Once you start using your memory card again after it has been reformatted, the old images will start to be overwritten by new data, and then they're permanently obliterated. Recovery software for photos works best if you use it as soon as possible after an accidental delete/reformat/system crash. After what can often be quite a lengthy scanning process, the software will display all the files it's able to recover, and it's then just a matter of selecting the files you want to restore, and where you want to save them. Instead, only the file index is deleted, fooling the camera or laptop into seeing a blank card/drive after a reformat and allowing it to overwrite the 'deleted' data.ĭata recovery software can work its magic as it's able to see past the missing index file to the ghosts of the old files and folders once stored on the memory card or hard drive. When a camera or computer reformats a memory card or hard drive, rarely does it really delete the actual data, and the same goes for when you manually delete a file.

Jpeg recovery software