How I accidentally erased my digital photos, then recovered them

It took me more than a year to shoot 488 photos and less than a second to lose them—purely by accident, when I unwittingly reformatted the memory card in my point-and-shoot camera.

These were photos I wanted to keep, capturing memories of my first trip to Yosemite, family and friends, even the before-and-after pictures of my kitchen renovation. But I foolishly ignored two commonsense pieces of advice every digital camera user should follow:

• Don't use your memory card for permanent storage. It's arguably the least robust, most vulnerable storage device you can use for archiving your pictures. Download images you want to save to your computer, an external hard drive, or a CD.
• Even if you don't peruse your camera's user manual cover to cover, at least crack it open to get some idea of how to use your camera’s controls and menus.

I shamefacedly admit that I did neither. While I printed out a bunch of pix, e-mailed others, and put a fair number up on a photo-sharing Website, close to half the shots existed only on the CompactFlash card that never left my camera.

I am also guilty of ignorance about my camera. I know enough to get by but haven't mastered the controls or explored the menus and settings.

That's how I got into trouble. I went into the menus to see what resolution I was shooting at and how much space remained on the memory card (almost none, because of my packrat habit) and somehow reformatted the card without intending to. I froze as I saw the LCD display flash the horrifying message: "no images."

Several friends and acquaintances have made the same mistake, so I'm not the only klutz around. While it was ultimately my fault, I think the camera could have issued a warning—"Are you sure you want to erase all your images?’"—as many computer programs do when you're about to take a potentially disastrous step.

Luckily for me, my story had a happy ending. One of my colleagues, camera expert Jeff Fox, was able to recover the photos from the memory card by using VaioSoft Recovery Manager 1.5, which he downloaded from Download.com. The download was free, though Vaiosoft encourages payments to help support their work.

He'll explain, step by step, what to do, in a separate blog. One thing I can tell you: If you accidentally reformat your memory card, stop everything and immediately remove it from the camera. If you keep shooting, you'll reduce the chance that you can salvage any of the images.

I've vowed to start archiving my photos—the CD that Jeff made for me is a good start—and hope my cautionary tale inspires you to do the same.

—Eileen McCooey

Comments

[James Demecs]

I lost photos twice before,format card & sending photos to cyberspace from card then deleting photos from card after I thought they were in my pc. I couldn't find photos anywhere on pc and I chose to have photos deleted from card once they were copied from card to one of a handfull of photo programsto select. Never delete from card til you know for sure your photos are on your pc. That's one of a few beginners mistakes I learned very well.I now put them also on cd

[Wayne Welsh]

I almost always download my digital pictures to my Mac right after taking them and, after being sure that they are OK on my hard drive, I delete them from my camera. After deciding which to keep and tossing the rest I put those I chose to keep in a folder which is accessed by "Picture Frame" a Yahoo widget which gives me a constant slide show of all my pictures. It's an ongoing source of enjoyment for me and anyone else who happens by my computer.