How can I recover photos?

Filter scan results for pictures:

To filter Recuva's scan results for Pictures follow these instructions: 

If needed, click 'Switch to advanced mode' in the top-right corner of the window.

Select 'Pictures' from within the 'Filename or Path' drop-down on the top right-hand side of Recuva's interface.

You can also use the 'Filename or Path' field to filter the scan results by a specific file type. For example, if you only need to recover JPEG files, you can type .jpg into 'Filename or Path'. This will make Recuva only show the .jpg files.

Finally, you can use the 'Filename or Path' field to specify the previous directory location of the pictures. (e.g. \Users\Pictures).

If you know the name of the pictures, you can search for them directly by typing this into the 'Filename or Path' field. (e.g. FamilyPhoto003)

Enable Advanced Mode and Deep Scan:

If the pictures are not detected, the next option would be to make use of Recuva's Deep Scan option, after narrowing your search using Recuva's Advanced Mode.

To do this, please follow the steps below:

1. To enter Advanced Mode, simply 'Cancel' the Recuva Wizard when you first open Recuva, or click 'Switch to advanced mode' in the top-right corner of the interface.
2. To enable a Deep Scan, click 'Options...' > 'Actions' > check 'Deep Scan (increases scan time)' > click 'OK'

Now you can narrow your search by selecting:

• the drive you want Recuva to search
• the folder location of the files
• the file name
• the type of files to search for (e.g. .jpg files)

Once set according to the files to be recovered, click 'Scan' again to allow the Deep Scan to begin.

A Deep Scan can only identify the following file types:

• Graphics: BMP, JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF
• Microsoft Office 2007 (or newer): DOCX, XLSX, PPTX
• Microsoft Office (pre-2007): DOC, XLS, PPT, VSD
• OpenOffice: ODT, ODP, ODS, ODG, ODF
• Audio: MP3, MP2, MP1, AIF, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC, M4A
• Video: MOV, MPG, MP4, 3GP, FLV, WMV, AVI
• Archives: RAR, ZIP, CAB
• Other file types: PDF, RTF, VXD, URL

Issues when trying to open recovered pictures?

If you're still having trouble when trying to open the recovered pictures, you may want to use another program, such as IrfanView.

This program will sometimes open pictures that have become corrupted in some way, allowing you to save the pictures to a format that is compatible with other software, such as Windows Photo Viewer.

You can download IrfanView for free, directly from http://www.irfanview.com/