j Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 Just wondering if anyone has used a memory card recovery program and can recommend one? Our computer went on the fritz a while ago and I had about 3 months worth of photos that I hadn't backed up. Hubby took the computer to one of his mates who is a forensic computer boffin, but while he has been able to recover quite a few photos, there are some of my daughters 21st which I would particularly like to get back. They had been downloaded to the computer and deleted from the camera. Someone at work mentioned that their sister had used a program which recovers everything from your cameras memory card, including all deleted files etc. I realise this means that I could potentially be recovering thousands and thousands of images, but I would be happy to sit down and sort through them all if I could get the ones I want back. The program they used was one that you could download for free. So, if anyone has any suggestions, I would be grateful if they were shared. thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutterfly Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 http://www.cardrecovery.com/ or Sandisk recommend one, but it's not free. http://www.lc-tech.com/ Those are the ones I know of. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 Thanks stutterfly. Have you used that one? Just reading through the blurb it says that it may not be able to recover photos if they have been written over. I know we have deleted quite a few photos off the camera, taken more, then deleted them as well. So I'm not sure how many times photos may have been written over? Only one way to find out I guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutterfly Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 No, sorry. Never had to. They're both popular programs, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 (edited) This is the only one I recommend now. Have recovered an amazing amount of data for myself and others with it. It recovered photos from over eight months of being written over (to say I was surprised was an understatement). PhotoRec Edited June 17, 2011 by kja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 This is the only one I recommend now. Have recovered an amazing amount of data for myself and others with it. It recovered photos from over eight months of being written over (to say I was surprised was an understatement). PhotoRec Thanks for that. Im a bit of a computer numpty. We have Vista on our computer, so will it work on that? (I'm not sure what the windows 32 or 64 means?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutterfly Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 It just means it's either a 32 or 64 bit operating system. If you press the Windows Key + Pause a box will come up, under System it will have a list of your computers bits and pieces, one of which is System Type, and it will tell you if you have a 32 or 64bit system. It shouldn't matter, you just need to know which one to download. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Yes, it will work. it does look a little scary and I had no clue what it meant when I first opened it so I just used a logical guess process and viola it worked a charm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 Well, I finally got around to downloading and using these programs. I couldn't work out how to use the photorec one, so ended up using the card recovery program. I got the most recent photos, which all were taken after the problem with the computer, so had been saved and a heap of photos from 2009, which we have saved and backed up. Nothing in between Not sure if it's worth trying on another program or not? If it wasn't recovered the first time, does that mean they aren't recoverable? And just for info, the Card Recovery program lets you go all the way through the recovery process and lets you preview the photos, but then tells you that if you want to save any images, you have to purchase the program Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I don't know if you can use a second one but you don't have anything to lose. I think it's totally worth figuring out how to use PhotoRec - it's been amazing for me. It's not that tricky, just a little daunting. As I recall most of the options that come up are the correct ones by default - it's just choosing the right drive where the card is that can be a little confusing, I think, but you should be able to tell by the size and other indicators if it's not coming up with the drive letter you recognize. There may be a tutorial somewhere or if I have time on the weekend I can try to talk you through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 The problem I had with it was the install. It didn't just download and install, it put a heap of folders into the nominated drive and they all had weird little file names that I couldn't work out. Some were .exe and a few others that I don't recall. I ended up deleting it as I couldn't see anything to run it, but I don't really have much idea with computers so I don't go beyond the basics. If you have any idea what I need to do for it to run, I would be grateful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 (edited) OK, deleting the files isn't going to help you You need to extract them all and then open the containing folder. Click PhotoRec.exe to run it - it opens a black & white DOS screen Choose your drive -if you don't see the letter, you will be able to tell by the size listed. Mostly it should detect what it needs to do, I choose the first in the list, I think it's like "Intel" or something when it asks about partitions. Then I choose "Whole" It will bring up a screen with places it is going to save the files. I just let it do it to the default folder. Hit C and bada bing off it goes. I'm recovering one right now, actually. I may have forgotten a step or two, but again, I usually just click whatever it chooses as the default anyway. Good luck. Edited July 9, 2011 by kja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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