A few weeks ago, I accidentally deleted several folders containing childhood photos from an external hard drive I bought specifically to store them. I only noticed the mistake a few days ago. Is there still a realistic way to restore the folders and pictures, or are they probably gone for good?
4 Answers
Once you get the pictures back, keep at least two separate backups—ideally one on another drive and one stored somewhere else. An external drive by itself is not a reliable long-term backup.
Stop using the external drive immediately. Deleted files usually remain on the drive until their space is reused, so recovery may still be possible. The more files you download, install, or copy onto it after deletion, the greater the chance the photos have been overwritten.
First check the computer’s Recycle Bin, then try a reputable undelete or file-recovery utility. Recover the results to a different drive, not back onto the external hard drive. Tools such as PhotoRec can sometimes recover files even when their original folders are gone, although filenames and folder structure may not survive.
If the photos are especially important, avoid experimenting and take the drive to a professional data-recovery service. A few weeks does not automatically mean the files are lost, but recovery becomes less likely if the drive has been actively used or reformatted since the deletion.
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