Help Help!! deleted files on Mac OS Leopard

[andygabriel]

Hi everyone,

My wife just deleted a bunch of photos in the picture folder and now she can't view any of those pics in iPhoto.

All the files are still in the Trash but i can't find any restore option to put the pics back to where they were deleted from.

She can't remember where she deleted the pics from. She said she went into the picture folder and wanted to delete files she didnt want anymore. But after deleting all those pics, she can't view any of her iphoto albums.

Note: She doesnt have a back up(time machine or anything else).

Can anyone help us to restore all those files to where they belong. All the deleted pics are still in the Trash can. So there's still hope. We just can't find a restore button in Trash!

Thanks
/

 

[GGJstudios]

If you're using Snow Leopard, simply right-click on a file and choose Put Back to restore it.

Restore deleted items to original folders.

If you put an item in the Trash, then change your mind, you can restore it to its original location. Just select the item in the Trash folder and choose Put Back from the File menu.

Since you're on Leopard, that option doesn't exist, as it was just introduced in SL.

 

[andygabriel]

If you're using Snow Leopard, simply right-click on a file and restore it.

We're using Leopard 10.5.8

 

[Xavier]

You will have to do it manually. It will be a pain.

 

[andygabriel]

You will have to do it manually. It will be a pain.

She deleted the pics from the "All images" folder in finder. So i thought i could just copy or move the files from Trash back to the "All images" folder but Mac Os won't allow me to do so!

My only option now is to reimport all the pics in iPhoto or is there a better thing to do.

 

[GGJstudios]

She deleted the pics from the "All images" folder in finder. So i thought i could just copy or move the files from Trash back to the "All images" folder but Mac Os won't allow me to do so!

My only option now is to reimport all the pics in iPhoto or is there a better thing to do.

You should be able to simply drag anything from the Trash to any other folder.

 

[calderone]

There is no "All Images" folder. That is a smart folder, which means it just finds items based on a set of criteria, which in this case is "all images." That is why you cannot drag the photos to "All Images," it is not a folder.

You will have to reimport the photos.

 

[snberk103]

There is no "automatic" way to do what you want. There are some good ideas above, but.... there is an easy way to do this.

Create a new empty folder on the Desktop, and call it something like "recovery in progress". Drag all your deleted photos from the Trash into the folder. You could a little organization here if you wanted, so sort the photos by date and create a year folder for each year, etc. But don't go too crazy.

Before importing your photos back, fire up iPhoto and go to preferences. Make sure the "copy items to iPhoto library" is checked.

Now just drag each folder of photos onto the iPhoto program icon. It should fire up iPhoto and import the photos. After each import, do whatever you need to do (keywording, moving to albums, etc) before the next import. All of that work has been lost, but at least you have the photos still. When you have finished importing all the photos you can put that "recovery" folder back into the trash (if you have set iPhoto to "copy" on import - see above) as all the photos are now duplicated inside the iPhoto library.

Good Luck.

Get a back up system running, eh?