data recovery procedure, you will have to use a memory card reader. Insert the memory stick into the card reader and connect the card reader to the PC. If you are using a laptop computer which has a card reader, you can directly insert the card into the slot. Run the data recovery application and follow the guidelines for finding the data. Read more on types of card readers.

Typical steps of using the data recovery software includes opening the software's interface, locating the card reader and the memory card in it, setting the destination folder where the recovered files are to be stored, and giving the 'recover' command. This is all you have to do to recover deleted photos and other data. If you are thinking how to recover deleted photos from computer hard drives, the same procedure is to be used, but by locating the disk drive where the photos were deleted from.