Sep
11
2014

Retrieving deleted pictures

Technically my pictures are not deleted. They just vanished. You see it happening to others but kept thinking, “NO, this will never happen to me”. I heard people complaining that they lost precious photos from their phones or computers yet I still think, “NO, this will NEVER ever happen to me”. And then it HAPPENED! Last night, I lost all of my precious pictures of Ayden and Ethan in my phone. All 6000 of them! Just because the stupid software crashed. But as what my friend told me, “Merryn, you kept 6000 pictures in your phone without backing up or transferring them elsewhere, sooner or later your phone WILL crash lah!” I lost all my pictures dy, don’t rub salt into my wound can? All I want is to retrieve those pictures that are gone but I don’t think I can… 

My phone died at almost midnight. The entire night my mind was thinking if I can retrieve those pictures. The next day we quickly head over to the Service Centre to get my phone checked and sure enough, when the technician told me that ‘all your data will be gone’ I almost cried there and then. I lost all of Ayden’s 1st birthday bash pictures :'( Wanted to get them printed out but was so busy the past couple of weeks that it got delayed and now they are all gone. The only pictures I have now are those in my Facebook and in my blog but they are all of a lower resolution coz I resized them before uploading *cries*

I once had a conversation with a friend when he asked me what would happen if I lose my phone one day. That time I said I think I’ll die because I won’t be able to Whatsapp or check Facebook. But the past 12 hours when I was without my phone, it was not FB or Whatsapp that bothers me but those pictures in my phone. Thinking about how they are gone forever saddens me so much. Surprisingly I was very calm without FB. I wasn’t even in the mood to go on Facebook except to post a couple of rants.  But what I discovered was without my phone, it is much more difficult to reply emails as I needed to use the laptop for that. I’ve not used the laptop to do anything other than blogging for a very long time. In fact, I’ve not been using any other gadgets except my phone these days. Even my camera has been chucked aside. But after today, I think I’ll start using my camera again.

Here’s ending my rant post with a picture of Ayden taken using my camera without flash instead.

Ayden submerryn

#AydenOOTD @ 12 months old

Baby Kiko Sleeveless Mock Double Layered V-neck with Tie

Nike Shoes

About the Author: Merryn Tan

16 Comments + Add Comment

  • //

    Sorry to hear about the loss of your data Merryn! :x

    I’ve gone through the experience (many times) before and know how much it hurts.

    I don’t know how your phone crashed but usually you *can* recover the data. I don’t want to give you false hope but for solid state memory like in a phone – your data will still be intact even if your phone died. It does take a lot of work to get it back though so maybe that’s why the service center guy said what he did.

    Does your computer still recognize the phone if you hook it up via USB as an external storage device? If it does then recovery is easy. Also, if your photos are stored in an external storage in your phone e.g. microSD card, then you can just pop that out and try using a dedicated card reader to get the photos.

    If it’s stored on your actual phone memory, then it might need some specialist equipment e.g. electrical engineers or enthusiasts would know how to hook it up so the memory can be dumped into another medium e.g. your hard disk and then read sector by sector if the file allocation tables are still intact.

    Hope that helps!

    • //

      Thank you Huai Bin for your suggestions. Mine’s an iPhone so no external memory card. I doubt anything can be done now. I’ve come to accept that my pics are all gone. It’s a painful lesson learned :(

  • //

    What phone are you using? You can try to search Google for open source recovery tools. If it is just the software crashed, it might still be possible. Although using these open source recovery tools will void your phone’s warranty.

    • //

      I’m using iPhone 5s. Am slowly accepting reality that those pictures are forever gone :(

  • //

    6,000. That’s an invitation to trouble. Your memory space must be very big. I have seen people wanting to snap a pic at a crucial time…memory full! Kodak moment gone, too bad!!!

    Gee! Ayden’s so thin now, losing all his baby fat. Looks like he’s going to be tall…like the father. :D

    • //

      I’ve been feeding him a lot but dont know why he is still losing his baby fat at lightning speed. And to make matters worse, I’ve lost all his chubby baby pictures :'(

  • //

    So? Permanently lost? That’s sad.

  • //

    that proven you don’t really rely on gadgets to survive….your kids and the memories of growing up are more important. you realize that?

  • //

    Hah?? X pernah backup ket mak cik oittt…. banyak tu..

    ai mesti backup sbb selalu memory low… x nak beli memory kad besar2… nanti mcm u la.. save banyak2 x nak back up…hahaha

  • //

    this happened to me several times over the years. i’ve also accidentally just cleared off my entire memory card but that was my own damn fault. brain glitch. D:

    and yes, i’ve had a total meltdown (tears and the works) when i’ve lost my photos. the lesson here i’ve learnt is to always be diligent with importing and transferring. somehow now, it unnerves me very much when i see my camera roll full. i just need to import everything and clear them off in case i lose my cell or it dies, etc. etc.

    i know my hard drive now could crash at any given moment (choy, choy) but at the very least, i have my photos loaded onto my blog (however little) and all the rest of the other social media sites. lol. in fact, after reading this post of yours, i’m going to work harder to really upload pix onto my blog’s media drive. might as well make use of the unlimited bandwidth!

    sorry you lost all your photos, Merryn.
    i know that there’s nothing i can say to fix this situation so i’m not even gonna try. BIG HUG.

  • //

    Yeap, gotta constantly transfer it to PC or smth.

    I also experienced once back then in UK – but it happened to my DSLR SD Card, so sudden – but I managed to retrieved with a software I downloaded on the Internet. :)

  • //

    Wah! 6000 photos in your phone? What phone – iPhone? Must always transfer all your photos to your laptop periodically. It’s really upsetting to lose all those precious photos! Hope you are able to recover them somehow.

  • //

    I feel for you. It must be truly sad but hopefully you have come to terms with it. *Hugs*

  • //

    Poor thing … start using iCloud or Dropbox now or backup regularly to your PC.

  • //

    It happened to me only last year. I think I mentioned in my blog. I lost my phone when I went to pee. My 6 months old phone dropped inside Jamban. After the facility department helped me to fish out my phone from my office toilet, I could copy all the data out except losing some contacts. I felt terribly upset too, when my phone was still drowning inside the jamban. I am extra careful now with my phone.

  • //

    There are tools like Easy Recovery, this can help you recover even from formatted disks too. So if you still have the phone/memory card and have not used it much, you can give a try.

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MeHome is where MY heart is.
I am a mother to two boys; Ethan and Ayden and a wife to Darling William. I'm a stay at home mum who blogs to break the monotony of life and to avoid feeling jaded. Would love to get to know all the Super Mommies and Daddies and Babies or Singles out there with the hope that we can learn more from each other. Most of all, I am a happy person, and I hope YOU are too.

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