lost photo

GV
Posted By
Glenn Vatter
Jul 1, 2003
Views
190
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I cropped a photo and then saved it using the save command, thereby losing the original. I meant to use save as. Is the original anywhere in my computer that I might retrieve it? I know now the importance of creating a set of duplicates before I start doing enhancements.

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R
Ray
Jul 1, 2003
Glenn,

Where did that photo come from? If it’s a digital camera and you’ve not yet erased or reformat the card, chances the photo is still there. If it comes from the web, it may be in your temporary internet folder.

If you’re using Windows, run a search on your computer and give the first few letters of the name of the file as parameters. Search the entire computer, including hidden and system disk, just to make sure.

Ray
PL
Paul L UK
Jul 1, 2003
If you have Norton System Works installed, you may be able to recover it from the Norton protected recycle bin (windoze)

Paul
MM
Mac McDougald
Jul 1, 2003
I don’t believe the Norton Recycle Bin tracks overwritten files, only deleted ones?

Do XP restore points track/revert to previous file versions?

Mac
B
BobHill
Jul 1, 2003
Mac,

XP doesn’t know or care about file versions.

Glenn,

As Ray indicated, you can either go to your original source (if from a camera, etc.) or do a Search/Find for the file, if you remember the filename you used, OR, you can even do a SEARCH for the file format, perhaps and see where all your images are stored. But, I suspect you’ll find it in My Documents\My Pictures. That’s the usual default folder unless you signify other .. even easier, if you did a SAVE, then just open Elements, File, Open Recent and you should see the last ten images you’ve opened/saved. It should be there.

Bob
R
Ray
Jul 1, 2003
Bob,

The problem is that Glen lost the original by overwriting it. So, if Glen opens Elements, of course, the file will still be under Recent. But that’s not going to do Glen any good. Elements will re-open the same croped file. This is why I suggested a system wide search to see if the file wouldn’t stored some place else as well as under My Documents \ My Pictures.

By the way, this is the default storage folder for all applications. For example, Photoshop Album uses My Pictures\Adobe\Digital Camera Photos\sub folder, and some Logitech cameras uses My Galleries at the root of C:.

So Glen, look elsewhere, you might have another copy on your hard drive.

Ray
P
Phosphor
Jul 1, 2003
Glenn,

You didn’t mention what operating system you have. I’m going to assume Windows as I don’t know about the MAC.

When you save over an existing photo, it doesn’t overwrite the exact same area on the disk. Typically, the new file is written, the old file is marked deleted and the space it used is marked free, and the new file is given the old files name. The old space is not overwritten. If you have an "undelete" utility, and you act fast, you can generally recover the file. But, time is your enemy. The more you use the computer, the stronger the likelyhood that the original space will be allocated and overwritten.

Here’s an article that discusses recovery and lists some tools. It’s a very long url, you may have to cut and paste this into your browser if the full link isn’t recognized by your reader.

http://www.apcmag.com/apc/apcmag.nsf/EA67FCD4C82B07A1CA256AC 200040A09/4D81DA 6CAF1A8066CA256D1A00252067

The article is written about Windows 2000 but it equally applies to Windows 98, NT, ME, and XP. (Windows XP doesn’t support ntfs file system so that won’t apply to it of course.)

It’s probably too late to recover this file but you may wish to obtain and install an undelete utility for the next time.

If you have a Mac, someone else will need to tell you about whether undelete is available or possible.

Good luck,
Bob
RR
Raymond Robillard
Jul 2, 2003
Bob :

(Windows XP doesn’t support ntfs file system so that
won’t apply to it of course.)

Ehh.. Windows XP does indeed support NTFS. On the other hand, 98 and ME do not support NTFS, not natively anyway.

Ray

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

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