Free tools allow you to recover accidentally deleted photo memory cards.
Recovering your accidentally deleted digital photographs is simple and, best of all, free. Deleted pictures are still on the card and are hidden from view only until they are overwritten by new pictures. Rescue them with a program called Photorec, a freeware utility that runs on Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers. Photorec is able to undelete most file types including jpegs, raw files and videos from your memory card.
Instructions
Protect Your Memory Card
1. Remove the erased card from your camera as soon as you realize your mistake.
Remove the erased memory card from your camera, and do not use it in your camera again until you have finished this process. If available, turn on your card's write-protect feature to prevent further damage to your photos.
2. Note the storage capacity of the card--for example, 4 GB or 4000 MB.
3. Use the correct card reader for your type of flash memory card.
Insert your card into the card reader on your computer. Make sure you can see your camera card mounted in a Mac OS X Finder window, and take note of the card's name.
Download and Locate Photorec
4. Download the Photorec program. Photorec comes with another program called Testdisk, which is not needed for this process.
5. Find where the file was downloaded in your Mac's Finder window. If it hasn't been auto-expanded into a folder named "Testdisk" (the current version number of the program will be part of the folder name, such as testdisk-6.11.3), do so by double-clicking on the file.
6. Open the folder named "Darwin" inside the expanded "Testdisk" folder. There you will find the Photorec program.
Run and Configure Photorec
7. Start the "Photorec" program by clicking with your mouse while holding the "Ctrl" key on your keyboard. This brings up "Contextual-Menu." Select the "'Open With" menu item and choose the "Terminal.app" program. A window running Photorec will open; it looks a little like the old DOS command window.
8. Select your memory card from the list, based on its storage size, using the arrow keys to move the cursor. The card may be in the list twice. Choose either one. Your mouse will not work for this, and you will not see the card name in this list.
9. Select the "Intel" partition table type.
10. Select the partition. There should be only one on the card, and you will see its name in the right column--for example, NIKON D90.
11. Select the filesystem type as FAT under the "Other" option on this menu. Most cameras write to disks that are formatted FAT16 or FAT32 for PCs. This can be verified by using the "Get Info" command in your Mac's "File" menu.
Analyze Your Card
12. Instruct Photorec to analyze the whole disk.
13. Say yes to the next question by typing Y. This will tell Photorec to save recovered files into a new folder named "recup_dir.1" inside your home directory. The process will take a few minutes. Photorec provides progress information, and it estimates how much longer the process will take.
14. Close the terminal window when it tells you it has completed, and eject your card normally. If you are satisfied with the recovered images, turn off write-protect and reuse your card.
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