Help! All photos deleted by mistake from iMac...

[paulbart123]

Hi there

Can anyone help? I was running low on disk space and in my efforts to free up space accidentally sent my iPhoto library to the recycle bin. Only when I was emptying the bin to free up the space on the hard drive overall did I notice that it was taking a time to empty. I had accidentally put 12,000 photos in there and was deleting them.

I stopped the empty but all seem to have gone as iPhoto only has the thumbs but all are empty...

I have a lot of photos on my iPad. Is there any way of getting these photos FROM my iPad TO iPhoto? I am only seeing a small portion to import when I sync, only the ones generated on the iPad and not anything from the iMac or my other devices (iPhone, other iPad etc)...

Is there any way the original photos would be still on my iMac somewhere?

Trash in iPhoto still shows 12,841 images but they are all empty thumbs by the looks.

Thanks guys. All help really appreciated. I thought I had a back up on my MacBookPro but nope!

Paul

 

[Les Kern]

First, use the computer so as not to overwrite any of the directory for the deleted files.
Couple of options:
I use MacKeeper's Undelete. Works. Needs to run from the Mac you're worried about.
There is also http://www.remosoftware.com/recover-mac-files

A favorite is Drive Genius. They also sell Data Rescue 3.
http://www.prosofteng.com/

I suggest running the last two from the PowerBook in target disk mode.

Good luck, and when this is resolved, make backups a serious affair. Just saying.I think you already know this.

 

[johnfkitchen]

I think Les meant DON'T use the computer...

(Using it will cause files to be written to the disk, potentially overwriting your deleted photos.)

... and I'm assuming that you don't have a backup of your photos?

You really need to correct that, so you don't risk losing things that are important to you. Make sure you have at least two forms of backup. I use three methods of backup, and create five backup copies. But I'm paranoid! There are a lot of threads in this forum and others covering backup approaches.

 

[iLidz]

Don't panic. You should be able to recover your photos. I think everyone here is assuming you don't have a time machine backup or something similar....

Just a thought...
Years ago I bought a Sandisk memory card for my digital camera. It came with a cd containing a data recovery software. I've used this software to recover photos that were accidentally deleted as well. Do you happen to have one of these discs around?

 

[VPrime]

If the photos are on your ipad you should just beable to use the image capture app in the applicatins folder on your imac.
It will be able to copy the images from the ipad.

 

[paulbart123]

recovering from iPad...

Yes, I have checked and actually all the photos are on my iPad which is great new so how do I get them back to the iMac?

When I open Image Capture on my Imac as suggested by VPrime it only shows the 248 images that were the ones onkly on my iPAd and not on my iMac. It does not show the other 12,000 odd that I need to import?

IS there some way to get to the other 12,000 or another way to import the images?

I don't have a Sandisk recovery disk either. Any ideas please?

 

[mankymanning]

Still try to get them from your machine though, when transferring to iOS devices smaller compressed copies are used.

 

[Roy Hobbs]

Yes, I have checked and actually all the photos are on my iPad which is great new so how do I get them back to the iMac?

When I open Image Capture on my Imac as suggested by VPrime it only shows the 248 images that were the ones onkly on my iPAd and not on my iMac. It does not show the other 12,000 odd that I need to import?

IS there some way to get to the other 12,000 or another way to import the images?

I don't have a Sandisk recovery disk either. Any ideas please?

BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP

The images on your iPad are not full resolution images. They are better than nothing but not a backup to rely on.

 

[paulbart123]

Thanks for the help. What's the best way to get them from my machine? I bought a copy of Data Rescue 3 and it is doing a Deleted Files Scan but it will take another 28 hours itnsays! Any other ideas?

Thanks

 

[Kasalic]

Thanks for the help. What's the best way to get them from my machine? I bought a copy of Data Rescue 3 and it is doing a Deleted Files Scan but it will take another 28 hours itnsays! Any other ideas?

Thanks

Let it do it's stuff, if these photo's are precious to you then give it time. I recovered 500MB of photo's off of a memory card using Photo Rec http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step. This took well over 2 hours for just the 500mb, I'd imagine your 12,000 may be a tad larger. Anything you do now might prevent the software from picking up all the photo's, so be patient

 

[paulbart123]

Nearly there...

With the help of Data Rescue 3 I found a lot of but lost a lot too, especially the videos.

Also, all the albums are gone - is there any way to get these back, ie the photos grouped in albums not just in one big import?

Also, there is a lot of stuff on my IPads that is not on my iMac and I am afraid I will lose it if I d a sync to iPhoto now. Ay suggestions for keeping the stiff on the iPad?

Thanks guys...

Paul