Summary: This post shares all the effective methods to recover old photos deleted years ago from HDD, SSD, SD cards, memory cards, macOS drives, USB, and others. In addition, it reveals the best old deleted photo recovery software —Stellar Photo Recovery that has higher recovery rate in such cases.
‘Recently I found an old SD card of my DSLR. Its photos were probably deleted 3-4 years back. But, I am sure the SD card had some interesting family pictures to keep. Is there any way to recover old deleted photos years ago?’
Photos are precious memories of your loved ones and events in life. However, it’s not easy to manage thousands of digital photos collected over the years. You may accidentally delete them or lose them due to formatting or corruption from your camera memory cards, computer, pen drive, or other.
So can you recover photos deleted years ago?
The answer is ‘Yes’. Fortunately, there are recovery software whose search engines can retrieve photos deleted long time ago from PC, Mac, and removable storage drives. Further, various backup solutions also keep you safe from losing old deleted photos.
So let’s know some reliable methods to recover old deleted photos years ago.
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If the photos are deleted from the storage drive years ago, you may not be able to recover them through manual methods unless you have a backup. Hence, you can straightaway use a permanently deleted photo recovery software — Stellar Photo Recovery. The advanced software comprehensively scans old hard drives, SSDs, SD cards, flash drives, and other types of memory cards to retrieve photos deleted years ago. The software is apt for recovering hundreds of old photos deleted many years back.
Some of the key benefits of using a recovery software to get back old deleted photos:
Step 1: Connect the HDD, SSD, SD card, etc., from which you want recover old deleted pictures to PC or Mac.
Step 2: Download Stellar Photo Recovery on your PC. If you have lost photos from Mac storage drives, download the macOS version.
Step 3: Select the storage drive for scanning. Turn on Deep Scan at the bottom and click Scan.
Step 4: After the scan finishes, preview the found photos. Select and click Recover.
Stellar free photo recovery software lets you retrieve up to 10 pictures from any storage drive. To recover more old deleted photos from years ago, download its full version.
A Pro TIP: Don’t save the recovered old pictures in the same storage drive from which they are deleted or retrieved. Always save them at a different location.
Windows File History feature regularly backs up your PC data on an external drive, provided you have enabled it. If you’re looking for missing or deleted old photos, you may find them using File History.
If you’re using ‘Backup and Restore’ feature on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, or below, try to recover old deleted photos using this feature. Below are the steps to get your old photos back from Windows backup:
Are you looking for old photos saved on another Windows computer? You can recover old photos from another computer, if there is a backup created from the old PC using Windows Backup and Restore.
When you restore the backup of an old PC, the recovered files get saved in the name of a user in a folder. For instance, if the user name was ‘Jim’ on the old PC on which the backup was created, the backup will be restored in a folder named ‘Jim’.
Google Drive allows users to save data in the cloud and sync files across all your devices. If you use Google Drive, look for your old photos here. Google Drive may contain your old deleted pictures on Android phone and computer.
If you have been using Google Photos backup and sync feature, the old deleted photos on Android or PC must be residing there. Just look for your precious old photographs in the cloud backup and download them on your system.
A Pro TIP: Meanwhile, it can be tedious to search and recover photos deleted years ago in Google Photos. Hence, utilize the search tools of Google Photos that are available for all devices, be it PC, Mac, Android, or iPhone. You can search old deleted photos by year, location, name, file type, event, and more in Google Photos for quick photos recovery.
If you cannot find very old photos in Google Photos, they are probably lost forever. Try other backup drive that you may be using or get a photo recovery software.
Do you want to recover pictures deleted 2-3 years back from iPhone? Restore old photos from your iCloud or iTunes backup. Sign in to the iCloud/ iTunes account with your Apple ID. Select the relevant backup file that contained the old deleted photos and restore.
If the photos are deleted years ago, you might have another Apple account back then. So make sure to enter the correct Apple ID and password.
In case, you have forgotten your old Apple ID, learn here how to recover.
Mac users should look into Time Machine backup for deleted old photos. The built-in backup feature regularly backs up your photos and other data present on Mac.
Click for other methods to recover old deleted photos from Time Machine.
Go for the in-lab photo recovery services when you cannot recover old pictures deleted over 2-3 years ago or more due to drive failure or physical damage. The data recovery experts retrieve your precious photos from damaged storage drive in the sophisticated Class 100 Clean Room lab. These labs are ISO certified, contamination-free, and secure. The lab experts are equipped to recover old pictures in tough cases of water-damaged, broken, or burnt hard drives, camera memory cards, pen drives, etc.
Besides, they take care of your personal photographs by strictly following data privacy and safety regulations. You can contact Stellar Data Recovery services via call or online.
Updated photo backups and archive is a quick way to recover old photos deleted years ago. Always first, look for your pictures in Google Drive, Google Photos, Time Machine, File Manager of smartphones, iCloud, or other backup drives that are readily available. However, in the absence of backup, Stellar Photo Recovery comes in handy. It can recover old deleted photos from a computer, SSD, SD card, or other storage drive. Further, if your storage drive is inaccessible or physically damaged, seek the help of in-lab services experts.
Nishat Paiker is an expert technical writer and editor with over 8 years of experience. She has deep knowledge about data recovery and loves to explore new technology and DIY tools. Nishat has keen interest in photography. You will often find her giving photography tips and hacks.
