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How to Recover JPEG Photos

One of the most frustrating things that can happen with a computer or a digital camera is the loss of important pictures through accidental deletion, disk corruption, or other problems. Several utilities are available that can help you to recover jpg, jpeg, and other format images. Not all these utilities work the same way, so it is suggested that you try a second utility if the first one fails to recover the image. Some of these utilities are free to use, but many are not.

Instructions

- 1
  Download and install Pandora Recovery, a free file recovery program.
- 2
  Launch Pandora Recovery if it did not launch automatically at the end of installation. The program will launch with a "Pandora Recovery Wizard!" window. The wizard walks the user through the recovery process.
- 3
  Click "Next" on the "Pandora Recovery Wizard!" window.
- 4
  Check your Recycle Bin for the jpeg files by clicking "Open Recycle Bin." Accidentally deleted files are often found here. If the missing images are found, move them from the Recycle Bin back to their original folder.
- 5
  Close the Recycle Bin once you have finished checking for the files. If the missing files were not in the Recycle bin, continue with the wizard.
- 6
  Select the radio button for "No, I did not find my files" and click the "Next" button.
- 7
  Highlight the logical drive where the jpeg files were saved before being lost, and click the "Next" button. The drive can be a hard drive or a memory card from a digital camera if the memory card is being read by the computer.
- 8
  Select the "Browse" radio button and click the "Next" button. Browse looks at the file structure and finds recently deleted files. This is usually all that is needed to recover accidentally deleted jpeg files.
- 9
  Navigate through the folders to find the missing jpeg files, making sure that the toolbar button "Show deleted items only" is selected.
- 10
  Highlight the jpeg file in the file list. If the image is recoverable, a preview will display below the file list. The preview also provides verification that this is the correct image to recover.
- 11
  Right-click the jpeg file, and select "Recover to..." from the menu.
- 12
  Select "Browse" and navigate to the folder where the jpeg file should be saved. Click "OK." Do not save the file on the same drive that it is being recovered from. This could cause other missing files to be overwritten and to no longer be recoverable.
- 13
  Click "Recover Now." The file will be saved to the selected folder. Click "Close" and repeat from step ten as necessary to recover any additional files.

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