How To Recover Lost Images From a Memory Card

by ComputerBob

May 3, 2006

This morning, one of my favorite former students posted the following message in this site's (now closed) forums:

I lost most of the images of my dad's 80th birthday party due to a problem with my Smart Media memory card. I know they are still on the the card but I am not able to view them. I am having a hard time determining what software program to try to recover them with. I have researched a few like CardRecovery, Image Rescue, & Picture Retriever.

Any recommendations or advice would help.

Thanks :)

Here is what I wrote in reply:

Hi Grasshopper! It's great to see you back again! It's been a long, long time since you were my student! ;)

I haven't used any digital image recovery software yet, so I don't have any personal experience with any of the choices, but I know that Fred Langa of the LangaList newsletter has mentioned digital image recovery software several times over the years. I'm about to go out for a few hours, but I'll search through his archives later tonight, and report back what I find.

A few hours later, I posted the following reply:

Okay, I finished searching through Fred Langa's archives, and I didn't find any digital image recovery software that he personally recommends, but I did find a few that his readers highly recommend. For details, take a look at the following 2 articles from his newsletters:

Reader-Tested Image-Recovery Tools (June 7, 2004):
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-06-07.htm#5

Lost Digital Pix: Found! (April 13, 2006):
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-04-13.htm#9

The first article lists some image recovery tools that LangaList readers highly recommend. The second article describes how to use normal file recovery tools to recover digital images.

I wish you all the best in your efforts! Please let us know how things develop (pun intended, though dated, since it refers to film photography). ;)

A few hours later, I received the following reply:

It's good to again hear (see?) your words of wisdom to my questions. I have always appreciated your help and guidance.

I read the info from LangaList and decided to use the program from http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital_image_recovery.htm (which was free for image recovery!!!!)

I walked through the demo a few times to get a feel for it and then downloaded the program. The process was very simple and I was elated about recovering 44 of the 47 images from my memory card.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction, ComputerBob.

Yours truly,
Grasshopper

Here's what I wrote in reply:

That's excellent! I'm very happy to help, and I'm even happier to have heard from you again! ;)