finding *lost* pics in my computer? Please help, I'm just SICK. WONDERFUL UPDATE!!!!

[Leshaface]

Just wanted to say I'm soooo glad you were able to recover your photos

I know how precious pictures are, and I don't know WHAT i would do without my family and friend photos...

 

[WheelCEO]

please remove geeksquad from your vocabulary

 

[MomToOne]

 

[hambirg]

I'm soooo glad you found them!!!! I didn't post sooner because I'm really not that techy. . . But I did keep thinking they must still be on the memory card if you haven't taken any new pictures over them. Well. . .I learned something new with this thread. . .and please. . .PLEASE. . .back up your photos!!! Just burn them onto a disk. . .heck. .. even a floppy. .

 

[mafibisha]

Just wanted to say I'm soooo glad you were able to recover your photos
I know how precious pictures are, and I don't know WHAT i would do without my family and friend photos...

Thank you!

please remove geeksquad from your vocabulary

Well.... its actually the name Best Buy gave their techs, and on everything they use, including their cars. (but you knew that, right?)

Isn't the Dis amazing? What a great coummunity!

I'm soooo glad you found them!!!! I didn't post sooner because I'm really not that techy. . . But I did keep thinking they must still be on the memory card if you haven't taken any new pictures over them. Well. . .I learned something new with this thread. . .and please. . .PLEASE. . .back up your photos!!! Just burn them onto a disk. . .heck. .. even a floppy. .

Hm, the funny (not so much!)thing is -- now that I think about it -- I DID take new pictures over them!! And that the recovery site STILL found them all is just amazing!! I had pics on the SD from 2008 that were recovered, meaning I took countless pictures and also some over the pics I just lost!!

Isn't technology great? That and PRAYER!! I am NOT kidding guys - I was praying so much that someone would find a way for me to recover them.
Sorry to go on and on, but I'm on CLOUD NINE today!! Not even my boss can bother me today!

So anyone know why or how its even possible for the recovery site to STILL find them after using the card again? And again, and again? Especially the old pics popping up from 2008? Guess its time to get a new card!

Also, even though my camera is 4+ years old, we've had TWO other cameras since then too, and the pics on the Nikon CoolPix are so much better. They are wonderful. Truly, the color, the ZOOM! Much better than newer and more expensive.

Anyway, gotta get back to work but thanks again to all who helped me! Hope y'all are blessed today in a big, even surprising way!!

 

[sam_gordon]

So anyone know why or how its even possible for the recovery site to STILL find them after using the card again? And again, and again? Especially the old pics popping up from 2008? Guess its time to get a new card!

A very basic explainer...

Get a piece of graph paper. Color in the first 50 squares in one color. Color the next 50 squares in another color, and the next 50 in a 3rd color. Now pick 50 squares at random and erase where you colored. Make the 4th 50 a different color now. Keep doing this until you fill the sheet. You'll end up with a bunch of "holes" with all the colors.

However, I'm guessing you can still tell what color the "hole" was. That's what the recovery program did. Although you erased pictures, when you took more pictures, the old pictures weren't overwritten... it put the new pictures physically elsewhere on the disk. The recovery program is able to go back and "read" what you have erased.

I hope this makes sense.

 

[MyDizneyBoyz]

Another basic explanation - when you erase a file off a computer hard disk, a flash card, a memory card, etc - the file doesn't really get touched unless you're using a wiping program. All that gets removed is the pointer to it within the index file on the media and the spot where that file sits is put back into the pool of available space. That newly available space might get used today, tomorrow, next year or never, depending on when it's needed.

If it never gets used, that file is still there and can get recovered by a program that actually goes out and looks for files, as opposed to just reading the index file to see what's there. If it's never been overwritten, you can probably recover it just fine. If a piece of it's been overwritten, the chances of getting it back intact are iffy and if it's been completely overwritten, there's a good chance it's gone for good unless you're willing to spend a boatload of money on forensic recovery.

This is why the best advice anyone can give you is to not use something that has files you want to recover on it. The more you use it, the greater the chance of those files being overwritten if they've been inadvertantly put back into the pool of available space.

Clear as mud, huh?

Whatever the case, I'm so glad your story has a happy ending!

 

[MomToOne]

Just one last note - since something went wonky here when you pulled the pictures off originally and you got some but not others, there could still be a problem with the SD card (even though you were able to recover the pictures). You might want to get a new SD card and not use this one anymore.

 

[wenrob]

Just one last note - since something went wonky here when you pulled the pictures off originally and you got some but not others, there could still be a problem with the SD card (even though you were able to recover the pictures). You might want to get a new SD card and not use this one anymore.

Was just coming to say the say the thing. Toss this memory card, don't chance using it again.

 

[swilshire]

Now go burn all your pics to DVDs and get em backed up.

Excellent advice!

My graduate student daughter thought she was being so good when she backed up her massive photo files on her external hard drive onto her brother's. A year or so later, she knocked her own drive off the desk and broke it. When she called her brother for the backup, it turns out his didn't work either.

We all were desparately sad because of all the photos lost. She had even been secretly scanning our old family photos as a gift to me. All gone.

Thankfully, one of the computer experts I work with was able somehow to disassemble one of the drives and get it to work in a desktop (the other was hopeless). Everything is now on a new drive and she vows to do two backups of this and everything else in the future.

Personally, I always put my photos on my desktop, an external hard drive that I keep at the office (in case of theft or fire) and a DVD. Call me paranoid.

Sheila

 

[dawson5]

OP I am glad you "found" your pics. I did check back yesterday to make sure you weren't having issues. I am going to bookmark the other proggy for a "just in case" time.

When you burn them to disc/dvd, make sure you get good discs and burn at a slow speed. I used to do a lot of music trading (legal stuff--no copyright infringement) and spent a lot of time reading up on it and the importance of quality discs and the best way to burn without errors. (I even go a step further and will not write on my discs, I write with a disc-safe marker on the inner circle. I was scared for a while about the possibility of Sharpies causing disc rot, which last I knew wasn't proven or disproved.)

 

[feezle]

Well.... its actually the name Best Buy gave their techs, and on everything they use, including their cars. (but you knew that, right?)

I'm sure that the PP was refering to the fact that they are (way)overpriced know-nothings.