Question - any way to retrieve photos that have disappeared from files in computer?

[Jessnc]

For some reason, the folders containing pictures on my laptop have been emptying themselves. I do not know where my pictures are going. Does anyone know how I can find them on my laptop? I have an HP and use Windows Vista, if that is of any help. I just tried checking the box next to "display hidden files and folders" but that was not successful.

It wouldn't be such a big deal, but I can't figure out how to get older pictures to load from my camera onto my laptop. It is only loading the newest pictures... I hope my question makes sense - I have unfortunately caught a cold and my head is quite foggy right now.

[clairea]

We recently used a program called Data Recovery Wizard to recover photos lost from an SD card. I was amazed that we were able to recover the over 400 images that were on the card (and DD has learned a lesson to download photos more often). It is a bit pricy ($90) but after talking to several experienced photographers it seemed to be the best option for our needs. It appears that is also will work on the hard drive as well.

[patt]

Jess, try the following link to find out where your files are and then move them back under "Pictures". Mine were hiding under "Documents".

http://www.pchell.com/support/unhidefiles.shtml

If your problem is like mine, once you move them you will have to right click on every picture, select "Properties" , uncheck "Hidden", click "Apply". You can tell which ones need to have this done because the icon in front is not highlighted.

With any luck, someone much more savvy than I will have a shorter way to do this. My files went screwy after I downloaded the most recent version on Internet Explorer. MY "Favorites" also disappeared and had to be redone. Such a pain.



Patt

[heavy hedonist]

Patt, that happens to mine all the time. they hide in different files, too. if all else fails, check your recycle bin-- which you can restore them from, if they have been accidentally trashed.

[Gumbeaux]

I am assuming that the pictures you are looking for are jpeg files. Going on that assumption, all you need to do is perform a file search for "jpeg". This will find all of those files (pictures) no matter where they are located on your computer.

[Beth]

My son has had trouble with some things getting lost on his phone. I think his issue was a software change, but I've also heard of a virus that deletes photos. Do a deep scan and make sure you don't lose them again.

[Gumbeaux]

I have the philosophy that any photo worth saving is worth backing up. External hard drives are inexpensive-about $50.00 for 500 GB. If you back up your photos it is harder for them to get deleted accidentally and they are easier to find.

[Jessnc]

Thanks everyone for your input. I tried a jpeg search upon Gumbeaux's suggestion, but the pictures were not on there. I forgot that there is actually a disk in the camera, and I put it directly into my laptop last night, saved the selected pics onto the desktop, then transferred them into one of the empty folders in my Pictures folder. Hopefully it won't happen again, but if it does, I have this thread to go back to for help.