Data Recovery Case File · Cameras, Drones & Cards · Stop Shooting, Then Decide

Recover Deleted RAW Files From a Camera SD Card

His enquiry was refreshingly unembarrassed and asked a question worth answering straight. "I've deleted between 50 and 100 RAW files from my camera's SD card. I've checked out software online that's very expensive to purchase, so I'm wondering if you could quote me to restore the files?" Two things to give him. First, the variable that actually decides whether this works, which is neither the software nor the price: it is whether the card has been used since, and it makes the difference between a near-certain recovery and a partial one. Second, an honest answer about the software question — because for a straightforward deletion on a healthy card, buying a tool is a legitimate option and this page will say so rather than pretend otherwise. What matters far more than which route he chooses is the instruction that applies to both: the card stops being a camera card as of now.

The decode: what deletion does, what decides the odds, and the software question answered honestly

What deleting actually did: when a camera or computer deletes files from a card, it does not erase the image data. It removes the directory entries that name and locate them and marks the space as available. The RAW files themselves remain written across the card exactly as they were, unnamed and unlisted, until something writes over them. That is why deletion is among the most recoverable events in this entire archive — provided nothing has taken up the offer of that free space.

The one variable that matters: so the odds depend almost entirely on what has happened since. If he stopped using the card at the moment he realised — no further shots, no reformatting, no reinserting it into a camera that might write a thumbnail database — then the deleted RAW files are almost certainly all still there, and recovery should return the great majority of them intact. If he has shot on it since, each new photograph is written into that free space and may land on top of an old one. RAW files are large, so a single new frame can obliterate an old one completely. There is no partial credit here: an overwritten file is gone, and no software or laboratory changes that. Hence the instruction that outranks every other consideration — take the card out and leave it out.

Why RAW files need format-aware handling: a technical point that affects results. Recovering deleted files by content means identifying them by their internal signatures rather than by any catalogue. Ordinary JPEGs are simple to spot. Camera RAW formats are proprietary, differ between manufacturers, and are large and structured — so a carving engine that does not understand the specific format tends to return files that are truncated, or that recover the embedded preview thumbnail instead of the full-resolution image. That last failure is a nasty one because the result looks like success until you open it. Proper recovery uses format-aware carving and then validates each file by rendering it at full size.

The software question, straight: he deserves a plain answer rather than a pitch. For a simple deletion on a healthy card, consumer recovery software genuinely can work, and there are capable free tools as well as expensive ones — so if his budget matters more than his time, that is a reasonable path and nobody should tell him otherwise. Two cautions if he goes that way. Never install or run the software onto the card itself, and never let it write recovered files back to the card — both destroy what you are trying to save. And check the results properly: open the recovered RAW files at full resolution in his editor rather than trusting a thumbnail preview. What a professional route adds is not magic but method: a write-blocked image taken first so the card is never at risk, format-aware carving, and every file validated before delivery. On a card with any sign of a fault, that difference stops being optional.

On the bench

The card was imaged write-blocked behind the DeepSpar USB Stabilizer 10Gb before anything else, so that every subsequent attempt happened against a copy and the original could not be altered by a mistake. On the image, the deleted directory entries were recovered first — which returns files with their original names and capture order where the entries survive — and OSForensics carved the free space alongside with format-aware handling for the camera's RAW type, so full-resolution images were recovered rather than embedded previews. Every file was then validated by rendering it at full size. The set was reconciled, ordered by embedded capture timestamp, and delivered on fresh media.

The outcome

The deleted RAW files recovered by entry recovery and format-aware carving, validated at full resolution and delivered. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT; on cards and sticks where content has been deleted or overwritten, the figure is payable upfront. The decode worth keeping: deletion removes the listing, not the image data, which makes it one of the most recoverable events there is — but only until something writes over the space, and a single new RAW frame can obliterate a deleted one entirely, so the card must come out of the camera immediately; RAW formats need format-aware carving or you get truncated files and preview thumbnails that masquerade as successes; and for a plain deletion on a healthy card, consumer software is a legitimate option, provided you never run it onto the card or write results back to it.

Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.