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How to Recover Lost Photos in Windows

Digital photos are a major part of nearly everyone's life. It can be devastating if these digital photographic files are lost. Accidental deletion and memory card malfunctions are among the most common reasons that photo files are lost. Finding lost files on a Windows-based computer is not impossible, however.

Things You'll Need

Memory card
USB cable

Instructions

- 1
  Stop using the memory card or hard drive immediately until you can complete the file recovery process. Once files are deleted, the space is marked available, and the next file can be saved in the space, thus losing the photo file permanently.
- 2
  Insert the memory card into a card reader and connect the card reader to a Windows based computer with a USB cable.
- 3
  Install a freeware photo recovery software, available online. A majority of the photo recovery software programs are compatible with Windows systems. Double click on the "Download" button and save the file to the desktop.
- 4
  Double click on the desktop icon for the photo recovery software to open the program. Follow the onscreen directions by selecting the drive where the lost photos were stored. Wait for the program to scan the drive, which may take a few minutes to a few hours, depending upon the number of files. Save the restored files to a new location and close the program. If no files were restored, the file space has probably already been written over and the photo file is lost permanently.

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