Bobby123

I have apparently lost over 700 photographs from a recent trip to South America. The numbers appear on my hard drive but they are grayed out. They were .NEF files. All the files leading up to them are DSC_(4-digit file #).NEF and they have a tiny thumbnail next to them. The missing files are same but grayed out and have a "D" next to them signifying they have something to do with Topaz. I have tried to use Topaz in the past and couldn't but didn't delete the programs and Topaz doesn't have customer service so I can't consult them.

Does anyone know a way to get these files to magically reappear? I called Adobe because I was trying to open them in Bridge and after a long phone call they said the files are gone. They were able to show that the files show 0 bytes.

Lastly, I have extremely rudimentary computer skills so please keep that in mind in your responses. I hope someone knows the key to opening these files!

Thank you for your consideration.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

There are recovery programs for "deleted" files. They aren't really deleted, just "turned off" until something else needs to use the space. If you've had a hardware or mechanical disc failure, you are out of luck and can only wish you still have the camera cards or other backup.

Sometimes computer repair shops can fix things that seem unfixable.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Are the files still on your camera card(s)?

Bobby123

Thank you for your response. I think this is a software issue because it seems to have switched and is controlled by some Topaz product, but I don't really understand this stuff very well.

Bobby123

Thank you for responding. No, I transferred them to external hard drives but they both show the same thing. Again, not something I'm able to understand. Computers seem to sometimes just do what they do and we have to know how to fix them but I can't do that.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I had the same thing happen. My wife shot nearly 100 still and short videos of our son at a park with the "Live Steamer" trains that you sit on a seat on top of the engine or car.
I accidentally formatted the card without making sure they had transferred to the hard drive on my desktop (I am her IT tech and image editor.) I tried 4 different recovery programs and two of them pulled up files with the correct ID and size on disk. But only a few will play and that only for about 1-2 seconds of sound and lights flashing on the screen.
I did keep the SD card in hopes I can find an app or person who can recover them and gave her a new, bigger SD card for her Camcorder.
I am very pi$$ed at myself, but she isn't since the other SD card from that day is fine. "We have a lot of good ones, so don't stress yourself over the others. Besides, Jon and I have memberships in the club, and they do a run day every month."

Jon is 30 with the mentality of a bright 5 yo to 10 yo depending on what he is doing. When it comes to trains, he is at the high end of his spectrum. She takes him on rail excursions and has memberships in multiple train and model railroad groups in addition to our family membership in the Southern California Railway Museum (largest running RR museum west of the Mississippi-over 200 pieces of working rolling stock between trains and streetcars).
I am a member of the operations department with ratings to run several classes of streetcars and a RR Conductor rating. But with my asthma, heart and age I haven't been out since Covid hit. My wife is a retired RN/OR Charge Nurse and says playing with or taking pictures of trains is not worth my risking death from Covid. So I just keep track of the museum online, exchange a few e-mails and go into my files to find editable pictures I took in the past.

Bill_de Loc: US

Did you move them from the the card or copy them from the card to the hard drive.

Many times folks don't realize the original files are still on the cards, unless you delete them.

Just a thought, what shows up on the back of the camera?

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therwol Loc: USA

Personally, I don't reuse my cards. I have a box with a bunch of ones I've taken out of cameras and a camcorder over many years. I also make more than one copy when I transfer the pictures to something else. Something the OP might want to think about in the future.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Only if they're accepting foolish advice. I try not to delete my images from the cards until all the editing is completed and the culled files are backed up. With 6 x 32GB primary CF cards, it's next to never I don't have the files processed before I have to reuse a 6th card.

Rather than starting 1-use foolishness, our OP might just increase their available card count, if that's an applicable solution.

These are fallback approaches. The cause of the missing / deleted images needs to be resolved, hopefully successfully.

DougS Loc: Central Arkansas

Google/search " deleted file recovery ". There are services that do that on the web, also.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

If you believe this is a software issue, see if you can find the files with windows explorer. If you find them copy them to a back-up disk.

Bayou

Are you looking for these files in an editor, or in Windows Explorer?

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

The OP admits that he’s computer illiterate. If the photos are that important, I recommended that he find a computer service that he can take his computer to and have them do their magic. They might not find a solution either but at least he will know.

Bobby123

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I have several good paths to follow now. I'm going to finish post-processing the rest of the files so those are safe and then take the computer to a local shop to see if they can do anything. I'm hoping it works!

Paul (CHG_CANON) is correct- the first thing is to try to retrieve the files. Then I can figure how to do it differently next time.

Bayou

This is a bad idea. If the files were accidentally deleted, their recovery could be imperiled by writing new data to the drive, such as would occur were you to edit and save other images, or if the computer decided to automatically run its defragmenter. The safest thing would be to turn off the computer totally and take to a shop before using it again.