Attempting to retrieve lost photos from memory card

[artifarti]

On holiday at the moment and suddenly 200 odd photos (i.e. all of them) have just disappeared from our memory card and can't be read on the camera or laptop. I know there are ways/software that can help try and retrieve lost photos/files and a google search brings up all kinds of things but I wondered if anyone could recommend anything, free or otherwise. Thanks in advance.

I have successfully used Photorec on Linux. I haven't used the Windows version, but I imagine it is equally effective.

The PhotoRec page says "Important: As soon as a pic or file is accidentally deleted, or you discover any missing, do NOT save any more pics or files to that memory device or hard disk drive".

This is good advice. Do not take any more photos using that card. Take it out of the camera and use a spare card until you have recovered and backed up the pictures from this card. Buy another one if you need to. Memory cards are cheap.

Ok, firstly as cruel said, stop putting photos on the card. Don't write anything anymore.

Secondly, does the computer read the card? In other words, when you put the card in, can you open the drive and it looks blank? Or does it not register there's anything there?

If it looks ok then you can use some tools, my favourite is Recuva. Point it at the card and let it scan for deleted photos.

If it's not registering a card then try it on a couple of PC's. If it still doesn't work then your card is knackered. This may be a little advice too late but Memory cards are not all that reliable and so you shouldn't rely upon them for permanent storage.

This happened to my parents. They took the memory card to a photo shop that had a special machine that retrieved the pictures.

Thanks everyone. Back from holiday now and happy to report that all missing photos were successfully recovered - phew! And a lesson learned to frequently download!