Help - i've lost my photos

herewegoagain2010

I've been a complete and utter idiot :mad: A couple of weeks ago, I decided to get rid of all my piccies off my hard drive by saving them to disc. I started off by cutting and paste them onto my E drive, put the disc in the drive and then format and named it. It made some grinding noises and I thought the paste part would be enough, but now I've gone back to have a look at the disc it's empty. Where have the photos gone? Have they gone forever? I'm having heart failure as it was all our xmas pics of the children.......i could cry. Please, please can anyone help me restore the lost files?

Sput2001

Download and run Recuva

If possible save it to a location other than the hard drive where your photos were, e.g. a memory stick.

It depends on how much saving activity there's been on your hard drive lately (the less the better), but there's a chance you'll be able to rescue some of them.

Good luck!

bingo_bango

If Recuva doesn't get them all back, you could also try Photorec. I've used it with brilliant results in the past. And it's free!

Kingsd316

I use this:

http://www.easeus.com/

Top class piece of software, its saved me many times when ive deleted something i shouldnt have, unfortunatly its not free though

closed

Recycle bin?

herewegoagain2010

Thanks for the replies guys I've tried to download the recovery but not sure how to use it or what to do next. I've checked the recycle bin, but no sign of anything. What happens when you cut the file ....where does it go? Please help a very frustrated mummy. Could someone please explain in very basic steps for me so I've got a chance of understanding it?
Thanks Herewego x

kwikbreaks

herewegoagain2010 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys I've tried to download the recovery but not sure how to use it or what to do next. I've checked the recycle bin, but no sign of anything. What happens when you cut the file ....where does it go? Please help a very frustrated mummy. Could someone please explain in very basic steps for me so I've got a chance of understanding it?
Thanks Herewego x

> What happens when you cut the file ....where does it go?

If you do a cut then that bypasses the recycle bin. The recovery programs mentioned may find some of them still on the original drive.

If I read what you did correctly it was formatting the drive after pasting the files in. You may still be able to recover them on that drive although it may need the sister utility to photorec - test disk - http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download which I've used with success in the past when a disk partition table got corrupted somehow.

Lil306

herewegoagain2010 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys I've tried to download the recovery but not sure how to use it or what to do next. I've checked the recycle bin, but no sign of anything. What happens when you cut the file ....where does it go? Please help a very frustrated mummy. Could someone please explain in very basic steps for me so I've got a chance of understanding it?
Thanks Herewego x

Windows stores files on the clipboard, providing you haven't switched off your PC since then you should still be able to recover most of them

RECUVA
(Before we start I'd recommend creating a folder called "Restore")
- Download and install then open it
- Click next on the wizard
- On page, leave the dot in the box "pictures" - click Next
- Leave it on "I'm not sure" - click next
- Tick "enabled deep scan" then click start
- Let the scan run (warning can be lengthy)
- When it's finished, you will get a list of files it finds

• Files with green dots are usually 100%, red dots are normally corrupted

- To restore the files it finds, tick the little box to the far left and click the restore button, choose the restore folder then let it run. Pictures it finds will be restored.
N.B - To select all photos, at the very top left of the column there is a tick box, tick this to select everything...


PhotoRec
(haven't used this much yet, I'd suggest Recuva first, then we can continue from there)

kwikbreaks

Lil306 wrote: »

Windows stores files on the clipboard

Text yes. File data no.

herewegoagain2010

Kwik & lil

Thanks for your replies. I really do appreciate you taking the time to post. Am running now so will update with results.

Thanks Again

imho

Easeus is free for 3 days. You then can use it forever without paying http://www.majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Data_Recovery_Wizard_-_3_Day_Giveaway_d6421.html