Why deleted photos can be recovered
When you delete a file, the operating system doesn't erase the pixels — it just marks that space as free to reuse. Until something new is written over it, the photo is still physically there. That's why the single most important step is to stop using the drive right away: don't save new files to it, and don't install the recovery tool onto the same drive you lost the photos from.
Recover deleted photos in 4 steps
- Download and open RecoverHelper, and select the drive or memory card you lost the photos from.
- Pick a destination folder on a different drive — the app blocks same-drive output so you can't overwrite what you're rescuing.
- Start the scan and watch the live progress, throughput and ETA.
- Preview the results and recover exactly the photos you want.
Which scan mode should I use?
- Quick Scan — best right after an accidental delete or an emptied Recycle Bin on a healthy NTFS drive. It reads the NTFS Master File Table and brings files back with their original names, folders and timestamps, usually in under a minute.
- Deep Scan (the default) — runs the Quick Scan, then carves the whole drive by file signature to find photos the file system has already forgotten.
- Carving Only — a pure signature scan for SD cards, USB sticks and other non-NTFS volumes. It recovers the image data even when the original filename is gone.
On a Mac, original filenames are rebuilt on NTFS volumes; the Mac's own APFS/HFS+ disks are recovered by signature (the photo contents come back, but not the original names).
Free for JPG & PNG
RecoverHelper recovers JPEG and PNG photos for free — the two formats people lose most often — at full quality, with no signup and no bundled adware. If you also need camera RAW (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG and more), HEIC, videos, or partial recovery of fragmented files, pairing the free RecoverHelper mobile app unlocks every format — still completely free.