Tech Support Guy banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Please help me find lost photos

517 views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  Paulz 
#1 ·
Please help me. I have Windows 10 and a 32-bit PC.

I was moving folders of photos from an external drive to a USB. However, only the folders are now in the USB. There are no photos at all.

How do I find the lost photos?

Please remember that I was "moving" them, not "copying and pasting" them. Otherwise, I would know what to do next.

Many thanks for your help.

Paul
 
#4 ·
You can try to recover them from the external drive. The key thing if you haven't done so already is to NOT do anything further with that drive. There is a chance the files are still on the external drive. When you set something to be deleted under Windows, the data is still there but the space it occupies on the storage media is marked as free space available. During the course of you adding data to that storage media, Windows will just write data to that space.

You can try using data recovery software to see if the files are still there. I don't know which ones are the better ones as I haven't had the need to do this. One of the other members/staffers should be able to provide a recommendation.
 
#5 ·
What happens when you move, cut, or delete a file/folder is that the reference to said file/folder is removed from the master file table. The operating system is now free to write data to the place where your file/folder resided. As mentioned above, the more you use the drive, the less likely you are to be able to recover the data.
Recuva is a decent [and free] data recovery tool;
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva
Scan the drive with recuva. Either the files are there OR they are not. If not, then send the drive to a data recovery service for recovery. Do get an estimate since this service is NOT cheap. Where I live a very basic data recovery using software runs approx $230 plus the cost of whatever media you want the data placed on when recovered ie a new external drive, large flash drive, whatever. You cannot recover to the same drive on which you are scanning. The cost goes WAY up from there.
 
#7 ·
You are welcome. Just some advise. This issue happens quite frequently AND as long as you have a backup, no big deal.
I have a saying; "Data you do not have at least two copies of on separate media is data you do not care about AND you should expect to lose said data at some time"
All drives fail; it is only a question of when your drive will fail.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top