Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: EtherShock on July 29, 2005, 04:22:58 pm

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: EtherShock on July 29, 2005, 04:22:58 pm

Hey, I had some pictures on a memory stick and someone else deleted them. Is there any way to recover my lost photos? I know that you can recover data from hard drives, but I have no idea if you can do it on removable media such as this.

OK, I found a free recovery program, so I guess you can recover removable media, but before this, I took two pictures, thinking the stick may have had a brush with a strong magnet, and all I recovered were those two test pics. >.< Are my pictures gone?

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: Sandwich on July 30, 2005, 01:45:01 pm

Uhm... magnets have no effect on flash memory.

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: EtherShock on July 30, 2005, 03:20:07 pm

Thank you very much Sandwich. I realized that last night. Now does anyone have any advice?

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: Admiral LSD on July 30, 2005, 03:22:31 pm

Nothing cheap and easy. Professional data recovery services may be able to help but they charge thousands for the privilige.

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: Sandwich on July 30, 2005, 03:42:30 pm

I think you're screwed if you took additional pictures after having deleted your old ones.

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: EtherShock on July 30, 2005, 05:20:27 pm

Is that how flash memory works, because that would really suck. I know on a hard drive, it just marks that the sectors can be overwritten, but doesn't do so until all free space is gone.

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: Taristin on July 30, 2005, 05:31:44 pm

That's basically how all forms of digital recording work. Deletion erases the file table, but the data is usually still there. But when you save new things, it overwrites the old. That's how forensics people get data off of people's HDD's for crimes.

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: EtherShock on August 03, 2005, 04:37:29 pm

You can make the hard drive completely useless if you're ever raided. You just need really strong magnetic tape, and make sure it's concealable, so when they move everything out, it passes through the magnetic field, it renders everything useless.

Great, I guess that means I'm screwed. I might've had a chance to recover them if the stick was bigger. Thanks for all your help guys...even Sandwich, who I was kind of an ass towards, sorry about that.

Title: Recovering lost pictures
Post by: Sandwich on August 04, 2005, 01:21:09 am

Hey, an advantage to digital communication sans body language - I didn't notice. ;)