Are deleted jpg images maintained on my PC?

[Jack Sprat]

Because if they are, there are a couple I would like to retrieve. Has anyone attempted to recover deleted jpg images on their Windows XP Home Edition? I've heard so much recently about files and jpg images still being on the hard drive. So, I have a Karen McDougald pic that I'd like to have back. nyuk nyuk. How can you check if previous images are still on your hard drive?

[canetoad]

1. They may be

I once formatted a drive (a couple of times) before realising the only pictures I had of my old dog were on it. I managed to recover most of the images.

There are plenty of free file recovery tools. Be patient, as the scan of your hard drive may take a long time and you may not know what you have found until you have recovered and checked the files.

http://www.ntfsundelete.com/
http://www.roadkil.net/listing.php?Category=1
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital-image-recovery.htm

[pokerfan]

2. Not so much maintained as left behind

When you delete a jpg file (or any file for that matter) it is not immediately overwritten. Instead that space is simply made available for future use. It could be overwritten almost immediately or it could persist for months. To see if you still have a "deleted" file you need a recovery tool:

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/05/five-best-free-data-recovery-tools">Five Best Free Data Recovery Tools

[Duer 157099]

3. It depends on a couple of factors

1) how long ago it was deleted
2) how full your hard drive is
3) how often you defrag your system

Unless it was a really really long time ago AND your hard drive is so full that the only place new data has to go is to overwrite old data, then there's a very high probability of finding what you're looking for.

The two best recovery programs I've used are:

GetDataBack
http://www.runtime.org/

and
HandyRecovery
http://www.handyrecovery.com/

good luck!