Yeah, not my proudest moment as a picture-taking obsessed woman. And maybe you don’t need this tip now because you’re smarter than I am, but you never know…
After taking tons of pics on our trip to Arkansas for Mike’s grandparents’ 60th Anniversary, I came home and filed my digital pictures away on my computer for the month. Or, so I thought I did.
Then in a moment of stupid, idiotic, impuslive gotta-do-something-with-my-hands craziness, I deleted all my photos from my camera. The nice camera asked if I was sure, to which I replied, YES!
Oh, I shouldn’t have been so sure.
Days later I went perusing those files on My Pictures looking for one to use on my blog. Wait a minute! Stop it! Those pictures weren’t there? What? You’ve got to be kidding me! Oh, I felt sick.
Well, after figuring out that I deleted them and figuring these once in a lifetime pictures were gone forever, and after throwing up any pride I had right into the toilet, I decided to ask Mike what I should do.
He helped me find a data recovery software called PC Smart Media Recovery (it’s free and you can visit their website here). Since all I cared about was the fact that it worked and not so much how it worked, I don’t really know how to describe how it worked. And you might not care in the least how it worked, so you don’t really want to read how it worked. But it DID WORK! All pictures were recovered! It helped that I didn’t overwrite them with other pictures. And it helped that I bought a memory card reader at Best Buy because at first the software didn’t “find” my camera to begin with.
Since I mentioned Best Buy…while their customer service was very accessible, quick, and friendly to help me with my purchase, I was disappointed that they didn’t even know software like this existed. I told them that I deleted all my pictures off my memory card and they said I would probably not ever see those photos again. But then I was ushered to The Geek Squad and they told me it might work, but would cost me a pretty penny. I could send my memory card to their data recovery center in Louisville, KY and for $59 they could scan the card and then for anywhere from $250 they could retrieve the images, if any. Hmmph, what do they know? I got all my images back and it was for FREE!
Plus the cost of a software engineer husband who bailed me out yet once again. But that’s just the fine print.
So, if you’re ever in the same boat that I was in and accidentally deleted your pictures from your camera’s memory card, before you run out in panic and jump from a building, don’t sweat it. Those pictures are hiding on the card somewhere and you can get them back!
For other Works-For-Me-Wednesday tips visit Shannon’s blog over at Rocks In My Dryer
Been there! Mine were deleted from my hard drive, though, with no hope of recovery- I tried everything I could find without spending lots of $$. I’m so glad you were able to retrieve yours!
Thanks for this tip. I’m not super tech-savvy, so I’m glad that you figured this out for me!
This is fabulous news! Wow. I had no idea. I wonder what else is hiding on the little chip? Thanks!
I have also been there but not on my camera but my hard drive. ALL of my digital pictures. Deleted. No where to be found. Unfortunately I did not know of such software at the time and took my hard drive to Best Buy. Was told the same information as you about the retrieval and opted for the uber expensive route. Well, the tech mis-read the instructions on the work order and not only did NOT preform the retrieval as requested, but formated the entire hard drive! Best Buy said they would waive any fees for my trouble. Oh, I feel better now! Thank you for the tip. I will down load the software ASAP. By the way, I now save my digital pictures on two hard drives just in case. I guess that is kind of a tip too!