speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I'm sorry, if you had just deleted the images, you could have recovered them with recover software, but by formatting your card, I'm afraid the images are lost, unless you can somehow recover them from your computer, if you are able to find them. I wish you good luck!!

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

You sure you didn't put new folder inside another folder, by accident?

ELNikkor

Just a hint.. It is just possible that you accidentally saved the photos into another folder, that was the previous recipient of something saved. I've done this when I wasn't paying close attention. Look in the recently or commonly used folders. Or check the amount of data in known folders. If one is garishly large, it may have your lost images. Hope you find those photos, let us know!

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

Click on File Explorer, This PC, type Christmas 2016 in the search box in the top right corner.

Kuzano

Even though you formatted the SD card, deleting or formatting does not absolutely remove the pictures. Either event simply puts a marker on the file names so they don't show. Then as you continue to use the card, new files MAY NOT write over the deleted or formatted, until that previously used space is necessary.

Photo shops that do file recovery on SD cards, or drives, for a fee, often use a recovery program called RECUVA that is usually free downloaded from the internet. It specifically looks for the markers made by deleting or formatting and lists them for recovery.

In 20 plus years of working on files, drives and other memory devices, this is the routine that is used. Deleting and Formatting marks the files to not be visible, and does not overwrite the marked files until the space is needed for new files. If the SD card is a fairly large memory capacity, the files are likely still on the card awaiting some recover program such as RECUVA and many other such utility programs.

This is one of the reasons all file recovery on law enforcement shows can use drive forensics and save the world in one hour per episode. Sometimes a half hour.

And remember this about file storage... your files are never really gone at the time you hit the delete or format key. So, never throw those old drives or memory devices in the junk heap. Recycling companies have your lives in their hands.

Download Recuva here:

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

Piriform is a high caliber utility software company and you can download the RECUVA Pro or free version on this page. BE SURE to download from the Piriform site to avoid download spyware typically found on the vast number of free download sites. Always download from the software publishers actual site.

RECUVA has been around as a software recovery utility for a number of years, as has the Piriform software publishing site.

Good Luck. You may have to rename or re-organize "found" or "recovered" files.

Kuzano

but by formatting your card, I'm afraid the images are lost

Common misconception. Try RECUVA!

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Look in your hard-drive files for any that have a name associated with your card. i.e., if you shot a Lexar card look for anything close to it. Many times a card will create a file in it's own name if none other is used. Look for .ext files with a name of the card. Try using the search feature using similar names. Good luck.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Of course the pictures were named: Your camera gave them a name, usually a couple of letters with a number. Aside from that, did you give the folder you created a name? If so, do a search for that in File Explorer. If not, do a search for "New folder."

If you have not taken too many new pictures on the same SD card, you could try the program Recuva from Piriform. It will at least recover those files that were not overwritten on the SD card.
https://www.piriform.com/recuva

(For that this program is free, it works miracles! Don't ask me how I know!)

aellman Loc: Boston MA

I hope you find them. For the future, you need to set up an automatic backup system, often using an external hard drive or cloud backup service (or both). For now, before you save anything else (except the following) to your hard drive, download an "undelete" program. You can find free ones at sites like download.com and filehippo.com. Search these sites for "undelete." If your photo files have not been overwritten, these programs can sometimes get them back. Good Luck! >Alan

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

http://www.ease us.com/ The link must have the "us" attached to the "ease," but UHH will not accept the entire, correct link.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Try this -

"To restore a deleted file or folder

Open Computer by clicking the Start button The Start button, and then clicking Computer.
Navigate to the folder that used to contain the file or folder, right-click it, and then click Restore previous versions. If the folder was at the top level of a drive, for example C:\, right-click the drive, and then click Restore previous versions.

You'll see a list of available previous versions of the file or folder. The list will include files saved on a backup (if you are using Windows Backup to back up your files) as well as restore points, if both types are available."
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17119/windows-7-recover-lost-deleted-files

http://www.pcworld.com/article/136677/article.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2147668/how-to-recover-deleted-files.html
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/software/how-recover-deleted-files-free-3365461/

John Solak

Just a couple of points. You may accidentally moved your mouse or pointer and dropped your photos to another folder. If you named any photos try a search of the major categories as Documents, Pictures, Videos etc using the folder tab search box in the upper right corner. I've done this before. OR did you allow enough time for the files to move? While data isn't quite moving at the speed of light, you can pull the chip out too quick and loose data that way. Lastly, SD cards are really cheap, I've seen and bought a 64GB U1 SD cards for $17. Just file them.

jmizera Loc: Austin Texas

My thoughts exactly. If you are only saving images in one place, you're just throwing caution to the wind.

As for recovery, you will generally have a better chance recovering from the computer hard drive as opposed to the memory card. Worth trying it on both though.

edwdickinson Loc: Ardmore PA

Do you have previous versions turned on or a cloud backup?