How to Recover Old Photos Deleted Years Ago?

Summary: It is totally possible to recover old deleted photos, even ones that were deleted years ago. However, the only reliable way of going about this is to use specialized software, such as Stellar Photo Recovery Software.

A Quora user asked, “Can one recover photos off an old hard drive (bought many years ago)?”

The answer is yes — even if you have deleted the photos from your drive, you can still recover old deleted photos from your drive, sometimes.

The method on how to restore deleted photos in this article will work for all storage media devices, from SD cards and USB flash drives, to modern SSDs and HDDs.

What Happens When You Delete Something?

The process of deleting an item on your computer is not as simple as “click and it goes away”.

When you delete a file, the system doesn’t immediately erase the data. Instead, it marks the file’s space as “available,” but the file’s data remains until overwritten by new data. Think of it as erasing a book’s title from a library index, not the book itself. But if a new book arrives, and the librarian allocates the old book’s shelf-space to this new book, then the old book is well and truly gone from the library.

The same holds true for data — which is what makes it possible to recover old deleted photos.

Also Read: How to Recover Deleted Photos from Pen Drive for Free?

Technical Challenges When Trying To Recover Old Deleted Photos

When trying to recover old deleted photos that were deleted years ago, the task may well seem insurmountable, but it most certainly isn’t.

That said, there are certain significant technical challenges that present themselves when we try to recover old deleted photos, especially ones that were deleted years ago.

The most major technical challenges we face when asking how to recover old deleted photos are listed as under;

1. Overwritten Data:

If the data is overwritten, or even partly overwritten, it becomes very hard to recover old deleted photos.

This is particularly a problem on devices with smaller memory configurations (less than 512 Gb) because the new data does not have a lot of place to go, so will end up overwriting old data.

2. Data Fragmentation:

When a file is deleted, parts of it may become “fragmented” (scattered) across various locations of the drive, making it significantly harder to recover old deleted photos.

3. Physical Damage:

In the (fairly common) situation where your storage media has suffered physical (or logical) damage such as scratched platters, heat/ moisture damage, etc, it may require specialized professionals to recover any data at all.

4. File System Limitations:

The particular file system that the storage media is formatted to can also pose limitations. For instance, some formatting systems may overwrite deleted data immediately, making it harder for programs like Stellar deleted photo recovery software to recover the old deleted photos.

5. Factors Of Time And Age:

When you ask us how to recover old deleted photos, we must naturally ask, ‘how old?”. This is because the recovery process becomes proportionally more difficult as time passes. In general, the older the deleted photo, the harder it is to recover.

Also Read: How To Recover Files Deleted From Recycle Bin?

How To Recover Old Deleted Photos?

If you are attempting to recover old deleted photos that were binned several years ago, pretty much your only option is to use dedicated software.

Software like Stellar Photo Recovery Software may just be able to help you recover old deleted photos from your computer.

Owing to the technical limitations that we listed above, recovery is not guaranteed, but because the process is free, it’s worth a shot.

Here is how you can attempt to recover old deleted photos using a (free) tool like Stellar photo recovery software:

1. Navigate to the Stellar Photo Recovery Software download page, and click the “free download” button.

Remember to choose the correct version for your system: Windows or Mac.

2. [For MacOS Only] Navigate to wherever the download was saved on your machine, and right click the file. The file downloads in a “zipped” .dmg package, so it needs to be extracted. Right click the zip file and click on “extract all”.

3. [For MacOS Only] Specify the location, and click “extract”. Wait for the process to complete, and then a folder will open up automatically with the extracted contents inside.

4. Click on “open”. If you are not an administrator, click on “Run as Administrator”.

In the screen that pops up, you will be asked “Do you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer?”.

Click yes. Enter in an administrator password if prompted. Here, we were logged in to an admin account, so we just clicked “Open”.

5. Select your preferred language, and then click “OK”.

6. Accept the licensing agreement, and then click “Next”. Follow the installer wizards instructions, and wait for it to finish.

7. When the installer is done, you will get this screen. Click on “Finish”.

8. We recommend choosing the “Physical Disk” option as this ignores local disk partitions and reserved spaces, and scans the entire hard drive/ selected storage media. Click “Scan”.

9. The full scan may take some time to complete. Once it is done, you can preview your recoverable files.

10. The software automatically classifies the recoverable files into “Photos” and “Videos” for you, from where you can preview the file you are about to recover. We have blurred the image for privacy, but you will find a clear image.

11. If the images are ones that you need, click the “Recover” button, and enter your product activation key.

Also Read: Get Activation Key of Stellar Photo Recovery Software

Using Lab Services to Recover Old Deleted Photos

There are instances where software may not be able to help you recover old photos deleted years ago. This could be due to a variety of reasons such as drive failure, physical damage to the storage device, or even the complexity of the data loss situation. In such cases, it’s advisable to consider professional in-lab photo recovery services.

When to Consider In-Lab Services?

You might need to resort to in-lab services in the following situations:

• Your photos were deleted over 2-3 years ago or more.
• The storage drive has failed or is physically damaged.
• The storage device is water-damaged, broken, or burnt.

What In-Lab Services Offer?

Professional data recovery labs like Stellar Data Recovery offer a range of services to recover your precious photos. Our labs are equipped with a Class 100 Clean Room, which is an ISO-certified, contamination-free, and secure environment. The experts in our labs are capable of retrieving old pictures even from tough cases of damaged hard drives, camera memory cards, pen drives, and more.

Also Read: How to Recover Deleted Photos from Digital Camera?

Why Choose In-Lab Services?

Expertise: The lab experts are well-trained and equipped with powerful hardware and software tools to perform complex data recovery tasks.

Safety and Security: These labs strictly follow data privacy and safety regulations, ensuring your personal photographs are handled with utmost care.

Success Rate: Stellar Data Recovery, for instance, boasts an unparalleled data recovery success rate of 80%.

No Recovery – No Charge Policy: Many professional labs operate on a “No Recovery – No Charge” policy, meaning you only pay if they successfully recover your data.

Customer Service: You can easily contact these services via call or online for any queries or assistance.

To understand more about the lab data recovery process, you can refer to the link: Data Recovery Lab Process Overview, Stellar In-Lab Service.

Remember, when DIY software fails, professional in-lab services can be your best bet to recover those precious memories captured in photos deleted years ago.

Closing Notes

It is quite an intensive process when it comes to recovering old photos, especially ones that were deleted a long time ago.

Using professional software gives you the best chance at actually recovering those photos without any loss in quality.

If you have any doubts, please do not hesitate to contact the team at Stellar — they are quite friendly and eager to help.

Also Read: How to Recover Accidentally Deleted Wedding Photos?