A few weeks ago, I accidentally deleted several folders containing childhood photos from an external hard drive that I bought specifically for storage. I only noticed the mistake a few days ago. Is there still a realistic way to recover the folders and pictures, or are they permanently gone?
3 Answers
You’ll need a separate drive with enough free space to store anything recovered. Don’t recover files back onto the original disk, since that could overwrite other deleted data. Once you get the photos back, keep at least one additional backup in another location.
If the photos are especially important, stop using the drive and have a professional data-recovery service handle it. Otherwise, tools such as PhotoRec can scan for deleted files, though filenames and folder structure may not be preserved, and some files could be incomplete.
First, check the Recycle Bin if the drive was connected to a PC. After that, you can try a reputable undelete or file-recovery tool to see what remains recoverable. Avoid installing the recovery program or saving recovered files onto the same external drive.
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