Memory cards are affordable. They come with expanding capacities, making them the most used storage devices.
For this reason, they are widely used, and incidences such as accidental data loss are imminent and can be disturbing. This article looks at the ways of recovering data in case of failure.
Recovering Deleted Photos from a Memory Card Trash
Photo recovery may result from accidental deletion, unintentional formatting, or the memory card may be corrupted.
Once the photos are deleted, they are in the trash or recently deleted files folder. Therefore, the files are not lost altogether until the trash folder is emptied. Read more on compact flash data recovery and how to recover files from a CF card here.
The following steps are followed
- Open the photos app and navigate to the trash folder
- Click the trash icon at the right-hand end of the Dock
- Locate the files you are looking for, highlight them, and make them ready to store where you so choose.
Recovering Photos from Backup
SD card recovery on Mac or memory card as best known can be used for long-term storage of digital photos or can also be used for expanded capacity on a photographic device.
A backup enables you to retrieve your photos if you lose them accidentally. You may opt to use Time Machine to backup or even iCloud to protect your SD cards used with iOS devices.
To recover deleted files from the backup folder, the following steps are necessary:
- Locate the backup folder in your SD card
- Right-click on the folder to open it
- Select the photos that you wish to restore
- You can store them in any folder of your choice
Recovering of Deleted Photos using a Software
When the two methods of recovering your deleted photos above fail to yield, the third option is still available, which is the use of a recovery tool, in this case, Disk Drill.
Disk Drill is data recovery software that helps recover deleted data from your memory card. It is said that this software can recover almost any file format, even including RAW images as well. Follow the following steps. As one of the trusted methods to restore data from an SD card, you need to test drive it and get first-hand experience.
How to Recover Deleted Photos from Memory Card on Mac
Commonly, Mac users can download a free version of Disk Drill from the Clever Files, which allows them to preview the files that it can recover before any need to invest financially.
If the photos you need can be restored, you can opt to purchase the Pro version of Disk Drill that will enable you to carry out actual data recovery. Follow these steps to recover your deleted photos on your Mac using the Disk Drill.
Step One: Download and install the software
Download and install the Disk Drill onto your Mac, which could be a laptop or a desktop.
Step Two: Connect the memory card
Connect the device containing the memory card to the Mac PC.
Step Three: Launch the software
Launch Disk Drill and select your memory card from the list of available disks, then click on “Search for lost data.” Give the software time to scan for lost photos to completion. The amount of data available for scanning will dictate the time the scanning will take.
Step Four: Preview the files
After scanning is complete, browse the Disk Drill files successfully located. Click on the preview tab to look at the files before you select which ones to keep. Scanning recovers photos that you can review by browsing through them, including using the search box to find anything should it not be visible straight away. Preview your found pictures before recovering them.
Step Five: Recover the files
Once you have reviewed the photos, select the right items for recovery and click on the Recover button to recover the photos. Save the images on your computer but do not save the recovered photos on their original location as it may lead to file corruption.
Pros of using Disk Drill
- It comes with a user-friendly layout and workflow
- It gives room to recover up to 500MB for free. If you need to recover more, you will be required to buy the software.
- Its flexibility allows for various files, not only photos and videos.
Can Permanently Deleted Files be Recovered from a Memory Card?
It is often possible to recover data that is considered permanently deleted from your memory card. This includes those files that you cannot find on recently deleted folders or trash.
Permanently deleted photos are marked permanently deleted by the file system, but until new ones overwrite them, they remain on the exact location on the flash memory chip.
For the safety of permanently deleted data, recovery should start as soon as possible before the files are overwritten. This can be done by using data recovery software, Disk Drill that we have already discussed above in this article.
