Recovering Digital Photos

February 26th, 2008

Everyone knows you should backup your precious digital pictures after you transfer them to your computer, but what happens if there is a problem in the camera itself?

I still had pictures from the holidays I hadn’t downloaded, so I wasn’t surprised when I got a “memory card full” message. I wasn’t near my computer, so I began reviewing the pictures in the camera to see if there was anything I could delete. I have a 256MB compact flash card that can hold about 200 pictures on my Canon Elph S400,  so I was surprised to only find about a dozen pictures from the current day. I didn’t panic, but waited to get back to my computer to investigate further.

First I reviewed my picture folders on my computer and network to make sure I hadn’t already downloaded the pictures and forgot, but alas they were not there. Connecting the camera to the computer didn’t reveal anything else. I was fearing that this year’s holiday pictures would be lost and was about to perform an “erase all data” command on the camera. I then began to search for “recovering pictures from digital camera” and found that this is not an uncommon problem. Memory cards can become corrupt and pictures irretrievable in traditional ways. The information is most likely still on the card, but some special utilities are needed.

I found many utilities that claim to assist with the problem, and I have found one that worked for me and I can now recommend. PhotoRescue installs on your PC or Mac and can scan your camera or memory card reader for files that can be recovered. If found, small thumbnail images are even created so you can see what is being recovered and selectively restore them. This is a nice feature of the free evaluation. Before purchasing, you can actually see if the program will be able to restore your missing photos, but you need to pay $29 for a life-time license with one year of free updates. It’s certainly worth the price if you only use it one time for those “priceless” pictures.

One thing to consider with almost all of these utilities, is that they rely on being able to scan your camera as a drive letter. Using my Canon camera with Windows XP, it appears as a device that I can open and browse using Windows Explorer, but does not mount as a named drive letter (i.e. G:). In order for me to accomplish the scan and recovery, I had to use a card reader that I already had. If you have many devices with different format memory cards, I highly recommend a mutli-format card reader. For around $20, you can easily use all of your memory cards by plugging this device into a USB slot. I use a Sandisk ImageMate like this one.

Hopefully you will never need to use PhotoRescue, but it’s good to know about if you ever find yourself in trouble.

Entry Filed under: Digital Living, Technology

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