Today’s lesson:
Don’t format a memory card without having double checked that you’ve already copied the images onto your computer.
A bit of an obvious one you might think. But that’s just what I did last week, fool that I am. And of course, there were a whole set of images I’d forgotten I’d taken. I promptly then used the card the following morning and shot a couple of hundred more images over the top.
Although my initial reaction was to loudly exclaim several four-letter words and then despairingly consume large quantities of chocolate, I figured I may as well have a crack at getting them back.
After unsuccessfully trying a number of data recovery applications, I eventually came across PhotoRec, by Christophe Grenier, aka CGSecurity. Having no GUI this free, open-source, multi-platform piece of software looks a bit intimidating at first, but it’s actually quite straightforward to use. And, joy-of-joys, it found my missing files! Mercifully I hadn’t overwritten the original data (though if I’d shot any more images on the card I would have started to…) and all of the files were recoverable.
Thank you Mr Grenier, a donation heading your way!