I just came back from vacation, and while I was perusing my pictures and deleting unneeded shots, I accidentally deleted everything from the SD card. Is it possible to recover them?
Don’t panic! Also, don’t take any more pictures or do anything else with that card. Most of the time, deleting a file doesn’t really delete it. Instead, the space where that image resides is marked as being available to be overwritten. In many cases, you’ll be able to recover most, if not all, of the stuff you accidentally tossed.
To “undelete” your pictures, you’ll need some data-recovery software, which can dig deep into hard drives, SD cards, and other storage media that has been “erased.” Data Rescue from ProSoft ($99) is a good jack-of-all-trades option for resuscitating all kinds of data, and there are many other software options available online and in the Mac App Store.
A lower-cost LE version of Data Rescue can be had in the Mac App Store.
Once you’ve got your recovery software fired up, point it at your SD card (a USB SD card reader will come in handy if you don’t have a Mac with an SD slot), and let the software do its thing. Going forward, it might be a good idea to invest in an extra SD card or two so that you don’t need to delete images until you’re absolutely sure you don’t need them anymore.
dcournoyer
October 05, 2011 at 1:29pm
The exact same thing happened to me in March. A friend recommended Klix (Joesoft, a Prosoft Eng.Co) at $19.95. I was easily able to recover all of my photos!
jjq224
October 05, 2011 at 11:50am
I've had very good luck with Recuva from Piriform. I've even been able to recover files from an SD card that had pictures erased by accident. My sister's phone went haywire and deleted all her pictures. She didn't realize it until AFTER she took 3 more. The plus is that it is free (and free is good) - the negative is that they don't have a Mac version yet. But if you access to one of those machines running an "inferior" OS, this software is worth looking into.
