Does it work. I accidentally watermarked about 300 original photos from a concert last night. Because there were originally 500 on my memory card, I cleared the card...before I watermarked the wrong set. I cant reverse the watermark, though I do have an email in to support about it.

But Im looking at data recovery software (about 70$) At this point its worth it to me. But when I loaded the trial/demo0 it asked me to turn off my user control on my computer. And that scared me. Any input/advice?

Please?

If you bought Software,contact the publisher, wish i could help more but im a IT guy i could help you set up a lan, Wan, or Man, but no help in the recovery of pictures

Look into a proggie called "Recover My Files" by GetData.com. Not only will it recover files that have been lost due to accidental format, or other hard-drive related fiasco, but it will also recover files from stuff like flash drives and memory cards. Its interface is relatively simple, and it's cheap, too- I got my copy for about seventy bucks.

Not only that, but it won't pull any punches that come with trial software, either.

As a general rule, I'd be leery of any program that requires you to change anything pertaining to your security settings, as there may be malware present. Then again, Windows Vista is notorious for wanting to consider anything and everything a security threat.

I'm not too sure, but, and I cannot stress the "but" too much- the reason you probably are being asked to turn off user controls is so the recovery software to be able to do what it does without being flagged as malware. I put the but in here because it has been a while since I have worked with the stuff, and there are 13 year olds out there that can figure this stuff out quicker than I can now.

But when you "delete" stuff from the hard drive (HDD) there is a digital print left behind. With special software like what you are probably trying to use- it can go into sensitive areas and reconstruct certain files within a certain time frame. This is why when you dispose of an old computer you don't want to just pitch it in the trash. There is big money to be made in "wiping" old HDD's clean to prevent your sensetive info from being recovered and used. US gov't found this out in the 90's when some old PC's of theirs were found in a dump.

Anyway- if you trust the source of the program you can do that, if you have firewalls setup you can try and grant access to the program, but that may not work due to the nature of the software. It may be viewed as a attack on your system and blocked. If you do turn off the controls- make sure you back up the computer (backup disks/ recovery) before doing so, and make sure you are not connected to the network. I tend to shut off my cable modem when I do that stuff. This will make sure nothing goes out and most importantly, while the personal control is "relinquished", nothing and no one tries to take advantage and get in.

Now there may be more knowledgeable people out there and a super smart 13 year old in the bunch even, so if they say I am full of crap- I already stated I have been out of the tech support game for a few years now. (that is forever in computer time). But maybe this helps.

For future reference- from a phtographer to another- I always immediately back up my image files in triplicate for such an emergency. straight to a disk and stored in a safe place, and in my image library on the computer, and then there is a backup on the computer in an area rarely accessed by any users on my PC. I have lost a whole portfolio years ago, never again.

After much searching I have actually been on their site for quite a while. Have you used it?

thank you!!! I can really use some of the programs that company offers!!! Too bad you are almost 3000 miles away

Thank you thank you thank you. I was so anxious to get the pics up, I was careless. I usually burn them first. I loaded them to adobe web file, but when I watermarked them, I put what I thought was the marked copy, in a different folder and adobe web cant find them now either.

The problem with data recovery software is that if it's not installed already, you run a risk of writing over the data you want to recovery, while installing the recovery software.

That's not always the case. Proggies like "recover my files" can be used to scan drives and memory cards that are installed elsewhere.

I had a computer that took a dump on me a while back, and all I needed to do to recover my stuff was to put the offending drive in an external case. I installed and ran the program from a laptop, which scanned the offending (now "external") drive- any positive hits on said drive were copied to my laptop. Of course, I just happened to have a laptop handy to rescue my stuff with, so it helps.

There are even freeware alternatives to some of the commercial recovery software out there, like 'File Recovery 4', which looks pretty basic, but will do the job just fine.

I purchased File Scavenger from a company called Que Tek it worked great. I would recommend it.