Where the photographs were stored decides almost everything about getting them back. A camera card is the most recoverable device we handle; a phone is one we cannot help with directly. And before any of that, check the Recently Deleted folder in your cloud library — it resolves a good share of these in five minutes.
$ cdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: SanDisk Extreme SD (256 GB) · camera → Status: FORMATTED — photos intact, file system reset → Client: confidential · Newmarket CB8 $ cdr engineer-working → Forensic image: taken · originals untouched → Carve: JPEG + CR3 RAW signatures → Found: 4,820 photos · 180 video clips $ cdr verify → ✓ raw_photos — 2,140 files → ✓ jpeg_photos — 2,680 files → ✓ every shot recovered — intact
Where enough of the file system survives, photographs come back with their original names, folders and dates intact. Where it does not — after a format, or where the directory structures were overwritten — recovery works by signature instead, scanning for the recognisable headers of JPEG, HEIC, RAW and video files and reconstructing each from its content.
Signature recovery returns the images and loses the names. Files come back as sequential numbers rather than as DSC_4471, and folder structure is not reproduced. For a card of holiday photographs that is usually fine; for an archive somebody spent years organising it is a real loss even though every image returns.
Where the camera wrote EXIF data, the original capture dates survive inside the files themselves, so chronological order can usually be rebuilt even when filenames cannot.
A JPEG is read from its beginning, and each part depends on what came before. Where the first portion of a file survives and the rest was overwritten, the image opens and displays down to the point where the data stops — the familiar photograph that fades into grey or coloured noise partway down.
That is not a failure of the recovery. It is what is physically present. Where we can improve it we do, and where we cannot we return the partial image anyway rather than discarding it, because half a photograph of somebody who has died is not nothing.
RAW files behave differently and tend to be all or nothing. Video frequently plays to the point of damage and stops.
Photo recovery starts at £250 +VAT for cards and USB media, £300 +VAT for drives. Logical class, so no fix, no fee applies.
You see a full list of what has been recovered, with thumbnails where the images allow it, before paying anything.
Usually not, and we would rather say so than take a fee. Phone storage is encrypted and TRIMmed. Check Google Photos, iCloud and the Recently Deleted album first — those solve most of these.
Very likely recoverable. Cameras perform a quick format that rewrites the directory and leaves images in place. Stop using the card immediately.
Usually a file system fault rather than flash failure, and usually recoverable. Do not let the camera repair or reformat it.
If the file system survived, yes. After a format, usually not — images come back numbered. EXIF capture dates survive inside the files, so chronological order can be rebuilt.
That means the first part of the file survived and the rest was overwritten. It is what physically exists rather than a fault in the recovery, and we return them rather than discarding them.
Two to five working days. Cards and USB media are quick; large drives take longer because signature scanning scales with capacity.
A free diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and photo recovery from any card, camera or drive. The sooner you stop, the more comes back — start today.