Camera help! Please!

[KobayashiMaru13]

i accidentally pressed Format on my camera, now ALL MY PICTURES ARE GONE!!! is there ANY way to get them back, sort of going back in time???

 

[JohnChod]

There are file recovery programs out there, including some free ones. Do a search for freeware file recovery. A number of them supposedly work on flash drives, etc.

Luckily, I have never had to use one, so I can't vouch for any particular program, but, take heart! There are such things out there and perhaps someone else can specify a good one.

The less you do with the camera memory, before trying to recover, the better. If it's a removable card (most likely), pull it out and put it away. Use another card in the meantime.

 

[KobayashiMaru13]

Phew!

Thanks! I would have been dead, otherwise. There were still Christmas photos on there...

 

[Mr. B]

In the future you might transfer any pictures to a computer the day they are taken... maybe put the good ones on Flickr or something if you don't have offsite data backup.

 

[Tiberius]

San disk provides an excellent file recovery program with its higher end memory cards.

 

[KobayashiMaru13]

San disk provides an excellent file recovery program with its higher end memory cards.

Is it free? I've looked at the recovery programs, and its very frustrating when it says in big letters "FREE DOWNLOAD!" So you download it, and it finds all your lost photos, teasing you, then says: "Pay $--.-- To Recover!" Very frustrating. I don't trust the internet enough to give my credit card information away.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Also, sometimes, the "free download" version will cause the files to be unrecoverable by any other app.

Not that I've ever had luck with any of these programs for photos or otherwise.

 

[GalaxyX]

Luckily, usually hitting "Format" simply does a quick rewrite of the File Allocation Table without actually erasing anything.

Data Recovery programs usually read the whole memory and rebuild the FAT from what files it finds. Yes sometimes that process that damage the card from other software seeing it, but if you successfully restore your data, you'd want to Full Format that card again anyway.