Where the photographs were stored decides almost everything about getting them back. A camera card is the most recoverable device we handle; a phone is one we cannot help with directly. And before any of that, check the Recently Deleted folder in your cloud library — it resolves a good share of these in five minutes.
$ mdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: SanDisk Extreme SD (256 GB) · camera → Status: FORMATTED — photos intact, file system reset → Client: confidential · Burnley BB11 $ mdr engineer-working → Forensic image: taken · originals untouched → Carve: JPEG + CR3 RAW signatures → Found: 4,820 photos · 180 video clips $ mdr verify → ✓ raw_photos — 2,140 files → ✓ jpeg_photos — 2,680 files → ✓ every shot recovered — intact
Every new photo, every app update, every automatic backup writes somewhere — and the space holding your missing images is first in line to be reused. Take the card out, or put the phone in aeroplane mode and leave it alone.
Photos are lost from four places and each behaves completely differently.
Worth knowing before you decide whether it is worth doing.
Where the index survives, photos come back with their names and folder structure intact. Where it does not — after a format, or serious corruption — images are carved out by signature instead: the disk is scanned for the byte patterns that begin JPEG, HEIC, CR2, NEF, ARW and the rest, and each file reconstructed from its header outward.
Carving works well because photo formats are large, structured and distinctive. What it does not recover is the filename or the folder, because those lived in the index that has gone. The saving grace is EXIF: capture date, camera body and settings travel inside the image itself, so a carved set can be sorted back into shooting order even when every file comes back numbered rather than named.
The characteristic failure, and what it tells you.
A JPEG that displays the top third and then dissolves into grey or coloured blocks has been partly overwritten, or sits across a damaged region. Because these formats are compressed sequentially, the data before the damage decodes correctly and everything after it cannot — which is why the failure looks like a curtain coming down rather than random speckling.
Some of that is repairable. Where the damage is in the file’s structure rather than the image data, the structure can be rebuilt from another file taken on the same camera. Where the image data itself is gone, it is gone — and we return the partial rather than discarding it, because half a photograph of something irreplaceable is generally worth having.
Priced on what the photos were stored on, not how many there are.
Memory cards and USB media are from £250 +VAT. Hard drives, SSDs and external drives are from £300 +VAT. Both are fixed in writing after a free 48-hour diagnostic, and most jobs are no fix, no fee.
Before that: check Recently Deleted in your cloud library, and check whether the phone or camera was backing up automatically. A meaningful share of the photo enquiries we take are resolved in five minutes by someone finding the images already sitting in a backup they had forgotten about, and we would rather point you there.
Get the device to us with a short note on what happened. The diagnostic that follows costs nothing, and the figure that follows it is fixed in writing before any work begins.
Nothing can begin until the device is on the bench, which makes this the only step that needs anything from you. Pack it properly, put your details in with it, and send it over. What follows is a free diagnostic and a written figure, in that order.
Posting it? Use something tracked and insured — whatever is on the drive is worth considerably more than the postage. Bringing it in? Weekdays, 9am to 5:30pm, and it still wants packing as above for the journey.
Tell us what the device is, what it is doing, and anything already tried — an engineer will come back with a realistic view of the odds and a price band, before you commit to posting anything.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 0161 871 0788.
What people most often ask about getting lost photos back, memory cards especially.
Usually, and often completely. Cards rarely implement TRIM, so deleted and formatted images remain physically present until something is shot over them. Take the card out of the camera and the clock effectively stops.
If the index survives, yes. If it does not, images are carved out by signature and return correct but numbered. EXIF data survives inside each file, so the set can still be sorted back into shooting order by capture date.
Because part of the file was overwritten or sits in a damaged region. These formats decode sequentially, so everything before the damage displays correctly and everything after cannot. We return partials rather than discarding them.
No — we don’t work on phones, and modern handsets are encrypted in a way that makes third-party recovery impractical. Check iCloud, Google Photos or your phone backup first; that is where phone photos are most often found.
Not at all. Cameras use quick formats because the card must be usable again immediately, so the images stay physically on the card. Stop shooting and take it out — the frames taken afterwards are what actually cost you.
From £250 plus VAT for cards and USB media, and from £300 plus VAT for drives — fixed after a free 48-hour diagnostic. Check your cloud account’s Recently Deleted folder first; it is free and it often solves it.
A free diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and photo recovery from any card, camera or drive. The sooner you stop, the more comes back — start today.