Where Do Permanently Deleted Photos Go| How to Recover

Where do permanently deleted photos go when I decide to restore them? In this article, you can learn some effective methods to recover deleted data, including photos, videos, documents, files, and so on.

Posted by @Tina December 17, 2024 Updated By @Tina July 24, 2024

Where do permanently deleted photos go? 

 

Hi all! My dad has deleted photos on his Dell PC and now wants to get them back. But I wasn't able to restore it, as there were no photos on the Recycle Bin. Where do permanently deleted photos go? Is there any way to recover these photos?

- Question from forum.xda-developers.com

 

When there's not enough space on the C drive, users may delete some unwanted photos. On Windows PC, the deleted photos will be temporarily moved to the Recycle Bin. But once the users empty the Recycle Bin or delete the photos from it, the photos will be permanently removed.

Where do photos go when permanently deleted? The photos seem to be totally deleted: the file header and reference are removed, the photos become unreadable on this PC. In fact, the deleted photos are still stored on the PC, they can be recoverable until they are overwritten.

Therefore, if you want to recover the so-called permanently deleted photos, please read on.

How to recover the deleted photos

After knowing where do deleted pictures go, it's necessary to get the methods to recover them. In this section, you can learn 4 methods to do it. Go ahead!

▶ Method 1. Recover deleted photos with backup

In some new version of Windows, there’s a function called “File History”, it can create the backups of the current files. If you enabled this function before permanently deleting the photos or other files, you could recover them with the File History.

Step 1. Click "Start", input "restore your files" and then click "Restore your files with File History".

Step 2. In the File History window, find out and select the target photos and click "Restore". Then this tool will recover the lost photos and put them back to the previous location.

▶ Method 2. Restore the folder to the previous version

Where do permanently deleted photos go after 30 days? When you get the answer, to restore the deleted photos, you can restore the folder (where you store them before) to the previous version.

Step 1. Navigate to the older which used to store the deleted photos, then right-click on the folder and click "Restore previous versions".

Step 2. Check and choose the previous version of the folder which includes the deleted photos, click "Restore".

 ▶ Method 3. Recover the lost photos using CMD

CMD is well-known as a disk managing tool in Windows system, it can not only manage disk, such as changing drive letter and resizing partitions, but also recover the deleted photos with entered commands.

Step 1. Press "Windows" and type "cmd", then select "Run as administrator".

Step 2. Input "chkdsk C: /f" and press "Enter". Please replace "C" with the target drive letter.

Step 3. Then type "ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D X:*.*" and press "Enter", the photo recovery task will be started.

Restore the deleted photos with professional data recovery software

Where do permanently deleted photos go and how to recover them? Apart from the front methods, there’s a much easier data recovery tool- AOMEI FastRecovery.

In a bright interface, it can recover all kinds of permanently deleted photos with a few clicks. No matter what way the photos are deleted, it can perform the photos recovery. It's able to recover other types of lost items from the PC, including files, video, audio, emails, etc. 

It can be used in Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 as well as Windows Server, so you don't need to worry about its compatibility. If you want to recover deleted files from HDD, SSD, SD card, USB and other storage devices, it can be the best choice.

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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.

Verdict

When you want to recover the deleted photos, you may want to know Where do permanently deleted photos go. In this text, we analyzed the place where the deleted files go. Besides, to meet your needs, 4 methods and a powerful data recovery tool are shared, you can try them according to your conditions.