Formatting Screw Up??

[BOLTONLUCIO]

I Have Accidently Pressed The Format On My Menu On My Digital Camera And I Hope That I Did Not Delete All Of My Pictures On My Camera. The Lady At The Photo Shop Said That I Can Purchase Media Reovery Software And Recover My Pictures. They Are Still On My Card They Are Just Formatted In A Different File And The Camera Is Not Recognizing It. Please Help I Hope That I Did Not Loose All Of My Pictures From My Vacation????!!!! Help!!!!!

[judge9847]

I Have Accidently Pressed The Format On My Menu On My Digital Camera And I Hope That I Did Not Delete All Of My Pictures On My Camera. The Lady At The Photo Shop Said That I Can Purchase Media Reovery Software And Recover My Pictures. They Are Still On My Card They Are Just Formatted In A Different File And The Camera Is Not Recognizing It. Please Help I Hope That I Did Not Loose All Of My Pictures From My Vacation????!!!! Help!!!!!
Chances are good that you can recover your pictures BUT there are some things that stop you from doing so.

First, if you've used the card since it was reformatted then you will lose at least some images and maybe all.

Second, they are NOT formatted in a different file. Doesn't work like that I'm afraid. It's just that because the card has been reformatted, the camera will see it as being available for use and won't bother about overwriting any of the data, which are your images, on it. It will just do it.

Thirdly, the reformatting process used by the camera COULD fill the card with zeros or some such (Fuji cameras do that) and if that's so I'm afraid you're not going to be able to recover your images. They won't exist at all.

Finally, there are lots of recovery programs available and the one in Norton Utilities (if you've got that) will at least attempt to do it. If not, most of the one's available are on a try-before-you-buy basis and what they do is recover the files (where they can of course) but put an enormous splash message over everyone of them to make the images unusable. What you will be able to confirm is that the images are recoverable and if they are, you can then buy an unlock key for the program you used and get it to do the job properly.

Hope that helps - your chances of recovery are quite good but you should also be prepared to kiss your photos goodbye.