Help ! -- I Accidentally Deleted All My G/f Photos From Her Ipad 2

[how122255]

Here is what happened and YES I am stupid about several things I did. I never turned on the iPad 2 back-up to iCloud, so there is nothing there. We recently returned from a holiday and I wanted to put all the photos I took with my camera into her iPad. I have a new windows pc laptop, which I never sync with her iPad beofre. The holiday photos were uploaded on to my laptop. When I was going to sync them together, it appeared that the iTunes was going to send ALL of the photos on my PC to her iPad. I didn't want that so I put check marks only into the holiday photos. When the sync was finished, that is ALL that she has on her iPad now. Just the holiday photos. All of her music videos are gone and all her photos are gone. We have not really used the iPad since then so I was hoping there is some program that might be able to recover those photos. I'm guessing that they are still somewhere on the hard drive. I live in Pattaya and would be MORE then happy to buy your beer for a week or pay you a fair amount for your efforts. I did go All around Tukcom , but only one person, in a very small shop, said he would try to recover the deleted photos. He didn't give me the impression that he knew what he was talking about. Please- Please, I am in a serious dog-house about this. I know I did several things wrong here but if anyone can help me, I would be very appreciative. Thanks

[str8toPattaya]

Typical apple product bs. Not sure if it can be fixed, might be easier to get a new gf.

[how122255]

Typical apple product bs. Not sure if it can be fixed, might be easier to get a new gf.

As I have only used windows, this Apple stuff has not been easy for me. Hopefully,  someone will be able to help me recover those deleted photos.

[bungee]

The files will not have been removed just the index removed so they nolonger appear. Until you have a solution it would be best to stop using it.

 

Did she sync her ipad with her computer? If so you might be able to restore them that way.

 

If not something like iPad Data Recovery Software may help. Not sure it's free but you should be able to download something similar or equivalent for free.

[dave-]

Not actually sure if you can do this on an ipad but worth a shot. i have opened ipods as external drives before.

 

If you plug the ipad into a pc or laptop via usb and open it as an external drive, then run a recovery program from the pc, i have used this before and it got back 90% of my lost data, http://download.cnet.com/Recuva/3000-2242_4-10753287.html

[Vortex]

Not actually sure if you can do this on an ipad but worth a shot. i have opened ipods as external drives before.

 

If you plug the ipad into a pc or laptop via usb and open it as an external drive, then run a recovery program from the pc, i have used this before and it got back 90% of my lost data, http://download.cnet.com/Recuva/3000-2242_4-10753287.html

 

I believe it is possible.

 

If going this route, make sure you have storage space to put the recovered data, i.e. enough space on the PC HD or an additional external HD plugged in at the same time.

[Scumbag]

I don't know anything about Apple products so can't give any specific instructions. Do they have more than one set of storages, ie internal and a separate card? If they do make sure you install any recovery program where the photos were not so you don't over-write anything. This is a good lesson for people to always have more than one copy of anything important.

[DaffyDuck]

The most important advice is to STOP USING THE iPAD UNTIL RECOVERED.

 

The iPad internal flash storage does not show up as just another Flash drive on the desktop. That's not how it works.

 

Best chance is to grab a program like iExplorer which gives better access to the file-system

 

http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

 

Install it on the PC, then start looking around. You will gain access to the area where the camera and photos are usually kept, and you can start looking around.

 

Your best bet is one of the iPad data recovery programs, but beware, as some of them only recover data from a prior iTunes Backup (less useful to you if you have no such backup), so look around for a product that works directly on the iPad:
 

http://www.idisksoft.com/solution-to-restore-videos-and-images-from-iphone-ipad-ipod.html

 

http://www.wondershare.com/data-recovery/iphone-data-recovery.html

 

Please answer the earlier questions about the conditions and states of backups?

[how122255]

Idiotic comment! Accidentally erasing materials has nothing's do with what brand you use. Has your GF or you *EVER* done a backup or sync of her iPad to her computer or to your computer? Does she have iCloud turned on, at all, on her system? Does she are a feature called PhotoStream turned on? Why didn't you have iCloud backup turned on???

No, this is a new hard drive in my PC laptop and was never sync.  I never turned on the iCloud backup because I was concerned about the photos ending up on the internet somehow. She has a photoStream but the photos are now gone. Thanks for your help.

[how122255]

The most important advice is to STOP USING THE iPAD UNTIL RECOVERED.

 

The iPad internal flash storage does not show up as just another Flash drive on the desktop. That's not how it works.

 

Best chance is to grab a program like iExplorer which gives better access to the file-system

 

http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

 

Install it on the PC, then start looking around. You will gain access to the area where the camera and photos are usually kept, and you can start looking around.

 

Your best bet is one of the iPad data recovery programs, but beware, as some of them only recover data from a prior iTunes Backup (less useful to you if you have no such backup), so look around for a product that works directly on the iPad:

 

http://www.idisksoft.com/solution-to-restore-videos-and-images-from-iphone-ipad-ipod.html

 

http://www.wondershare.com/data-recovery/iphone-data-recovery.html

 

Please answer the earlier questions about the conditions and states of backups?

No, this is a new hard drive in my PC laptop and was never sync.  I never turned on the iCloud backup because I was concerned about the photos ending up on the internet somehow. She has a photoStream but the photos are now gone. Thanks for your help. Are you in Pattaya now ?

[DaffyDuck]

No, this is a new hard drive in my PC laptop and was never sync.  I never turned on the iCloud backup because I was concerned about the photos ending up on the internet somehow. She has a photoStream but the photos are now gone. Thanks for your help.

 

a) Apple takes your privacy far more seriously than any of the others (Google, Microsoft, etc...), so there is no concern of photos ending up on the internet somehow from an iCloud backup.

 

b) photostream is the only feature where photos can get replicated to any device that shares the same iCloud account, and has Photostream turned on.

 

c) for that reason, Photostream is a separate feature, that can be enabled and disabled separately.

 

MAKE SURE TO TURN ON iCloud BACKUP WHEN ALL THIS IS OVER!!!! (you might need to increase her iCloud capacity depending on the size of the iPad storage).

 

NOW, and THIS IS IMPORTANT - IF SHE HAD PHOTOSTREAM TURNED ON, THE PHOTOS MIGHT STILL BE THERE!!!!! Up in Photostream. 

 

You need to use a separate computer (Mac or PC) with iCloud activated (there's an iCloud control panel for Windows) and specifying a location for the Photostream pictures.

 

If she ever had her iPad connected to Wifi, and Photostream turned on, this will dpwnload all of the Photostream images (the last 1000 pictures generated by the iPad).

[rainman333]

have you done a google search?

this thread seems to talk about resolving the same or similar issue:

http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-help/7205-recovering-deleted-photos-2.html

[sabato]

When it comes to accessing data on the ipad outside of their sync app, it's a real pig of a system, making it problematic for traditional restore apps. I suspect you have to jailbreak to get the file system access you need (even then, not sure it would be enough), but you can't do that without corrupting the deleted data further.

 

I did come across this, and while it sounds like what you need, after a cursory glance I get a bit of a scam vibe going on from the software, but look into it

 

[removed link] - thanks to Daffy for following up, 'Wondershare Dr.Fone' is confirmed scam

Idiotic comment! Accidentally erasing materials has nothing's do with what brand you use.

Apple does seem to make it too easy though, using sync I could see how some people would come to grief. While it does warn you, it's unintuitive to wipe everything just to sync a small subset of data in.

[DaffyDuck]

Apple actually goes out of their way to instruct and encourage people to make backups, as well as to provide warnings before removal of data were to occur - including with the advent of iCloud, where it becomes almost super-obvious.

The problems I keep running into, over and over again, are the same human errors of:

 

- not backing up, ever.

- not using iCloud "because I don't trust the cloud"

 

The sync / erase issue only happens when someone attempts to use a different iTunes installation than the one that was originally used to set up the iPad/iPhone. Furthermore, on a Mac, iPhoto (a separate app) automatically opens upon connection to ask to archive and copy all the images to it. On Windows, you'd need to use iTunes to set up a destination for images, and it's more of a hassle.

 

I do understand your point how a lot of people coming from the Windows platform regularly get confused, mostly because Windows has trained people to assume and engage in less than ideal behaviors (IMO) - so, yes, I am fully sympathetic to your argument.

 

[DaffyDuck]

Wondershare Dr.Fone is a chinese scam. Expensive, doesn't work, and no recourse to get the money back:

 

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/50592026

 

Read comments:

 

http://download.cnet.com/Wondershare-Dr-Fone/3000-2248_4-75758876.html

It only scans iTunes backup files, doesn't actually grab anything from the device.

 

http://photography.forumsee.com/a/m/s/p12-19215-038020--fraud-alert-wondershare-fone-iphone-recovery-software-doesn-t-work-fraud-alert-wondershare-fone-iphone-recovery-software-doesn-t-work.html

The only "positive review" looks like a scam review by the publishers (based on the bad english)

[Scumbag]

Please keep things civilised!!  Calling people names is not welcome here.

[str8toPattaya]

Please keep things civilised!!  Calling people names is not welcome here.

Sorry sc, won't happen again.

[DaffyDuck]

Please keep things civilised!!  Calling people names is not welcome here.

Thank you.

[DaffyDuck]

Do we have any updates from the OP about this? Did he save himself?

[how122255]

Do we have any updates from the OP about this? Did he save himsel/quote]No, I was never able to do anything about this. I went to everywhere in TukCom and no one could help. I tried several o the suggestions listed here but couldn't get anything to work,

probably due to my lack of computer knowledge. I even tried to

recover

photos from the original failed pc windows hard drive but

several shops told me that they see some files but can't open

them.

[DaffyDuck]

Make sure iCloud backup is enabled on your girlfriend's iPad - NOW!

 

Plus, pay the $20-$40 a year to expand the storage, to make sure it covers all her storage.

 

Bummer - I feel for you, lost data always sucks.

[sabato]

photos from the original failed pc windows hard drive but

several shops told me that they see some files but can't open

them.

What do you mean by failed pc windows hard drive? Is this the one the new laptop replaced (do you have reason to believe the photos would be on the old computer, were they backed up on it?).

 

If they saw some files, and you suspect they might be the photos (encoded in an unusual format), it's possible they can be opened with the right software. I would expect a computer shop to know if this is the case, but you never know. Have you see this list of files yourself? The filename and size may give a clue as to what these files represent.

[DaffyDuck]

You'd think a shop would know, but most of them are completely clueless when it comes to Apple formats - despite the fact that Apple or iTunes stores backed up images in a standard images format (JPEG) - the only files that might appear incomprehensible to these shops are the iTunes backup files - they can't just be dragged onto iTunes to be read, but they are accessible and readable.
 

If you have the hardware accessible and available, I'd suggest mailing it to me. If the data is there, and accessible, I can probably get to it.