Photos or pictures represent those lasting memorable moments that where captured on special occasions. Mac stores photos in the iPhoto library. It has some distinct and advanced photo editing tools. Professional photographers commonly use it. There might be some instances due to which one can lose his pictures from Mac OS X. Losing photos is the most annoying thing and awful situation that can be faced by an individual. Under such conditions, you need to opt for some excellent recovery tool that can recover deleted photo on Mac.

Photos are lost and deleted due to various reasons like deleting photos by mistake by pressing “Delete All” option while previewing it in iPhoto library. If iPhoto library gets corrupted due to improper shut down or if it is infected from some harmful virus then the pictures present on it are lost and deleted. If you by chance format your Mac volume then also all the pictures present on it are deleted and lost. If you re-format your volume, to change the file system from HFS to HFS+ then also all the data present on the drive or volume is deleted and lost. If some virus corrupts the file system of the hard drive or if there are any missing files then also the data present on the hard drive is lost and deleted.

One loses pictures from Mac, through these few circumstances. To avoid picture loss you need to have a complete backup. If you do not have backup then the best option is to choose an excellent recovery tool. Remo Recover (Mac) – Media edition is an excellent recovery tool that is specially designed to recover deleted and lost pictures from Mac.

This utility is specially designed to recover pictures form Mac. It recovers files from formatted and re-formatted volumes or drives. It recovers all the media files from Mac. It recovers RAW photos such as CR2, CRW of Canon, NEF of Nikon, ARW, SR2 of Sony, etc. The software can also recover deleted photos from SD card and other memory cards, iPods, FireWire drives, USB drives, etc. It has built in binary application to support Intel and Power PC Mac platforms.

Note: Do not download the software on the affected hard disk as it may overwrite the existing data. Instead, download the software on another system and then connect the affected hard disk as a slave to that computer and recover lost and deleted data.

Download the free demo version of this software on a Mac system. You can follow these simple steps to recover photos using photo recovery software.

Step 1: Double click the short cut icon on the desktop or use the start menu to launch the software. The main window is displayed a shown in Figure 1

Figure 1: Main screen

Step 2: From the main window select the “Recover Photos” option. From the next window select the “Recover Lost Photos” or “Recover Deleted Photos” option based on the photo loss scenario as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Select Appropriate Option 

Step 3: Select the particular volume or storage device from which the pictures have to be recovered as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Select volume for recovery

Step 4: Once recovery process is complete you can view the recovered data as shown in Figure 4.You can preview the recovered files by selecting “Preview” option. You can save the recovery session if you are satisfied with recovery result by using “Save Recovery Session” option.

Figure 4: View Recovered Files

Scenarios in which photos are deleted or lost from SD cards are as follows:

• Accidental deletion of photos: Accidentally deleting photos from SD card may result in loss of photos. When photos are deleted from SD card or any other external storage device, they bypass the Recycle Bin instead of moving to Windows Recycle Bin. Later, if you want those photos back then you cannot restore them from Recycle Bin resulting in loss of photos. If you have deleted photos from camera that are stored in SD card then there is no option to recover photo from digital camera without the help of a recovery software.

• SD card corruption: Malware, spyware or virus attack, power failure etc are the main reason for SD card corruption. When SD card gets corrupted, it displays an error messages while trying to access photos from it. The error messages do not allow you to access photos from SD card resulting in loss of photos. However, using a good photo recovery software it is possible to recover photos from corrupted memory card.

• Accidentally formatting the SD card: Formatting refers to erasing all the contents stored in SD card and creating new file system to store new photos. If you have accidentally formatted the SD card, then the photos stored in it gets completely vanished resulting in loss of photos. If you want to format SD card that is used in digital camera then you should format it in digital camera only not in computer. Formatting SD card in computer leads to SD card corruption.

• Accidental removal of SD card from card reader: A card reader needs to be used in order to transfer photos from SD card to your computer. If you accidentally or abruptly remove SD card from card reader while transferring photos, then you may lose photos.

Even though, you can restore lost or accidentally deleted photos using reliable SD card recovery tool.

Always, take backup of essential photos to avoid loss of photos due to above mentioned reasons. Use “Safely Remove Hardware” icon to disconnect SD card from computer. While deleting any photos from SD card or any other external device make sure that you are deleting unwanted photo. Make use of updated antivirus program and UPS to avoid loss of photos due to virus attack and power failures respectively. Remo Recover (Windows) Media Edition easily recovers accidentally deleted or lost photos from different types of SD cards like miniSD, microSD, SDXC, SDHC etc. This software can recover different types of image files like JPEG, TIFF, PNG, BMP etc from formatted SD cards. You can also perform SD card video recovery and recover different types of audio and video file like MP3, WAV, AVI, MP4, MOV, MPEG etc. This software also has an ability to recover different types of RAW image files like CR2 and CRW from Canon, NEF from Nikon, ARW and SR2 from Sony etc.

Steps to perform digital media recovery and recover deleted photos from SD card:

Step 1: Download and install Remo Recover (Windows) Media Edition. After launching this software, select “Recover Photos” option from the main screen as shown in Figure1.

Figure 1: Main Screen

Step 2: Select “Recover Deleted photos” option from next screen to recover photos that are accidentally deleted. The next window displays detected drives. Select SD card as shown in Figure 2 to recover deleted photos from it.

Figure 2: Select Compact Flash Card

Step 3: Now, if you want to recover specific type of image files then select image file types otherwise skip this step by clicking on “Skip” button to start scanning process as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Select Image File types

Step 4: Now, the recovered photos are displayed, you can preview recovered photos using “Preview” option as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 5: Preview Photos

Different scenarios, which lead to photo loss from Mac system, are:

• Accidental deletion of photos from Mac computer - While viewing photos or while editing photos if you delete the original photo accidentally, then you will lose those photos from your Mac system.
• Photo loss due to emptying Trash - After accidental deletion of photos from Mac system, if Mac Trash is emptied then you cannot restore deleted photos from Mac Trash and it will lead to photo loss.
• File loss due to file system corruption - If file system gets corrupted then photo files present in the system may become inaccessible. Due to this reason, you may lose some of the photo files from your Mac system.
• Photo loss due to usage of third party applications - If any error occurs while using any third party tool then some of the files present in the system may become inaccessible.
• Photo loss due to improper system shutdown - If you shut down the system improperly then also you may lose some of the photo files from your Macintosh computer.

If you take some precautions then you can avoid photo loss from the Mac system. Some of the precautions that you can take are listed here-

• Keep backup of all necessary files in some storage devices like CD, DVD or external storage device.
• While deleting unwanted photos make sure that you have selected those, which you actually wanted to delete because if you select useful photos accidentally then you may lose those photo files.

Whenever any photo loss occurs from Mac system, you can make use of Remo Recover (Mac) – Basic Edition software. The software has the capacity to recover photos from digital camera and almost all storage devices including hard drive, external hard drive, memory cards, FireWire drives, flash drives, etc. The software supports digital media recovery and SD card video recovery on HFS+ and HFSX formatted Mac volumes. It supports recovery of different file types including JPEG, JPG, TIFF, TIF, GIF, etc. The software supports Mac OS X 10.5.x and above versions of the Mac Operating System including Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion.

There are some steps, which you must follow to recover photo files from Mac system -

Step 1: Download free trial version of the Remo Recover (Mac) – Media Edition software and install it in a healthy Mac computer. Launch the application by double clicking shortcut icon on the desktop. The main screen is displayed as shown in Figure 1

Figure 1: Main screen

Step 2: Now select “Recover Photos” option from the main screen as shown in the figure 1. After that select “Recover Deleted Photos” option from the screen that appears as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Select Recover Deleted Photos

Step 3: Select the volume from where you want to recover photo files as shown in Figure 3 and then click on “Next” button. Select the file type that you want to recover and then click on “Next”.

Figure 3: Select volume

Step 4: The software will scan selected drive and after completion of scanning process, you can view recovered files as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: View Recovered data

Photos can be transferred directly to computer’s hard disk via card readers, direct cable transfer, infrared port, docking station etc. Every memory card has its own file system like other storage devices. File system organise and manage photos stored on memory cards. It also stores allocation information of each photo in file allocation table. Memory cards generally support FAT32 file system. When user tries to open an image file, file system starts searching for that image file in its file allocation table. If it finds the specific image file in its file allocation table then it opens that file for viewing purpose.

Most common photo loss scenarios are as follows:

• Accidental deletion of photos: Sometimes, instead of deleting a single photo using “Delete” option, you may accidentally click on “Delete All” option. When you click on “Delete All” option, all the photos stored on digital camera’s memory card gets deleted resulting in loss of photos.
• Memory card corruption: The main reason for digital camera memory card corruption are virus attack, improper ejection of memory card from card reader, power failures while transferring digital photos to computer etc. When memory card gets corrupted, all the photos stored on memory card become inaccessible resulting in loss of photos.
• Accidentally formatting digital camera memory card: Formatting deletes all the photos stored on memory card and then cretaes new file system to store new photos. Sometimes, instead of previewing the photos, you may accidentally click on “Format” option resulting in loss of photos. Formatting digital camera’s memory card in computer may also result in loss of photos. 
• Pulling out memory card when camera is turned on: If you want to transfer photos from camera to computer via card reader then you need to remove memory card from digital camera. If you accidentally pull out the memory card from camera when it is turned on then photoloss may occur.

When you accidentally delete or format a photo accidentally, they are not deleted permanently. Instead, allocation information of that specific photo gets deleted. Deleted photos are present on memory card until they are overwritten by new data. Therefore, it is better not to use the memory card to capture new photos. In order to recover lost or deleted photos, make use of relevant deleted photo recovery software. Remo Recover (Windows) Media Edition recovers lost or deleted photos quickly. Additionally, this software can also recognise and recover different file formats based on their unique signature. This software can recover photo from different types of memory cards like SD cards, MMC, CF cards, XD cards, Smart Media Cards etc. Canon, Nikon, Sony, Samsung, Pentax, Panasonic, Kodak etc are the different brands of digital camera supported by this software. This software can also recover deleted or lost RAW files from digital camera.

In order to recover lost or deleted photos from digital camera’s memory card, follow these steps:

Step 1: Download and install Remo Recover (Windows) Media Edition and then launch it. Select “Recover Photos” option from main screen as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Main Screen

Step 2: From the next screen that is displayed, select “Recover Deleted Photos“ option to recover photos that have been deleted or select “Recover lost Photos” option to recover photos that have been lost as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Select option

Step 3: Select Memory card from the next window and click “Next” button as shown in Figure 3. Then select file types if you want or else skip this step by clicking on “Skip“ button.

Figure 3: Select Memory Card

Step 4: Preview recovered photos using “Preview” option as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Preview Option

Photos that are stored in the CF card may be lost due to accidental deletion, pressing the “Format” button present on the camera, card corruption, accidentally formatting the CF card, capturing pictures when the camera has low battery power, switching off the camera while writing/reading process is in progress. But in most of the cases, the deleted / lost images are still recoverable.

Remo Recover software helps you to recover photos, audio and video files from digital cameras, memory stick (Duo, Pro), flash memory cards, Compact Flash cards, SD cards, microSD, miniSD cards, XD cards, MMC,  other removable storage devices like Zip disk, FireWire drives, USB drives, hard drives and external HDD.

Step 1: Connect the Compact Flash card using a card reader to a laptop / computer on which the Remo Recover software has already been installed. Run the software by double clicking the desktop shortcut or by selecting it from Programs menu. The main screen is displayed, select the “Recover Photos“ option as shown in Figure 1

Figure 1: Main Screen

Step 2: Select the Compact Flash card on which you would like to perform deleted photo recovery as shown in Figure 2

Figure 2: Select Compact Flash Card

Step 3: The CF card recovery software lets you to select the image file types that are listed, based on their unique signatures, or may even skip this step as shown in Figure 3

Figure 3: Select Image File types

Step 4: Once the scanning process is finished, the recovered photos will be displayed and you can view these pictures either by “Data View“ or “File Type View“ option as shown in Figure 4

Figure 4: View Recovered Pictures

Step 5: The “Preview“ option will let you preview the images that have been recovered and help you to evaluate the capability of the application. You can save the pictures to any preferred location as shown in Figure 5

Figure 5: Save Photos

SD card is a flash memory card which is widely used in digital cameras to store the captured photos, audio and video files. These SD cards are susceptible to data loss when they are accidentally formatted or corrupted, when data is accidentally deleted from them, interrupted data transfer, improper ejection of the SD card from the camera, turning off camera during read / write process etc.

All these above scenarios end up in video file loss from SD card. In order to recover video files from SD card using Remo Recover, follow the steps given below

Step 1: Connect the SD card to a laptop / computer on which the Remo Recover software has already been installed. Launch the application by selecting it from Programs menu or by double clicking the desktop shortcut. The main screen appears; select the “Recover Photos“ option as shown in Figure 1

Figure 1: Main screen

Step 2: Select the SD card, from which you want to recover pictures, audio and videos as shown in Figure 2

Figure 2: Select SD card

Step 3: The SD card recovery application lets you to select the video file types that are listed, based on their unique signatures, as shown in Figure 3

Figure 3: Select video file types

Step 4: After completing the scanning process, the recovered videos will be displayed and can be viewed using either “Data View” or “File Type View” option as shown in Figure 4

Figure 4: View recovered video files

Step 5: The retrieved video files by using the “Preview” option to evaluate recovery results and can save the videos to any preferred location as shown in Figure 5

Figure 5: Save video files

But many times, these digital media storage devices get corrupted due to several reasons like accidental formatting, corruption, viruses, software malfunction, improper ejection of memory card, abrupt system shut down etc. and may end up in loss or inaccessibility of data that is stored on them. Some of other causes are file system corruption and encountering errors like “Card is not Formatted” and “Memory Card could not be recognized” may lead to loss of your media files.

Digital media recovery software is comprehensive recovery application for any type of digital media. It can quickly locate and restore photos, music and video files from all camera flash memory cards including memory cards, Compact Flash card, SD card, MMC, XD Picture Card, microSD card, Sony Memory Stick (Duo and  Pro), Zip disk, USB flash drives and hard drives even after format or corruption.

To recover digital media files using Remo Recover, follow the below steps

Step 1: Connect the memory card to a computer on which the Remo Recover software has already been installed. Run the application by double clicking the desktop shortcut. The main window will be displayed, select the “Recover Photos” option as shown in Figure 1

Figure 1: Main window

Step 2: Select the memory card or drive from which you want to recover digital photos

Step 3: The digital media recovery application allows you to select the media file types that are listed, based on their unique signatures, as shown in Figure 2

Figure 2: Select media types

Step 4: The recovered media files are listed after completing the scanning process. You can use either “Data View” or “File Type View” option to view the recovered media files as shown in Figure 3

Figure 3: View recovered media files

Step 5: You can preview the retrieved media files by using the “Preview” option to evaluate recovery results and can save the photos to any preferred location as shown in Figure 4

Figure 4: Save recovered media files

Human error is one of the main causes for memory card corruption. Memory card gets corrupt when you switch off the camera suddenly while processing / saving an image, when memory card is removed abruptly from card reader or camera during photo transfer. Some times the card may be corrupted if you continue taking photos, when the digital camera is low on battery. If you use the same memory card in different cameras, it may result in corruption. Some other reasons of memory card corruption include virus attack, firmware failure, errors like “Memory Card Error” and “Card Locked” etc.

Once you recognize that, your memory card is corrupt, remove it from the camera and keep it safely until you retrieve photos. Avoid using the memory card any further as it may overwrite existing data resulting in permanent loss of pictures.

You can recover data from corrupt memory card by using Remo Recover software. Follow the steps given below to recover memory card data

Step 1: Connect the memory to a PC on which the Remo Recover software has already been installed. Launch the application by double clicking the desktop shortcut. The main window appears; select the “Recover Photos” option as shown in Figure 1

Figure 1: Program main window

Step 2: Select the memory card that is displayed as a logical drive from which you want to recover deleted photos

Step 3: The software lets you perform an additional search for digital photos by selecting the image file types that are listed, based on their unique signatures, as shown in Figure 2

Figure 2: Select photo types

Step 4: The recovered photos are displayed once the scanning process is finished. You can use the “Data View” or the “File Type View” option to view the recovered pictures as shown in Figure 3

Figure 3: View recovered photos

Step 5: You preview the recovered photos by using the “Preview” option and evaluate recovery results and you can save the photos as shown in Figure 4

Figure 4: Save recovered photos

Lost or deleted pictures can be recovered as long as they have not been overwritten by other information. DO NOT save any new data to the external drive as writing new data to the drive lowers the chances of recovering the pictures, music and other lost data. Regardless of what caused your photos and iTunes library to be lost, you can recover deleted pictures from your external hard drive quickly and easily.

The simplest and easiest way to recover your lost files is to use Remo Recover Photo (Windows) software. Remo software profile includes full range of robust tools for data recovery that will deep scan any storage device, find deleted and damaged files and then present them with the option of resaving. Lost or deleted digital picture files on a memory card or hard drive can be easily recovered using Remo Recover Photo (Windows) software. Remo Recover Photo (Windows) is easy to use recovery tool that ensures absolute recovery of lost or deleted pictures, images, videos and graphics from all popular storage devices.

Download and install Remo Recover Photo (Windows) software on the PC to which your external hard drive has been connected. Run Remo Recover Photo (Windows) software and scan your external hard drive. Follow the instructions in the recovery guide below on how to recover deleted/lost pictures, audio and video files by using Remo Recover Photo (Windows) software.

Recovery guide

Step 1: When you run Remo Recover Photo (Windows) software, a wizard screen will open and present you with a list of drives, select the external drive from which you need to recover data and click on Next button (See figure a).

Figure a: Program main window

Note: If the drive you are looking for is not listed in the list of drives, then click on Refresh drives. This will detect recently connected drives and display it in the list of drives in the application main window

Step 2: The next wizard screen gives you a choice to select the “File Types” that you are trying to recover. Select an individual file type or may also select all files by pressing “Select All button” and press the “Next” button to continue (See Figure b).

Figure b: Select file types

Step 3: When the “Next” button is pressed the scanning is commenced. After the scan is completed the application will display a list of all found files and folders in a tree format. (See Figure c)

Please Note: You can double click on the found file to preview before recovering or, you may right click on the selected file and select “Preview” option from the menu.

Figure c: Found files and folders

Step 4: The next and final step in recovery process is to restore found data to a safe location. Select the data you wish to recover or click Root folder to select all the data and click on save button. As you click save button, a window to select destination location is displayed as shown in Figure d.

Figure d: Select destination location

Select the destination location. Check if you want to save your data in compressed form and click on OK button. As soon as you click OK button, the program starts saving the data to selected destination location and will pop up a message once saving is completed, intimating the same. All the data will be saved in a new folder by name “RemoRecoverPhotoxx xx xx* ” in the specified destination location.

After you have lost/deleted important data remember NOT to use the drive further and follow the above procedure as soon as possible for your best chance of successful data recovery.

First of all let me clear you that just by deleting the photos folder from recycle bin, they are not been permanently erased from your drive. They still exist on the drive and are recoverable unless and until you have not overwritten the deleted photos by saving new data.

Is it possible to recover deleted recycle bin files?

Yes, it is possible to recover deleted recycle bin files. When you delete a photo / file and then empty your recycle bin, many of us think the file is permanently gone. But that’s not true.

What exactly happens when you delete a file and further empty the recycle bin?

In Windows Operating systems, simple deletion of a file or even following that up by emptying the “recycle bin” doesn’t necessarily make the information irretrievable.

Those commands generally delete a file’s name from the directory, so it won’t show up when the files are listed. But the information itself can still exist until it is overwritten by new files.

So, if you have not permanently erased your hard drive with some Data Eraser tool, it is not hard to undelete photos.

How to recover photos?

The only data recovery software you will ever need to recover your deleted photos is Remo Recover Photo. This software successfully recovers deleted photos emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, or lost due to the format of a hard drive, iPod, Memory Card, SD Card, Flash drives, virus infection, and unexpected system shutdown or software failure. Software ensures absolute recovery of lost or deleted photos, images, videos and graphics from all popular storage devices like hard disk drive, iPod, Memory Card, SD Card, Flash drives etc.

Software is most reliable and has easy to use interface that allows any non technical person to easily recover their lost / deleted photos easily. Chances of recovering the deleted photos using Remo Recover Photo Software are more compared to any freeware software.

See your deleted photos before you purchase!

Trial version of the software is available for FREE which allows you to find the deleted files and preview them. In order to restore and save the files to your disk you will need to purchase the software.

Precautions to be taken after accidental deletion of files:

1. Immediately switch off the computer.
2. Do not try to save any files or allow any other application write data to the partition on which you are looking to perform recycle bin recovery.
3. Do not even boot the system, as Windows creates and updates many files at the time of system startup. Files deleted from the desktop or files residing in Documents & Settings and Windows folders are more prone to being overwritten by the operating system.
4. Finally, connect the drive you wish to recover files from to another system and then install Remo Recover Photo to that same independent system. Then scan the partition from which you want to recover emptied recycle bin files.

Recovering Photos using Remo Recover Photo

Remo Recover Photo is compatible with almost all versions of Windows and employs advanced disk scanning technology to completely scan and restore lost/deleted pictures, videos and other media files with only few steps.

Step 1: Install Remo Recover Photo Software and run the application either from the desktop or from Programs menu. Program main Window of Remo Recover Photo is displayed as shown in Figure a.

Figure a: Program Main Window

Step 2: Select the drive from which you need to recover the deleted photos and click Next. As soon as you click Next, you’ll see the interface as shown in Figure b.

Figure b: Select the required file type

You can see all the file formats that the software supports, choose required photos file type you wish to recover.

Step 3: Click “Next”, the program will begin scanning the selected formats from your device. A few minutes later, it will list all of the found files and classify them with file formats as shown in Figure c.

Figure c: Found files displayed in tree format

Step 4: Once the scanning progress is complete, you can choose to save data you wish to recover or click Root folder to select all the data. As you click Save button, a window to select destination location is displayed as shown in Figure d.

Figure d: Select Destination Location

Important Note:

• You can preview the file before recovery using “Preview” option. To preview the file, double click on the file whose preview is to be seen. This will show the preview of the file before you could recover it.
• Save Scan Information feature helps to re-load recovered data tree from previous scan, this features comes in handy when you are evaluating the trial version. The save scan information can be used with full version to recover data without rescanning the drive again.