Wednesday, March 14, 2012

PhotoRec Digital Picture and File Recovery

Are you anxious every time you format a data card?  Breathe a little easier with PhotoRec.  PhotoRec is an open source (read free) multi platform (PC or Mac) data recovery software.  This means PhotoRec may be able to get pictures and video files off of cards that have been formatted.


I admit it, I made a mistake.  After shooting/editing 25 hours in a row I took a picture on a card I'd already downloaded.  After 2 hours sleep I woke up feeling like someone hit me with a 2x4 and formatted the card thinking I'd downloaded everything on it.  To make matters worse, I then started shooting both stills and video on the SDHC card.  I went to check the shots, realized my mistake and immediately pulled the card.  Here's the shot that was erased.


PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data so it may work even if your media's file system is corrupted.  The program is a command line application so you need to be comfortable with that but it does walk you through the recovery steps.  It does need to know what it's recovering so it knows what's garbage and what you're trying to recover.

Hopefully you'll never have to use PhotoRec but I know from experience tired people make mistakes.


http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Files recovered by PhotoRec
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/File_Formats_Recovered_By_PhotoRec





1 comment:

  1. One of the best photo recovery software, which i ever used :

    http://www.recoverydeletedfiles.com/photo-recovery-software.html

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete