What if you lost your digital images?

[flopster]

hi there,

Myself, like many others have by mistake formatted my memory card and lost my photos. I know they can be recovered, but I have taken some other photos on top.

Does that mean part of the formatted won't be recovered because I have taken photos on top of them, and part will be able to be recovered?
are free photo recovery software safe to download?

Flopster

[SmartWombat]

I use the RescuePro software that comes free with the SanDisk memory cards I buy.

[freygr]

hi there,

Myself, like many others have by mistake formatted my memory card and lost my photos. I know they can be recovered, but I have taken some other photos on top.

Does that mean part of the formatted won't be recovered because I have taken photos on top of them, and part will be able to be recovered?
are free photo recovery software safe to download?

Flopster

If you format the card and then used it to take more photos yes some of the images may have been over written and lost. The chance of the new images overwriting the lost increases with how full the card was before the formatting (the firmware on the card does use leveling due to the limited number of writes per cell limitations).

Most photo recovery tools (free & pay) will recover any image which has not been over written.

[Andra2000]

a very nice sharing. really appreciated. thanks

[jamadophotography]

RescuePro is awesome. Not 100% but still better than nothing!!!!

[yad99in]

if you lose your digital images from camera only solution is take the help of some good photos recovery software. Lots of good photo recovery software are coming with demo version with the help of demo version you can see the preview of recoverable images, thus you will get to know that software will work for you or not. such one good software is Stellar photo Recovery software.

[PicBackMan]

I has happened to me, and believe me the feeling is not good. I used to format my SD card after i have copied them onto my laptop, and unfortunately my system crashed. As I'm not a tech savvy person I took to an expert to see if he could recover my data, My bad luck, all what i had in the system had gone. Since then I made sure to have multiple backups. In the form of DVDs, External hard drives, cloud storage etc. This way So, now if I loose my photos at one place, I can be rest assured that they are safe at another.

[CMather]

Yes +1 for RescuePro. Just used it to recover 3GB of bad data for a customer. Worked well. As stated below not 100% however we ended up getting about 85% of the corrupted data. Customer was very happy. :-)

[orshi]

I had same problem

[Arina]

If this nightmare(ish) thing ever happen to me, I would cry for two day at least coz I've around 8000+ photos stored on my PC. Secondly, I'll look for way to backup my digital memories.

I think I should start backing up my photos NOW. before anything like this occur.

[bitflogger]

Backing up is not just for truck drivers.

Your backups should be in multiple formats as well as more than once place. There's no excuse except for being an idiot these days because disks are so inexpensive and for some scenarios cloud storage can be free.

Do take this consideration. A cold backup - one that's not live or available on a same network - is very important. This is because a virus such as CrytoLocker or a compromised computer can get your online backup or copies.

Amazon Glacier storage with software like Cloudberry (Windows) or Arq (Mac) is a great way to moderate costs and have TNO privacy. TNO is "trust no one".

[Brandondelano]

Hi there new to the forum

[PWhite214]

One and two TB portable USB drives are pretty inexpensive. I bought two 1 TB WD My Passport drives in August for our 3-week road trip. Those two drives will become my '2014' back up drives. There is a pair for each year.

All my cards have numbers, indelible ink on the card. This is all complicated by the multiple cameras, requiring both CF and SD cards. The cameras are also numbered. I take notes on location, camera used, ETC.

After transferring files to my main computer, I back file up to two drives, one stays here at my home, the other goes to my daughter's house. The drives get exchanged at least once a week.

Then there is 'Cloud', though my entire digital collection is not uploaded yet, it is working on it.

The major worry is getting home and transferring files after shooting. I have two memory card cases, one marked 'Used', the other marked 'Empty'. As a card approaches 75% of it's capacity, it goes in the 'Used' case. One card then comes out of the 'new' case and into the camera. If I am on a overnight trip, I read the files into a computer, and on a USB hard drive.

Condensing to a set of RULES:

Number your cards, make notes
Don't mix Empty formatted cards with Used cards
Change cards between 50 and 75%
Transfer files ASAP
Do not erase or format cards until data is transferred to at least two drives

I have not lost a digital file since 2008, when I started using this system.

Phil

[cfl211]

take new photos again

[Mel Kerruish]

I have just tried RAW format and can't open them on my computer! So really, I have lost mine too! D:

[click101]

Back up on icloud, dropbox or Copy.

[click101]

A really good system. Thanks for sharing.

[click101]

Me too. Looks like we could learn a lot from these threads.

[click101]

Is there no way of retrieving lost pictures?

[click101]

If you had a mac, would you be able to recoup lost pictures through "Time Machine?"

[chandran]

I too possess with the same query.. Can we get back our digital pictures ????

[know4u]

i think it consumes more space.. its better to use dropbox

[know4u]

am new to this forum... am a blogger . i own the website know4u.com
i would like to add some useful contents in my website, any suggestions?

[cineguerrilha]

that is a problem analog photography did not seem to have. most people seem to take much better care of negatives than sd cards.

[cineguerrilha]

the problem w those is if they go bankrupt (remember geocities?)