How to Recover Deleted Photos from Nikon Camera

Can I Recover Deleted Photos from Nikon Camera?

Yes, it is possible to restore deleted photos on a Nikon camera, but the recoverability of your data depends on a few factors, such as how the data loss happened, how much time has passed since the data loss event occurred, and whether or not the memory card has been used since the data was lost.

If you leave the data in its current state for too long, your data may be overwritten, causing it to become unrecoverable. Because of this, it’s imperative that you perform Nikon deleted photo recovery as early as possible to ensure the highest chance of success.

How to Recover Deleted Photos from Nikon Camera

Now that you’re aware recovery is possible, how do you go about it? Well, you need to make sure you’re using an SD card recovery software tool that can not only recover the photos but recover them well. As part of our goal to help you recover as many photos from your Nikon camera as possible, we’ve hand-selected two recovery solutions that we believe are the most effective in almost any data loss situation.

Our Windows and Mac data recovery reviews are unlike anything you would find on other websites, as they’re put through an extensive testing process that reveals everything you need to know before you download. The results of our tests equip us with objective insights that we can then pass on to you. By reading our reviews and comparing Windows and Mac data recovery solutions, you’re helping us become the number one trusted source for all data recovery information.

Below are some of the qualities that the data recovery software you choose must include if it is to have a good chance of recovering your lost photos:

• 🗃️ Support for FAT32 and exFAT file systems – Most memory cards use the FAT32 or exFAT file system, so it’s important that the recovery tool is able to scan and recover data from these file systems.
• 🔎 Multiple scanning methods – A program that utilizes multiple scanning methods increases the chances of finding more data, especially when you need to recover files from a formatted SD card. A signature scanner in particular is necessary for recovering NEF and NRW files that cannot be recovered using the file system.
• ❌ Scanning of corrupted memory cards – If the file system of your memory card is corrupted, the program should still be able to detect it and successfully recover data from it.

The two software solutions we recommend you use to recover the deleted photos from the SD card used by your Nikon camera are Disk Drill and PhotoRec. We’re going to show you what recovery looks like with both of them.

Option A: Disk Drill

Disk Drill acts as a Nikon photo recovery software tool that’s available on Windows and macOS and utilizes multiple scanning methods to provide a high chance of recovering the files and videos stored on your SD card.

It has great support for FAT32 and exFAT file systems, as well as NEF and NRW file formats, and even supports recovery from RAW SD cards. It can also recover photos from a Nikon camera’s SD card if it’s damaged or corrupted, so long as it’s visible in Disk Management and reading the correct size.

Follow these steps to recover deleted photos from your Nikon camera’s SD card using Disk Drill:

1. Remove the SD card from your Nikon camera and connect it to your computer using an internal or external SD card reader.
2. Select the SD card from the list of devices, then click Search for lost data.
3. Click Review found items. You can also click one of the colored file type icons if you’re only wanting to recover certain file formats or Recover all to recover everything immediately.
4. Select the data you wish to recover from the SD card. Make note of the recovery chances column to determine which data has the best chance of recovery. When you’re ready, click Recover.
5. Select a safe storage location where you can store the recovered files. When you’re ready, click Next to complete data recovery.

Option B: PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a free Nikon photo recovery software tool that can recover images and footage from your SD card that have been deleted. In our PhotoRec review, we delved deep into what the software is capable of and found that it does a pretty decent job of recovering your data, even for a free solution. One downside of PhotoRec is that it can only recover files by file signature, but to compensate for this it supports up to 480 file extensions (including NEF and NRW) to give you pretty good coverage.

The instructions below will guide you through how to recover photos from your memory card using PhotoRec:

1. Download and extract PhotoRec. Open qphotorec_win which includes a user interface.
2. Select your SD card from the dropdown menu.
3. Click the list item with the label [Whole disk].
4. Select your file system type and choose a recovery location. You may also need to click File Formats to make sure the file types you’re searching for are selected. Then click Search, which will copy all recoverable files to the folder specified for recovery.