Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Emergency--recovering daughter's photos after emptying trash!

PaulinMaryland

PaulinMaryland

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 17, 2006
231
0
Maryland, USA
Man, oh, man. Am I screwed. Poking (snooping) around in my daughter's MacBook, I inadvertently created an iPhoto album of all her 2007 photos. The album bore today's date and time, when she was out of the house. Fearing discovery, I deleted the album and emptied the trash, using the menu. (I couldn't even find the trashcan to empty it selectively; last time I used a Mac, the trashcan was on the desktop, not in the dock.) Surely the photos themselves would remain on the disk.

WRONG!!

My god, the entire 2007 photos folder is gone!

There's no way I want to fess up. I've lost her trust before by snooping and reading her blogs.

Is there ANY way to recover those photos? She'll be gone till about 2pm Eastern time today (Saturday). Maybe there's a recovery shareware I can download, then erase? The problem is, I don't know my way around a Mac, and I think I'd simply leave more telltale traces.

Am I screwed?
 
How old is your daughter? Is she a child or an adult? If she's an adult (well, considering she owns a computer to which you apparently do not have access and which you do not know how to use), then what business do you have mucking around with it? If she's a child, she should understand she cannot expect privacy on the computer, and you two should work out a better system than this.

As for your actual question... I'm not that keen on helping someone who's hacking around in other people's property, but I would suggest you tell her and then the two of you can consider something like DiskWarrior....
 
STOP!!! Don't do anything unless absolutely necessary, or the stuff will get deleted, certainly. Try this :) And DON'T SNOOP!!!
 
I think you owe it to your daughter to STOP FIDDLING with her computer.

You might cause more "harm," and what's more, you had and have no right to be messing about with it in the first place.


Be a responsible adult, set a good example for her. Come clean and admit that you looked at some photos, got worried she'd find out, accidently deleted it to attempt (poorly) to cover your tracks, and that you're terribly sorry, that you'll pay for any software or data recovery needed to get those photos back (if at all possible at this point).

Then promise and stick to your word, that you won't go messing about with what isn't yours to mess with. Tell her to remove the temptation from you (since you've succumbed before and obviously have issues respecting her boundaries and privacy) by setting a prompt for a password upon the computer waking up/ screensaver/ start-up.

How can you expect her to open up and be honest with you, if you don't return that same respect?
 
Turn the Mac off, stop using it, as the chances of recovering files diminsh with further use of the Mac.

As far as I know, there are no free file recovery programs. However, you can download many demos that show you which files are recoverable and by the purchase of a serial will recover them.

Data Rescue
TechTool Pro
Stellar Phoenix Macintosh

Just some of the apps that might do the trick... thing is, is the cost of these worth it in your situation? ;)
 
You're all correct, and shame on me. She's college age.

I think the photos are there after all: I was looking for a folder called "2007" under Photos, which had no subfolders; instead it (and 2005, and 2006) can be found under something like iPhotos. It appears to be all there.

Can someone verify that when you delete an iPhoto album, you're just deleting the thumbnails and pointers, not the real photos that it's indexing?
 
Blue Velvet said:
However, you can download many demos that show you which files are recoverable and by the purchase of a serial will recover them.... thing is, is the cost of these worth it in your situation? ;)
Click to expand...
Cost, yes. But I'm certain I would leave a tell-tale sign that I had added that program, even if I tried to delete it right away. And also, in my rush to cover my tracks before she gets home, I might end up restoring some files she knew she deleted.
 
hope is not lost

If all you did was create a new album (contaning some or all of the photos) an then delede the album, all of the photos will still be in the library untouched. Deleting albums does not delete the original photos. your tracks are covered, I think.

open iphoto and click on "library" all of the photos should be there.

As others have said, talking is almost always better than snooping (depending of course on your unique situation).
 
shwc said:
If all you did was create a new album (contaning some or all of the photos) an then delede the album, all of the photos will still be in the library untouched. Deleting albums does not delete the original photos. your tracks are covered, I think.

open iphoto and click on "library" all of the photos should be there.

As others have said, talking is almost always better than snooping (depending of course on your unique situation).
Click to expand...
Thanks, shwc; that's what I wanted to hear.

She's a good kid. Like nearly all kids, she's made a few mistakes here and there, but she's a smart, mature girl who has nothing to do with kids who engage in "high risk" behavior.

Lesson learned...
 
I cleared "recent documents." But I see that under some preview conditions--if you double-clicked the photo into Preview?--Finder records the time and date "last viewed." Nothing I can do about that.
 
I just tested creating a new album and then deleting said album, the original phots remain.

For further peace of mind...
The help function of Iphoto says the following about deleting albums:

Deleting a folder, album, slideshow, book, calendar, or card
You can delete a folder, album, book, calendar, card, or slideshow you've created without removing its photos from the photo library.

To delete items from the Source list:
Select the folder, album, book, calendar, card, or slideshow.
Press the Delete key.
You can also delete any one of these items by dragging it to the iPhoto Trash (at the bottom of the Source list).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back