A folder of pictures has randomly disappeared

mrsbeers · 03 Dec 2013

Hi everyone,

I had imported all of my photos from my iPhone onto my computer last week, automatically erasing the files from my iPhone after importing. The files were saved in My Pictures, all in a folder titled 2013-11-25. There were a ton of pictures in here; I was going through photostreams my husband and I share and included all of those older (past 2 years) photos in my import. Once the import/delete was complete, I was going through the folder and cutting and pasting photos into other folders to organize them by month taken, also deleting a couple pictures along the way. Well, in the middle of all my quick-clicking to move photos, the entire folder just disappeared! I am guessing I accidentally hit one of the F keys which may have caused it to delete? I really have no idea. I have searched under Computer and Networks for "2013-11-25." It is not in the Recycle Bin. I did, however, see the photos which I had deleted during my sorting in the Recycle Bin. I chose one of those photos and restored it, hoping it would show me where the folder went. The photo did restore and it went to a folder titled "2013-11-25" in My Pictures--exactly where the disappeared folder once was. But now this restored photo is the only one in that folder. I still cannot find the rest of the folder.

I did a little searching around for solutions and have set my folders options to show hidden folders. Searched again for the folder and only found the folder with the one restored photo. I downloaded Recuva and did a scan which showed nothing. I'm going to start a deep scan within Recuva now.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what may have happened and/or how to get my files back?? Thanks in advance!

MilesAhead · 03 Dec 2013

Did you make a restore point or reboot between the copy and the delete? If so you may be able to copy them out with Shadow Explorer free program. ShadowExplorer.com - About

mrsbeers · 03 Dec 2013

@MilesAhead, I'm not sure what you mean... When I was sorting the photos into other folders, I was selecting multiple photos at a time, cutting, and pasting into the folder I wanted. Occasionally during the sort, I'd come across a dumb photo and just delete it (these were still in the Recycle Bin). It was during my selecting multiple photos to cut that the window closed and the whole folder disappeared. Like I wrote, I'm guessing I hit one of the F keys or maybe hit the Ctrl key (was using it to select multiples) along with another key that was a command for something.

Callender · 03 Dec 2013

Another alternative is to try System Restore Explorer.

http://nicbedford.co.uk/software/systemrestoreexplorer/

The download link is hard to spot so I've posted it below.

http://nicbedford.co.uk/files/Instal...reExplorer.msi

You can download and install the software then run it. You will see a list of system restore points that you can choose to mount and browse. Choose the one that is nearest to the time before the problem happened and highlight it then choose to mount it.

You will see a new volume as shown in the screenshots in the above link.

In that volume browse to your "My Pictures" folder and if it looks ok I'd suggest renaming your current "My Pictures" folder to "My Pictures Old" (so that you still have a copy) then copy the original "My Pictures" folder from the mounted system restore point to the same location.

Typically it's something like:

C:\Users\Username\Pictures

So you'd then end up with two pictures folders - the old one before it got messed up and the current one. You just decide what pictures you need to keep and make sure that they're in your current folder before deleting the old one.

You also need to remember to dismount the system restore point volume when you've finished.
(Use the Unmount button from within the programs user interface).

MilesAhead · 03 Dec 2013

You may have overloaded the Recycle Bin. It's not all that robust.

If you don't have restore points then it's a moot point. If you do, Shadow Explorer may be able to dig out some of the missing files.

kellysau · 01 Oct 2014

copied 6000 pictures to Windows from my iphone on 13 September 2014 and the folder is still there but today i realised they have all disappeared!!!! OMG. it must have been overwritten by the windows updates that I have been receiving these past weeks. this is horrible. I tried Recuva, System restore explorer. i cant find any of the pictures. I thought i can trust Windows but NO? how can windows updates delete my photos? so ridiculous. please help!

is there anyway to go back to 13/9/2014 16:17 that is when this picture folder was created I believe if i go back then the pictures will be there. however strange thing is Recuva didnt identify any pictures got deleted in this folder...?

Callender · 01 Oct 2014

It depends upon your system restore settings - how often they get created and how much space is reserved for them and when they get automatically deleted.

So open an Elevated Command Prompt

Then type

vssadmin List Shadows

Add /for=C: to specify the volume you want to list the shadow copies for, replacing C: with the volume letter of your choice if it is not C:

Press Enter.

If there's no restore point listed on or just after the folder creation date then forget that route.

Other recovery utilities that are good at recovering photos include:

Test Disk with PhotoRec

Disk Digger - ise the "Dig Deeper" option and specify image file types. There will be a long list to scroll through.

NTFS Walker

A folder of pictures has randomly disappeared

A folder of pictures has randomly disappeared

Mount and browse a restore point

Pictures disappeared!!! Windows 7

System Restore Points