How to Recover Old Deleted Photos and Videos on Windows 10 and 11?

Is it possible to recover permanently deleted photos and videos?

Typically, when you delete a photo or video, it is moved to the Recycle Bin, where it is stored for 30 days by default. During this time, you can easily restore the item unless the Recycle Bin is emptied. But if you delete files, photos, or folders using the Shift + Delete shortcut, they bypass the Recycle Bin entirely. As a result, these items won’t appear in the Recycle Bin, making them harder to locate and seemingly gone for good.

In fact, when you delete the photos, they are not immediately erased. Initially, the files act as a temporary storage space. The data remains on your disk until it is overwritten by new data. In some cases, disk formatting, file corruption, power failures, or malware attacks can also lead to permanent data loss. These situations can result in the complete disappearance of files from your Windows computer.

Fortunately, Windows offers several methods to get back permanently deleted videos and photos from the Recycle Bin. So, how can you recover permanently deleted photos from your Windows computer? If you’re wondering about this after realizing you've lost an important image, this guide will introduce you to the best photo recovery software to help recover permanently deleted photos on Windows 10 and 11.

How to recover old deleted photos and videos on Windows PCs?

If you’ve moved photos to the Windows Recycle Bin and want to recover them after 30 days, is it still possible? The answer is yes! Thanks to advancements in technology, data recovery has become much easier. Whether or not you have a backup, the methods outlined here can help you successfully recover old deleted photos.

Way 1. Recover deleted photos and videos with professional data recovery software

How can you recover old deleted photos? Using professional data recovery software can make the process quick and effective, especially if you don’t have a backup. Since older deleted photos may have been overwritten by new data, standard recovery methods often fall short.

This is where professional tools like AOMEI FastRecovery come in. These programs use advanced algorithms to thoroughly scan storage devices, locate recoverable files, and reconstruct fragmented data—even if the files were deleted long ago. This approach significantly increases the success rate for recovering old photos and videos.

To get started, simply download the software and follow a few simple steps—it’s that easy!

AOMEI FastRecovery offers these features to help you easily recover permanently deleted photos, videos, files, and other data:

▶ Wide compatibility：
    ● Support NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS in Windows 11/10/8/7 & Windows Server.
▶ Intelligent functionality：
    ● Recover 1000+ types of data: Word, Excel, PPT, Photos, Videos, Audios, Compressed files, Webpages, and even old Emails from years ago.
    ● Work on various storage devices such as HDD, SSD, USB, SD cards, etc. (To learn how to recover deleted photos from an SD card, you can click the title.)
    ● Able to restore old deleted photos from formatted disks, encrypted hard drives, corrupted drives, or other cases.
▶ Multiple recovery schemes：
    ● Run Quick Scan and Deep Scan automatically to find all permanently lost photos.
    ● Allow you to search your needed photos by tying their filenames, format, size, and so on.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI FastRecovery. Choose the exact partition or disk where your data lost and click Scan.

Step 2. Then, the recovery tool start to scan and search. lt will execute the “Quickly Scan" first for finding your deleted data fast, and then execute the “Deep Scan" for searching other lost data.

Step 3. Once the scan is completed, all deleted files, recycle bins and other missing files will be displayed. Please select the file you would like to recover and then click "Recover".

Step 4. Then, select a folder path to save your recovered files.

Step 5. Wait patiently for this process of recovering ends.

Method 2. Recover deleted photo and videos via Windows File Recovery

To recover permanently deleted photos or videos on Windows 10 and 11 for free, you can use Windows File Recovery. However, it’s a command-line program, so you’ll need to be familiar with using the Command Prompt to run it effectively.

Step 1. First, please get Windows File Recovery from Microsoft Store and run it as administrator.

Step 2. Type in the command: winfr source-drive:destination-drive:[/mode][/switches].

★Tips:

[/mode] and [/switches] depend on the different situations, please click command line syntax to learn more. 

Windows File Recovery is only available for Windows 10 and above.

Make sure the source drive (the drive where the photos were stored before deleted) is different from the target drive (the drive where the photos recovered).

Support NTFS, FAT, exFAT, ReFS file systems.

Method 3. Recover permanently deleted photos and files via Backup and Restore

The Backup and Restore feature, introduced in Windows Vista and Windows 7, has remained a trusted tool across multiple Windows versions due to its reliability. Many users still depend on it as a primary backup solution, particularly for recovering permanently deleted files on Windows 10 and 11. If you have a backup, you can use this method.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 2. Click Restore my files.

Step 3. Click Browse for files > Select photos you want > Next.

Step 4. Specify the destination to save your recovered photos and click Restore.

To sum up

How to recover old deleted photos? There are 3 methods. If you want to easily and effectively recover permanently deleted photos, videos, or other files, using AOMEI FastRecovery is an ideal choice. If you are good at command lines or have a backup, other 2 methods can also be practical and helpful.