How to Recover Deleted Photos & Videos

If you’ve ever deleted photos or videos from your memory card and regretted it later, this guide can help. I will introduce you to two programs, one of which is completely free, designed to recover your lost images. All you have to do is pick one, download it, and run it. These programs are both simple and effective.

Image Rescue is the first product I recommend. I’ve found it to be extremely effective at retrieving lost photos and videos, even after formatting. I tried Image Rescue years ago when I bought a camera that had this software with it, and I’ve kept it on hand ever since. Image Recovery can recover photos and videos if you delete them, format your memory card, or if your card becomes corrupted. There is no 100% guarantee that all of your photos and videos will be recovered if you formatted your memory card or if it was corrupted, but I’ve experienced both of these problems and I had no trouble recovering all of my data.

You can buy Image Rescue for $33.99, which is an extremely worthwhile investment. With Image Rescue, you can view your deleted photos and videos and either restore all of them or simply pick and choose the ones you want. So if you accidentally delete all of your photos and videos from your SD card, or if you format it, this is a very quick and easy way to get your data back. Depending on the formatting method, there are instances when Image Rescue cannot restore everything that was deleted. If your memory card becomes corrupted, you can still use Image Rescue to restore photos and videos, though it might not restore them all. The recovery process usually only takes a few minutes. Depending on how many photos and videos have been deleted over the years from your memory card, the recovery process can take a while, but it will retrieve things you deleted years ago.

Image Rescue also allows you to securely delete photos that you want to get rid of permanently, which is a useful feature as well. I’ve used it before when I sold my SD card and wanted to be sure my data was no longer on it. If you ever want to sell or give away your memory card, I highly recommend securely deleting everything on it first with Image Rescue.

If, however, you don’t have the $33.99 to spare, you can download MjM Photo Recovery, which is completely free. I haven’t tried MjM Photo Recovery, but it’s been recommended to me by friends and family who have used it and swear by it. Just like Image Rescue, MjM Photo Recovery can recover photos and videos if you delete them, format your memory card, or if your card becomes corrupted.

Based solely on personal experience, I still recommend Image Rescue. However, MjM Photo Recovery is freeware and boasts almost all of the same features as Image Rescue.