How to Restore Deleted Pictures from Computer | 5 Easy Ways

How can I recover permanently deleted photos?

"To free up space on my computer, I deleted some of my useless photos on my PC permanently. But I checked the next morning and found that some important pictures were removed. Does anyone know how to recover them? Thank you very much!"

Photos are a means for many people to preserve their precious memories. While using the computer, some people may accidentally delete important photos for various reasons. But deleting photos doesn't mean they can't be restored anymore. With the following five methods, you can learn how to restore deleted photos with ease.

Top 5 Ways to Restore Deleted Pictures from Computer

We cover five proven ways of how to restore deleted pictures- with or without software. You can choose the right solution according to your needs.

Method 1. Restore deleted pictures from Recycle Bin

When you delete photos on your computer, these photos are temporarily stored in Recycle Bin, from which, you can restore accidentally deleted files and folders. Let's see how to recover deleted photos from Recycle Bin:

Step 1. Open Recycle Bin on your Windows PC.

Step 2. Search for or browse to find the removed pictures needed to restore in Recycle Bin.

Step 3. Right-click on selected pictures and select Restore.

Method 2. Recover deleted photos via a File History backup

How to restore deleted files after Recycle Bin is emptied? If you have previously backed up your photos using the system backup tools such as File History or Backup and Restore, you can recover your deleted photos by restoring the backup. Here we take File History as an example to explain the process of how to restore deleted pictures on computer.

Step 1. Input “restore files” in the Windows search box and click on Open for Restore your files with File History in the search result.

Step 2. Navigate the deleted pictures or choose the folder that contains these pictures.

Step 3. Click the green refresh button to restore deleted pictures to its original location.

Method 3. Restore deleted pictures from Previous Versions

Another way to restore erased photos is via Previous Versions, if you have created a system restore point to save the previous version of your system. You can recover accidentally deleted or corrupted files and folders based on copies of the files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of the restore point.

Step 1. First, right-click the folder where you save your deleted photos before and tap on Restore Previous Versions.

Step 2. In the Previous Version tab, select the appropriate version that you want to restore of the folder and click on the Restore position.

Method 4. Restore deleted pictures with Command Prompt

Command Prompt can solve many Windows-related problems, including helping users to retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion and virus attacks. Recovering files using CMD from hard drives works with USB drives and local disks. But using CMD cannot make sure that files could be recovered 100% successfully.

Below you will find a step-by-step process about how to restore deleted pictures on Windows 10 and other operating systems using CMD.

Step 1. Start Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Step 2. Input chkdsk [drive letter]:/f to tap Enter. Then, type Y and hit Enter to confirm and proceed to examine.

Step 3. Type in [drive letter] and hit Enter again. And then, enter attrib -h -r -s /s /d [drive letter]:\*.* to start recovering files on this disk.

Notes:✎...

After finishing the process of recovering files, a new folder will be created on the disk with all the files in .CHK format. You can modify the file name extension from .CHK to .JPG. to make them available.

There is also a free Windows File Recovery software with clickable icons named WinfrGUI that can help restore accidentally deleted media files, office files, ZIP files, and so forth in Windows 10 and 11.

Method 5. Restore Deleted pictures with data recovery software (recommend)

How can I get back my deleted photos if I haven't backed them up in advance and Recycle Bin has been emptied? Don't worry, you can use professional data recovery software to restore deleted photos simply. MyRecover is our pick.

This tool can help users to restore various types of files, including pictures, documents, videos, audio, HTML, etc., when Recycle Bin is emptied or there is no backup. It also supports restoring files from a formatted hard drive, an external hard drive, or an SD card. There is no doubt that this tool is a good helper to get deleted data back without a hitch.

Download the software on your computer and go through the guide below to learn how to restore deleted pictures from recently deleted or permanently deleted easily.

Step 1. Launch MyRecover and hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan.

✎Note:

If your photos are deleted from an external drive, please connect your external disk to the PC beforehand.

Step 2. Wait for the process of scanning lost files and select a whole drive, a folder, or a single file for restoration. You can enable Filter to locate the file type you want or search for the filename to find it directly.

Step 3. After that, click the Recovery button in the lower right corner to start restoring data.

Wrapping up

On this page, we describe how to restore deleted pictures with or without backup. If you don't have a backup for photos, you can first try recovering data from Recycle Bin. If Recycle Bin has been cleared, you can also use MyRecover, a professional data recovery tool for Windows users, to recover permanently deleted files from PC with a few clicks.