Summary: This blog shares the sure-shot solution to recover permanently deleted photos from your Windows PC, computer, laptop or any other storage drive with the help of photo recovery software.
Case 1: ‘I made a huge mistake. In a hurry, I deleted the wrong photos from my PC and then emptied Recycle Bin. Is there any way I can recover permanently deleted photos from PC/Laptop?’
Case 2: ‘My Windows 8 system files seem to be corrupt due to virus. I can’t see some of my valuable photos in the drive. Also can’t find them in Recycle Bin. Are they permanently deleted? How can I recover my deleted photos?’
‘Recover Permanently deleted’ photos imply when you delete images with Shift + Delete key or remove them from Recycle Bin too. Running system cleaner apps on your PC also result in permanent deletion of photos. Other than these, viruses, formatting, corruption, sudden power failure, malware, bad sectors in the drive lead to permanent loss of stored image files.
Unlike temporary deletion, in which photos go to Recycle Bin from where you can easily restore them, permanently deleted photos are difficult to recover.
There are few techniques like ‘recovery from Windows file history’ or ‘restore the previous version of Windows’ but most of the time attempting them is like a wild goose chase.
So is there any method that can recover permanently deleted pictures?
Yes…A sure shot way is to trust a professional photo recovery application for the purpose. They are designed to recover lost or permanently deleted photos from your computer drive, regardless of the cause of photo loss. Tools like Stellar Photo Recovery can restore photos shot with any DSLR, Android, iPhone, webcam, CCTV, etc. that too with their original name, date and time.
Note: It’s important to immediately stop using your PC after the photos were lost, unless you’re going to perform a recovery process. This will prevent overwriting of data and maximise the chances of photo recovery from your computer.
How to Recover Permanently Deleted Pictures– step-by-step
Step 1: Download and launch Stellar Photo Recovery on your Windows PC.
Step 2: Select the location on your PC from where you lost photos. Click Scan.
Step 3: Once the scan is completed, Preview your recoverable photos. If you don’t see the required photos in the list, click the Deep Scan option at the bottom for a thorough search.
Step 4: Select the required photos, click Recover.
Step 5: Click Browse and select a location on a different drive to save the recovered photos.
*The trial software scans the media and shows a preview of all the recoverable files. Once you are able to ascertain the effectiveness, you can save the recoverable files by activating the software. Don’t save the recovered photos in the same drive from which they were deleted or lost.
Key benefits:
- Restores RAW file formats of popular DSLRs like Canon, Nikon, Sony etc.
- Get back photos with original name, date and timestamp
- The software is quick to restore hundreds of photos of any format
- Restore images without losing their original quality
Other methods you may try to recover permanently deleted pictures
Although these methods don’t promise permanently deleted photos recovery, but there’s no harm in trying them. Who knows they may work in your case!
You can use Windows data backup utilities like ‘Windows Backup and Restore’ (in Windows 7) , ‘Restore Previous versions’ , Recover from Google Photos, Recover using command prompt to get back lost photos.
These features are helpful, when you have manually set them up on your PC, before the photos were lost or permanently deleted.
1. Recover photos with ‘Backup and Restore’ in Windows 7
- Go to Control Panel.
- Click to follow System and Security > Backup and Restore.
- Click Restore my files.
Windows has a ‘Restore from Previous Versions’ feature that includes copies of files automatically created by the PC backup. These files are also called shadow files. Previous versions include files saved on a backup (if you are using Windows Backup) as well as restore points.
- Right-click on the folder from which you lost or deleted photos.
- Select Restore previous versions.
- In the dialog box, choose the version of date when your photos were present in the folder.
- Click ‘Restore’ Note: Before restoring a previous version folder, select the previous version, and click Open to view it and ensure it’s the version that contains your deleted photos.
- Go to photos.google.com.
- Select the photo you want to restore.
- Select save to the device.
- Photos will be saved in your PC
- On your computer, open photos.google.com in your browser.
- Click on the Menu on the top left corner.
- Select Trash.
- Select the pictures you want to recover. Place your cursor over the photo, click on the Done icon.
- Click the Restore icon on top right.
The photos will be restored to your Google Photos library and added back to their respective albums. Read more on How to Recover Deleted Photos from Google Photos.
Quick tips –
- Check your online account – Your photos will be uploaded in the online Google Photos account. But if you are unable to get it through desktop app then you can always check in your photos.google.com account.
- Review Picasa web- Search for your photos in Picasa as well, as almost all older versions of PCs have an inbuilt Picasa app. If your Picasa was in sync with your system, there is a great chance that you can get your photos from the picasaweb.google.com
Wrapping up
The DIY Stellar Photo Recovery is not only effective in tough situations but also an efficient tool that recovers all types of photo formats in no time. The professional photo recovery tool recoups permanently deleted photos from any Windows desktop, laptop or storage drive.
To add on, usually we don’t realize the importance of backup, until the moment we get into a data loss situation. Windows has its own data backup utilities such as ‘Backup and Restore’ and ‘Restore from Previous versions’ but we tend to ignore them. If you have turned them On in your PC, these could serve as efficient ways to recover permanently lost or deleted photos.
Hii
My PC has been infected with a virus and this destroyed the Windows and also erased everything I have, I want a solution to recover all the pictures that were deleted because I work as a photographer and this is my field of work and now I see that it collapses
Hi Mahmoud, I would suggest you can scan your PC with authorized antivirus software then restore your PC under privacy settings. In case, you can’t recover your pictures you can try our sofrware demo version and see the preview of recovered pictures. Thanks!
Hi, I accidentally deleted the photos on my memory card on the camera. I only want to delete one photo and instead, I deleted all the photos. Then I stopped taking photos. Anyways to restore photos from the SD card? Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Hi Aceema, Yes, The easy way you can try our software demo version and see the preview of deleted or lost photos. Thanks!
I had an issue with my Windows 10 PC, I delete a couple of image files from the drive. Due to editing images, all files corrupt. I delete all the corrupt files without taking a backup of the original image files. Also, I delete these files from the recycle bin. How to get back these corrupt files to restore original image files? Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Katie, Windows 10 has a recovery app just type on the search bar and uses windows advanced recovery tools in the control panel. If you still had an issue, you can try our software professional version to restore and repair corrupt image files.
Hi Sumona, I had deleted couple of photos from iPhone on Windows 10 PC and I didn’t saved backup from iCloud or anywhere else. I tried some web and YouTube searches but not convinced. Any advice would be helpful for me.
Hi Peter, I know you already said no iCloud backup, but did you login to iCloud and check your recent deleted photos? Anyway, another way I would suggest you can try our software demo version and see the preview of your deleted or lost photos. Thanks!
I had accidentally deleted some photo files from my Lexar memory card on my PC and I reuse the card took more photos. Is there any chance to retrieve those deleted photos?
Hi Salvatore, We would like to inform you that our software works on “what you see is what you can recover”. That means the files will be recovered in the same manner as you were able to see them in the preview window after the scanning is complete. Thanks!
I had 1000 Photos on my Canon camera SD card and accidently deleted all of them due to last night I formatted the SD card through my PC. I really get them back. Is it possible? Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Hi Cara, I would like to suggest, you can try our software demo version and see the preview of recovered files.
Hi Rachael, Thanks for using our software and fix your issue!
I had the same issue couple of days ago, when I deleted files from recycle bin and some important files want to restore but I didn’t know it is possible. Thanks for your software help me to get back my file!