Well just to show that I am not infallible, today I proved it by deleting around 800 images from my memory card by mistake!
Basically I had been taking images on and off over a couple of months and downloading them as usual to my PC but not deleting them from the card (out of shear laziness).So yesterday after reviewing them via my TV whilst showing a friend some shots, I decided to delete the images from the card which I did before putting my camera away again.
Viewing them over again had spurred me into editing a few that I had taken of an old hay cart in a farm yard, it was then that I realised I had not saved that particular days shooting! Absolute disaster.
There were altogether over 800 images on the card, most had been transferred, but the farm shots had not been and they were all deleted.
I decided to try and restore the images by using one of the available programmes that claim to be able to do this. Luckily I had not reformatted the memory card and neither had I taken any more pictures. After some research I decided to download a programme called ‘Recuva’ it has a free version that carries no technical support and a paid for version that was quite cheap. Now as you know I am quite wary of downloading anything that could introduce a trojan or a virus so I was pretty careful in what I chose to use. I gave it a go and after downloading the .exe file I ran the install programme, it had the usual catchalls such as a pre-ticked box saying “Make Google Chrome my Browser” but after un-checking that option it seemed to be clean of other junk and the free version seems to be just that and no doubt the hope you may by the supported version at a later date.
After installation I ran the programme and it was very intuitive and easy to just follow the ‘wizard’ that took you through the restore process. You were asked which drive you wanted to check and you just pointed it to your memory card which when plugged into my PC comes up as drive ‘H’. It then started the recovery process and within minutes all 800 plus images were listed along with a thumbnail view of each.
There was an advanced view that showed all the technical stuff for each recovered image and the status of each recovery, there is also a traffic light system that shows green, orange or red depending upon how successful the recovery was for any particular image.When they are all visible you just put a tick in the box alongside each image you wish to recover and after giving a destination folder you just press the ‘recover’ button and that is it. All rescued files are placed into the destination folder which is best located on your PC by the way and not back to your memory card, it even gives you the option of creating a new folder as part of the recovery programme.
It worked perfectly for me and I successfully recovered over 800 images, only about 3 or 4 were not recovered, but it was due to them having been over-written at some time previously. I did run a virus check with ‘Malawarebytes’ and it did not report any nasties, so it would seem to be a safe download and it works extremely well. Just in case any of you want to give it a try and keep it on your PC for the future I have placed the setup file in the 'DropBox' for you as this site will not allow me to attach an 'executable' file to this post, but don’t forget to uncheck the Google option during the install if you use it. There are several copies in there, just drag & drop one onto your desktop.
You do not have to wait for a mishap in order to try out the recovery programme, just take a load of random images with your camera, delete them from the card (do not format the card) and do not take any more images. Now put your card into either a card reader or a PC slot reader and try out the recovery programme and see if you get your images back again.
) Never-ending.......
: , - - - I have this all worked out now, take the photos, pop down the road and my photographer friend puts them on a cd ---- which I pop into the comp ! - - am still incapable of uploading (except an email). 