guligian Loc: Louisville KY

I shot family Christmas pictures, created a file "Christmas 2016" on my PC, transfered the photos from my SD card to the folder on my PC (I thought!), now the folder is empty.

In the meantime, I have reformatted the SD card and taken more pictures on the SD card. Does any one have any magic solutions to recover my Christmas pictures . . . and saving my marriage!!??!!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Do a search on your computer for a possible file number (name) that was from the Christmas set. Go to the start menu, press computer, and you will see a screen with your drive(s) on it. In the top left corner you will see a field called "Search Computer" You type in the file name or even a partial, and press enter. If the file exists on your computer, this will find it regardless of where you accidentally misfiled it. I'll bet the others are there too.

For future consideration - think about getting Lightroom - much better at organizing and retrieving files than anything else. Certainly worth the $10/mo.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Don't know if it'll help in your case, but there's a program called "Ease us" that might work. I saw mention of it somewhere on UHH, I believe. Good luck.

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

So did you create a file or a folder? If, as you say a file, then you are out of luck as you can't put files inside files. If you meant folder then read on...

To find your files, open explorer, and click on C drive. (if you have more than 1 repeat the process for each drive) Hopefully, you know at least 1 filename from the shoot which will make the job much easier. If not then you've got some sleuthing work to do. At the top right is a search computer box and, if you remember the filename, you enter that name in the box, otherwise you will enter *.jpg (if you shoot raw then put *.cr2 or *.nef or whatever raw extension your camera uses) in that box (which tells the computer to search for every filename that has the dot jpg extension) then let the computer find every jpg file on your c drive. Once complete, set explorer to sort by date. This should tell you what folder and where you actually saved the files. Good luck.

PW4GDF

This information is irrelevant now, but what I do with special occasion pictures that cannot be re-taken, as soon as they are off the card and on the computer I copy them to a 'stick drive' and/or an external hard drive. It is so upsetting to have this happen, but put them somewhere else.
Good Luck.

NikonCharlie Loc: Kansas USA

I save to a portable external hard drive, then open and examine the files before I remove the card from the reader. Also, I save by year. So 40 days ago I started a master file 2017 which will have this years file folders within.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

let your computer search for the files. They may be there and you just cant find them.
sometimes you end up putting a new directory inside an older directory and its then lost till you actually find it.
What ever extension you have on your files, JPG or NEF etc.
in the windows search box type *.jpg ( or what ever extension your looking for ) and the computer will come up with all files with that extension.

In case you happen to have put the directory inside another directory. Have it search for christmas files or what ever name you used. the directory just may show up
Good luck.

DRG777 Loc: Metro Detroit

This is what I would say. Also, never allow photo files to be saved in only one place. Always have a duplicate.

guligian Loc: Louisville KY

Correction: I didn't create a file, I created a folder. Too, none of the pictures were named. Is the SD card a possibility!

marty wild Loc: England

You must stop using that card as you know when we format cards the image is still there so long another image has not taken it's place. If it has you've lost it for good. A good retrieval program just might rescue some think. you might have to get some help from you local camera shop

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

A. stop using the memory card, you may need to do a recovery Google "recover images from formatted sd card" you will get several options including some apps that have a free version.
B. What operating system?
C. If windows 10 go to the File Explorer on the task bar, open it and click "Pictures" on the left, it will find all pictures on the computer in the "Pictures" Library, in a folder or individual image files. If you are lucky you will find you loaded the images to pictures instead of your folder. So then you will have to move them to the folder. This may take a while, and you may have to look in all the folders that it finds or even open all the individual images it lists after it lists all the folders.

If you don't find them there then you will need to start searching under documents etc. Search the whole C drive, do you have a second drive? You may have to search there.

If you can get a download of Picassa 3 (when I heard it was being phased out I downloaded the install files and saved a copy) set it up and let it search your computer drive(s). This may take a long time. But it will find ALL images, even scans, pdfs, icons etc. Then you will have to scroll through all of them looking for the pictures. If the copies you saved were RAW files, well I hope it isn't one of the newer cameras because Picassa 3 might not be able to open them.

DRG777 Loc: Metro Detroit

The file still had a name. It might be something like 2394IMG.JPG or 3287NIK.JPG.

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

Stop using the card and download Piriform's Recuva https://www.piriform.com/recuva

Linary Loc: UK

Also check your waste (trash) bin, the images may have ended up in there.

Just Trying To Focus Loc: Jackson County, Michigan

Can you search the computer for files dated 12/25/2016?