Can photos that have been overwritten in memory card be recovered?

lepamplemousserouge · Jan 25, 2016

Just making sure there isn't even an ounce of hope left for me. I accidentally deleted the wrong range of photos on a memory card and realized it after I used the memory card. The new files ended up being named the same thing as the old files I deleted (stupid I know) and now every software I use to recover the photos thinks the files it is recovering are the ones I'm looking for, but really it's only because they are named the same thing. Is there in memory card data land- ANYWHERE the card may still be storing the old data from the images I deleted or am I out of luck?

Alabalcho · Jan 25, 2016

1. Put a memory card you don't care about, then take a couple of photos, and delete some of them. Remember how they were called.
2. Get an imaging software like Win32 Disk Imager, or WinImage. Make an image backup of your memory card (you will get a file which is like 4gb, 8gb in size)
3. Download and install a binary (hex editor), like this one
4. Open the image file you've created above, and then search (in text) for image number of deleted photo. You will land on the piece of memory where directory information is stored. See how the file name was modified (usually, the first letter is changed) to mark it as "deleted", then restore the filename. Write the image back to the card (or, if using WinImage, open it directly with it).
5. See what you did - whether you've recovered the deleted image.

OK, once you've practiced your skills - repeat above process with your real memory card.

lepamplemousserouge · Jan 25, 2016

thanks! I will definitely try that. Question- I didn't delete them straight from my camera. I opened the card folder of images on my desktop and deleted the that way- is there a folder somewhere on my computer where these may get stored as well just in case I have no luck restoring from the card itself?

hang-the-9 · Jan 26, 2016

lepamplemousserouge :

No, they are not stored on your computer unless you copied them to your system before doing work on the SD card.

Alabalcho · Jan 26, 2016

You may also check Microsoft page for FAT File System. Another useful info is at Wikipedia page - the most important stuff here is that deleted files have their first character replaced by (hex) E5 as first character.

Search

Can photos that have been overwritten in memory card be recovered?

lepamplemousserouge

Reputable

hang-the-9

Alabalcho

Titan

lepamplemousserouge

Reputable

hang-the-9

Titan

Alabalcho

Titan

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page