Nooooooooooooo!!!!!

[mrsrice22]

Oh just shoot me in the FACE! The one time, ONE TIME, that I delete images right after dl'g to my laptop, I deleted the one that I wanted! I usually do not delete images off the mem. card until after I'm totally done with them, be it photography or family snapshots, to avoid something like this happening. ugh!

So is it gone? I looked through the recycle bin and it's not in there :(

It was just a snapshot of Mik but damnit it was a cute one! I could replicate it, but it just isn't the same!

This is what i get for drinking 6 cups of coffee, grrr!

/rant.

[Rson]

You can get it back.......or shall I say i can get it.

Ontrack file recovery pro works well

[Rson]

Also, you cannot write to the location that had the file, you will over write it. Pull the card and recover. Same thing with the hard drive, pull it and recover.

[mrsrice22]

this is all very techy sounding. so do i just put the card back in my laptop and then....

[JohnT]

Were you in your editing program when you deleted it?

[janikphoto]

Originally Posted by Rson

You can get it back.......or shall I say i can get it.

Ontrack file recovery pro works well

A time-machine also works well... preferably one built into a DeLorean. Seriously though, deleting a file just removes it's "name" from the list so to speak. The info is still there until some other file writes over that space. This is why file recovery software can find stuff. The program will read all the spots on the drive, whether or not its "name" appears in the directory.

You can think about it this way...

Let's say you own an apartment building with the computer motherboard as your landlord. Your digital files (pics, doc files, etc) are renters and Mr. Bill lives in apt 12b (he is your important photo file). You decide to evict him (hit delete, toss him in the trash, etc), so your landlord removes his name from his post box in the mailroom.

However, unlike in real life, where he'd get booted out and the locks changed immediately, a digital Mr. Bill would actually still occupy that same apt 12b until a new renter showed up to take his place - he just wouldn't be seen as still living there, because his name is not on the mail box and the apt is believed to be available. Since the landlord sees there is no name on apt 12b's mailbox, she moves Ms. Ann into that space, finally overwriting Mr. Bill. If your building is fully-rented (the hard drive is full), Mr. Bill will be over-written much quicker than if there's still tons of space on the drive - unless you regularly run a defrag program.

At this time, he is now gone and not retrievable to your average recovery software. If you have enough time and money, though, even an overwritten file has the potential to be recovered!

Now, I have tried to simplify this process, and I may have messed up some of the explanation, so others with better teaching skills and/or tech skills may correct/tweak my scenario. But, this should give you a rough idea of how/why a deleted file can be recovered.

[mrsrice22]

lol, no that sums it up. So glad I didn't format my card yet (or is it still recoverable after a format?).

John, I always take the mem card out of the camera and put in the laptop, pull up my computer, then the mem card, then xfr the files to whatever folder on my hard drive. I USUALLY (like 98% of the time) will just leave the pics on the mem card until I'm totally done with that batch of images, then I delete (or format if in camera). Tonight however, when I used SHIFT+Arrow to select the images, I failed to notice that there was still a few images left that did not get selected. So, after xfr'ng the images, for some dumb reason I went ahead and CTRL+A and hit delete.

[Imagebuffet]

Originally Posted by mrsrice22

lol, no that sums it up. So glad I didn't format my card yet (or is it still recoverable after a format?).

John, I always take the mem card out of the camera and put in the laptop, pull up my computer, then the mem card, then xfr the files to whatever folder on my hard drive. I USUALLY (like 98% of the time) will just leave the pics on the mem card until I'm totally done with that batch of images, then I delete (or format if in camera). Tonight however, when I used SHIFT+Arrow to select the images, I failed to notice that there was still a few images left that did not get selected. So, after xfr'ng the images, for some dumb reason I went ahead and CTRL+A and hit delete.

Why don't you use CTRL+A to select the files to transfer?

There is a chance that files could be recovered after a format, too, though the more you do to the card, the less likely it is that you would get the files back. Actually, in my experience, you would get all the files back that have ever been on that card, except for the one you want!

[Cope]

Sandisk and Lexar both offer free recovery software. I lost some pictures in a PC crash, and recovered pictures off the CF card for three different cameras.

[revjvegas]

+1 on the Lexar utility...worked well the one time I needed it.

As others have said, the key helping you make a successful recovery is that you do NOTHING else to that data device in terms of writes or deletes, etc. You want to recover the data before doing anything else.

[mrsrice22]

Originally Posted by Imagebuffet

Why don't you use CTRL+A to select the files to transfer?

There is a chance that files could be recovered after a format, too, though the more you do to the card, the less likely it is that you would get the files back. Actually, in my experience, you would get all the files back that have ever been on that card, except for the one you want!

Because I usually leave other images on the card (its 4gb) I don't want to go through and deselect individual images, so I just do the shift method on the most recent images then when i get down to the last row (which never highlights unless it's a full row) I select individual ones.

thanks everyone, without going to my camera I think it is the Lexar brand so I'll look on their website.

[ggeen]

For future reference, I changed my process flow so that when I perform the download form the compact flash card, it stores in two places, my edit directory and in my archive directory. Then, I have TimeMachine, no not built into a DeLorean, that performs an automatic backup.

There were one too many times that I deleted a file that I meant to edit. I am still working on a grading process to determine which files to keep and which can go.

[mrsrice22]

^^ Good idea. This has never happened before and I'm glad it happened to my family snapshot and not a client's session,ack! So it's a lesson learned.

I got the files back, I inserted the mem card because I dl'd this program/link a friend sent me and while it was recovering the files my Photo Shop Elements program opened up to retrieve the files (like it always does, but I usually just end it and open the folder through my computer). I saw it open up behind the recovery window and just for the hell of it I minimized the recovery window and low and behold it had the deleted images in the PSE window! Paused the recovery and went through the PSE program to save the files to my laptop and VOILA! They're back!

So excited, lol! Thanks everyone

[Imagebuffet]

Originally Posted by mrsrice22

Because I usually leave other images on the card (its 4gb) I don't want to go through and deselect individual images, so I just do the shift method on the most recent images then when i get down to the last row (which never highlights unless it's a full row) I select individual ones.

thanks everyone, without going to my camera I think it is the Lexar brand so I'll look on their website.

Oh, well, I understand about doing what seems natural to you.

I have an 8 GB CF card for my Canon and a 16 GB SD card for my Pentax. I move everything on those cards to my computer at one time. I would run out of space fairly soon if I didn't do that, and I can keep track of what I'm doing a little better this way.

[Tom]

Get Photomechanic and learn to use the ingest feature. It will move everything to your primary and backup destinations and add all your important metadata (like author, copyright, website and email.) Photomechanic is the ONLY way I move photos.