Deleted, formatted or hit with a ‘card error’ — lost photos almost always remain on the card until a new write buries them. Here in-house we pull photos and video back from memory cards, cameras, USB media and hard drives, handling JPEG, HEIC and every major RAW format.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: SanDisk Extreme SD (256 GB) · camera → Status: FORMATTED — photos intact, file system reset → Client: confidential · Woking GU2 8XH $ bdr engineer-working → Forensic image: taken · originals untouched → Carve: JPEG + CR3 RAW signatures → Found: 4,820 photos · 180 video clips $ bdr verify → ✓ raw_photos — 2,140 files → ✓ jpeg_photos — 2,680 files → ✓ every shot recovered — intact
Each new frame you capture can fall on top of the lost ones, and letting the card reformat only sets recovery back further. Eject it from the camera or phone, write nothing else to it, and refuse any prompt to ‘repair’ or reformat. Leave it untouched and get in touch — the earlier you stop, the more comes home.
The overwhelming majority of missing photos are still sitting in the flash or on the drive — it’s the pointer to them that has gone, nothing more. These are the cases we handle most, memory cards especially.
Photos come back from memory cards of every type and make, and from cameras, USB sticks and drives besides. If it holds pictures, chances are we can help.
SD, microSD, CFexpress and CompactFlash cards; cameras, drones and action cams; USB sticks, hard drives, SSDs and external units; JPEG, HEIC, RAW and video.
Photo recovery runs copy-first. We never touch your original card — a forensic image is taken, and every scan and carve happens on that image, in a fixed sequence.
Give us the device and the story; we work out whether the photos are still there to be had and send a written quote, generally inside 48 hours.
A forensic image of the card or drive comes first, and every step after runs on that copy — the original is left untouched.
Our first pass recovers whatever the FAT or exFAT directory still points to, folders, names and dates and all — the fastest, tidiest results.
When a card is formatted or corrupt we go to the raw flash and carve: JPEGs off their FF D8/FF D9 markers, HEIC and RAW (Canon CR2/CR3, Nikon NEF, Sony ARW) off their own headers, video off its MP4/MOV atoms — recovering files that have no index left at all.
Everything is validated before it goes back — headers read, thumbnails and full frames opened, checksums matched, duplicates from the two passes weeded out — so you receive whole photos, not truncated scraps.
The finished photos and video are written to fresh media, ordered and ready.
That media is posted back, or the recovery is offered as a free download for up to 75GB.
From a forensic copy every time: photos and video off cameras, memory cards, USB media and drives — JPEG, HEIC and every major RAW — carved back even when a card has been formatted or corrupted.
Tell us what you’ve lost and we’ll get back to you, usually within half an hour during the working day.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
No hidden charges and no hard sell — a free diagnostic and a written quote arrive before any work starts.
A few recent photo recoveries, mostly from memory cards. Identifying details stripped, every result verified.
Only a camera quick format stood in the way, so the frames were intact — we imaged the card, carved the JPEGs and Canon RAWs back, and returned nearly the whole day.
It had corrupted when pulled mid-write. We rebuilt the file system and lifted out the HEIC stills and video the phone itself could no longer open.
With nothing written since, we carved the Nikon NEF frames out by their signature and handed back the whole shoot, complete.
Send the device in for its free diagnostic and tell us briefly what happened; an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before anything starts.
Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
What people most often ask about getting lost photos back, memory cards especially.
This is the single most common thing we’re asked, and the answer is usually yes. Deleting a shot leaves the picture itself alone — all that changes is its entry in the FAT or exFAT directory — so the JPEG or RAW data stays put in the flash cells until a fresh frame is written over them. Keep the card out of use and there’s an excellent chance of carving the images straight back.
Rarely, in fact. What a camera does is a quick format: a clean, empty FAT/exFAT table dropped on top, with the picture data below left completely intact until you shoot again. Where that old directory can still be read we reconstruct it; where it can’t, the JPEG, HEIC and RAW frames come back by signature instead.
In most cases, yes. That message nearly always traces back to the card being pulled while it was still writing, or a battery cutting out mid-frame, which corrupts the file system rather than the photos. We repair that structure and read the images out even when the camera or phone has given up on the card.
Every major flavour, yes — alongside JPEG, HEIC and MP4/MOV video. Each RAW type is carved on its own signature, so Nikon NEF, Sony ARW, Fujifilm RAF, Panasonic RW2, Olympus ORF, Canon’s CR2 and CR3, and the open DNG format all rebuild even with the file table completely gone.
The full range — Memory Stick, XQD, CFexpress, CompactFlash, microSD and SD — pulled from cameras, dash cams, drones and action cameras alike. If photos live on it, the odds are good.
Frequently. A cracked, bent or water-hit card is a harder job, but it works in our favour that most SD and microSD cards are monolithic — the controller and NAND are set into a single moulded block. Where the contacts or the board have gone we reball the package or read the flash directly, rebuilding the pictures at chip level.
If the phone kept its photos on a memory card, yes — take the microSD out and send us that. What we can’t reach is a modern phone’s built-in storage: it’s soldered flash with no card slot, and that falls outside what we do. Give us the make, model and the story and we’ll tell you honestly what’s possible.
Two flat tiers plus VAT: £250 for memory cards and USB sticks, £300 for hard drives. The diagnostic beforehand costs nothing and most jobs are no fix, no fee. A card damaged badly enough to need chip-level work can run higher — but only ever on a written quote you’ve seen first.
One to three working days handles the bulk of photo jobs, often quicker, with the diagnostic itself usually back inside 48 hours. Genuinely urgent? Say so, and we’ll try to bring it forward.
Two routes: hand it in at our Guildford unit on a weekday, 9am to 5:30pm, or post it fully insured — a card travels safely in a padded envelope. Tuck your details inside (name, address, phone, email) so it can be logged, and once it lands we run the free diagnostic and quote in writing before touching a thing.
A free diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and photo recovery from any card, camera or drive. The sooner you stop, the more comes back — start today.