Can I recover all my lost photos?

EverDecreasingCircles

Hi


I had a whole load of photos on a USB stick (8GB). When it was full I bought a 16GB USB and transferred all my photos. Now I can't access them. I get a message saying there is a problem with it. I try scan and fix but that won't work.


Is there any way I can find my photos?


Answers in easy to understand tech language would be appreciated:o

pramsay13

Did you transfer them successfully?
Is it the 8GB or the 16GB stick you are having a problem with?
Have you tried it in another computer?
There are probably a few options but if you're looking for help in easy to understand tech language it might be best just to take to a computer shop and ask them for help recovering photos.

Naf

How did you transfer them?
Did you verify they were definitely on the new stick successfully before deleting them from the old one?
Why don't you have a backup copy?

EverDecreasingCircles

I 'moved' the photos from one stick to the other.
It's the 16gb one I'm having problems with.
I'll try my son's laptop when he gets home.
I didn't check they were on the new stick before deleting as I moved them directly from one to the other.
"Why don't you have a backup copy?" Because I'm a numpty

Naf

What have you done with the memory sticks since performing the move?

EverDecreasingCircles

I've checked the 8gb and it's empty. I've checked the 16gb and can see that 8gb of storage has been taken up but I can't access it. I tried downloading a recovery app but don't really know what I'm doing with it. It seems to have saved the pics to my computer but I still can't see them. I get a message saying they can't be opened.

Jackmydad

The main thing at this stage would be not to do anything at all until you know what you are doing. Some recovery programs can overwrite files.
If you overwrite anything you could lose the lot.
Did you delete the files on the 8Gb drive or format it?

saver87

Try using Photorec, by CGSecurity.

I had success recovering photos even though the memory stick has been formatted, so I am confident you should have some joy.

If you are not comfortable, just speak to a local IT company and ask them to do it for you.

Moving forward, for £6 monthly you could use Dropbox or G-Suite, memory sticks/hard drives fail.

Micron

Over the years I have recoved many lost files with Puran File Recovery
http://www.puransoftware.com/File-Recovery.html

It's free and relatively easy to use and can show you a preview of any files it finds.

If you do recover any files DO NOT save them to your original USB stick it might overwrite some of the photos you are trying to recover.

forgotmyname

Where did you buy the 16GB stick from?

Any chance its a fake one? possible only 2GB so copying 8GB onto it will overwrite everything over and over.

agrinnall

forgotmyname wrote: »

possible only 2GB so copying 8GB onto it will overwrite everything over and over.

Seems unlikely given what the OP wrote previously. And I don't thnk it would do that anyway, if it was only 2GB it should say that there's not enough space to write the files.

EverDecreasingCircles wrote: »

I've checked the 16gb and can see that 8gb of storage has been taken up but I can't access it.