How I accidentally erased my digital photos, then recovered them

Jul 15, 2008 12:16 PM

Compactflashmemory It took me more than a year to shoot 488 photos and less than a second to lose them—purely by accident, when I unwittingly reformatted the memory card in my point-and-shoot camera.

These were photos I wanted to keep, capturing memories of my first trip to Yosemite, family and friends, even the before-and-after pictures of my kitchen renovation. But I foolishly ignored two commonsense pieces of advice every digital camera user should follow:

Don't use your memory card for permanent storage. It's arguably the least robust, most vulnerable storage device you can use for archiving your pictures. Download images you want to save to your computer, an external hard drive, or a CD.
Even if you don't peruse your camera's user manual cover to cover, at least crack it open to get some idea of how to use your camera’s controls and menus.

I shamefacedly admit that I did neither. While I printed out a bunch of pix, e-mailed others, and put a fair number up on a photo-sharing Website, close to half the shots existed only on the CompactFlash card that never left my camera.

I am also guilty of ignorance about my camera. I know enough to get by but haven't mastered the controls or explored the menus and settings.

That's how I got into trouble. I went into the menus to see what resolution I was shooting at and how much space remained on the memory card (almost none, because of my packrat habit) and somehow reformatted the card without intending to. I froze as I saw the LCD display flash the horrifying message: "no images."

Several friends and acquaintances have made the same mistake, so I'm not the only klutz around. While it was ultimately my fault, I think the camera could have issued a warning—"Are you sure you want to erase all your images?’"—as many computer programs do when you're about to take a potentially disastrous step.

Luckily for me, my story had a happy ending. One of my colleagues, camera expert Jeff Fox, was able to recover the photos from the memory card by using VaioSoft Recovery Manager 1.5, which he downloaded from Download.com. The download was free, though Vaiosoft encourages payments to help support their work.

He'll explain, step by step, what to do, in a separate blog. One thing I can tell you: If you accidentally reformat your memory card, stop everything and immediately remove it from the camera. If you keep shooting, you'll reduce the chance that you can salvage any of the images.

I've vowed to start archiving my photos—the CD that Jeff made for me is a good start—and hope my cautionary tale inspires you to do the same.