I Deleted Everything on My Memory Card. Let’s Recover the Files. Stellar Photo Recovery

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Hi! We're Leigh and Raymond - the team behind "TheSnapChick." Our channel is about photography as an art form and as a lifestyle, with a healthy dose of technology thrown in. Here’s what you’ll see… adventures, techniques, creativity, the photography process, photo shoots from concept to finished product, photography gear reviews, gadget reviews, art topics, photography basics, modeling and general fun! We post new videos every month so subscribe here on YouTube, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter, and join in on the conversation!

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Closed Caption:

You just got back from a shoot. You
transfer your images to the computer and
delete the files from your card.
And then it hits you. You cleared off
the wrong card. Hello, friends. My name
is Lee, and I create videos about
photography as an art and as a
lifestyle. Today, we are talking about
photo recovery software. This video is
sponsored by Stellar Data Recovery. But,
what I'm about to share is not the video
I originally planned to make. Because
when I actually tested this, things
didn't go the way that any of us
expected. At least not in all of the
cases.
But, guess what? Stellar was completely
fine with me telling you exactly what
happened when their software works and
when it doesn't.
Which is astounding and I think says a
lot about the company and makes me happy
that I'm working with them. So, anyway,
let me show you scenarios where this
software absolutely shines and one where
you may be out of luck. Pardon the
interruption. Channel members, don't
forget to check out your exclusive video
this week where I discuss new gear
announcements, camera rumors, and why I
might be renting a decade-old camera
body soon. If you're interested in
channel membership, click the join
button below to learn more. Stellar
Photo Recovery is a Mac and Windows app
designed to recover lost or deleted
photos and videos from memory cards,
from hard drives, and other storage
devices. It has a wonderfully
straightforward interface. You select
your drive, you choose between a quick
scan or a deep scan, and you let it run.
My initial plan was simple. Take photos,
delete photos, recover photos.
It's a classic real-world scenario. The
kind of thing that can happen to any of
us. First up, deleting files from the
memory card while it's plugged into the
computer. I deleted photos from my OM
System OM-5's memory card while it was
connected to my Mac. I emptied the trash
on on computer, and then I ran Stellar
Photo Recovery.
Like I said before, the interface is
exactly what I would want. It leads you
through exactly what to do with each
step. You choose the drive to recover. I
started out by not choosing the deep
scan, knowing that I could go back and
try it if I needed it. And in less than
1 minute, the software told me that it
had found files to recover.
After choosing where to place the files
and choosing which folders to recover,
it takes a few minutes to actually do
the recovery. In this case, it took
seven.
And sure enough, the images and the
video files came back looking exactly as
they should. I went through and I really
checked through them. I had the raw
image files and I had the video files
including their audio.
It was perfect. I wondered about larger
raw image files, so I used the same
process to test with my Nikon Z 7 memory
card. And it worked. Next up, I wondered
about deleting files on the card in the
camera. So, out came my Leica SL2, which
Raymond has been using for a while. This
card is a little more complicated. It
had been used in the Nikon Z 52, and
then Raymond used it in the Leica SL2
without formatting it. So, I went ahead
and I deleted the Z 52 folder on the
card just for good measure.
Running Stellar, I assumed the Z 52
files would come back because I had
already tested that process, but I
wondered about the SL2 files.
And here I got mixed results. The raw
image files all came back, which is
amazing, but the video files did not.
They appear to be here, but they don't
actually have video.
So, running the deep scan for videos
only, I hoped that they would come back,
but no, same result. So, if you've
accidentally deleted files from a card
that was connected to your computer,
Stellar is absolutely worth trying. If
you have deleted files in your camera,
it just may work. For me, I got image
files back, but not video files.
So, time for my final test. So, we
deleted files from the card in the
camera, but what if we format the card
in the camera?
I do format my cards in the camera
before every project. So, let's test on
the card that was formatted in my Leica
D-Lux 8. This is where I found that
Stellar struggles.
It didn't work. No recoverable files. I
tried a deep scan. I tried different
card readers, and then I tested multiple
cameras. It never worked when the card
had been formatted in camera.
So, I sent Stellar a disk image of one
of these cards, a full copy of my
formatted Nikon Z 52 card, so that their
R&D team could take a look at what was
actually on it.
And the explanation they came back with
made complete sense.
Here's the key thing to understand.
When you delete files on a computer or
even sometimes in the camera, the data
is still physically on the card. The
operating system just removes the
pointer to it.
Recovery software can find that data
because it's still there.
But when certain cameras format a card,
especially newer cameras like my Leica
D-Lux 8, they perform a full deep
format. And the camera then writes zeros
across the entire card.
The original data isn't hidden, it's
gone and it's overwritten.
Stellar's team confirmed that's exactly
what had happened to my card. There were
no file signatures left for any software
to work with.
Tools might appear to recover something,
but those are just fragmented traces
with no actual image or video data,
which is exactly what I saw with some of
my tests.
This isn't a flaw in Stellar, this is
just physics. No recovery software can
bring back data that's been overwritten
and I really appreciated that Stellar's
team was completely straight with me
about that. So, here's my take. Stellar
Photo Recovery does what it says.
When the data is still on the card, it
can find it. If you accidentally deleted
files from a card connected to your
computer or even in the camera, it's a
solid tool and worth having in your back
pocket. The pricing seems completely
fair to me. It works on both Mac and
Windows and it could definitely be a
lifesaver. Here's the big takeaway.
Nothing replaces a well-thought-out and
solid workflow.
I typically don't format my cards in the
camera until I am sure that my image
files are not only transferred to my
computer, but that they are also backed
up.
That being said, there have been a
couple of times where I have lost files.
They've been situations where I was
transferring numerous projects from one
place to the other and I lost track.
Actually, there was a time not too long
ago that I deleted an entire project
from my computer and I lost it.
If I had used Stellar, I may have had
those files back because I know I've
only talked about memory cards today,
but Stellar works with hard drives,
SSDs, and other storage devices.
>> [music]
>> A link to Stellar Photo Recovery is in
the description of this video.
Have you ever had to recover files from
a memory card? I would love [music] to
know how it went in the comments.
And if this video was helpful, a thumbs
up always [music] helps us out and
please do subscribe to the channel.
Thank you to Stellar for sponsoring this
video and thank you for watching.
[music]
>> Hey.