 | By Woody Leonhard Every year about this time, my inbox overflows with anguished hollers for holiday help. “My brother-in-law [or some other equally nefarious scoundrel] deleted all the pics on my new camera,” the tale of woe goes, “how do I get ‘em back?” |
First, shutterbug, do no harm
Start by peeling yourself off the ceiling and unwinding that strand of garland you surreptitiously slipped around your brother-in-law’s neck.
As long as you haven’t used the camera after the pictures were deleted, there’s a very good chance that you can get them all back. Likely as not, it won’t cost a cent. It’ll take a little time, but disposing of your brother-in-law would probably take longer.
If you’ve deleted a picture or a bunch of pictures on your camera — whether by injudiciously hitting the “delete” key on the camera itself, by copying the pics to your PC and having the PC delete them as they were copied, or by any of a zillion other bonehead methods — you must start by doing nothing.
Don’t take any more pictures with the camera. Don’t try to use the camera’s built-in menu. Don’t reformat the hard drive. Just sit and chill while you figure out what to do next.
What really happens when you delete pics
When you delete a picture on a camera, you don’t actually delete the picture.
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