Recover Photos Deleted by Virus

Summary: This post shares the best 4 ways to recover lost photos due to a virus attack on PC, Mac, USB, SD card, etc. Also, know the causes and signs of virus infection on your computer to be alert while using your devices.

‘Recently a virus attacked my computer. Although I ran antivirus but my camera photos folder is missing. It had many family pictures that I don’t want to lose. Please help.’

If you can’t locate your photos or other files and folders after virus attack, possibly the virus has deleted or hidden them. Computer viruses are treacherous. They can penetrate into your system, delete data, corrupt files, and even make your computer unusable. But, no worries.

This post will help you in 3 ways —

1. Recover hidden image files using CMD

Virus attack can hide your files in hard drive, USB, SD card, pen drive etc., making them inaccessible. Use the ‘attrib’ command in Command Prompt (CMD) program to unhide the files. The attrib command sets file attributes like hidden, read-only, and archive.

Steps to unhide files using CMD:

Figure: Attrib command to unhide files

Once the process finishes, Windows starts recovering the hidden files. Now open your USB, SD card or other drive to check if the photos show up or not.

2. Recover deleted photos on Windows PC using System Restore

If the virus attack is on Windows PC, you can recover the lost photos by using System Restore point. A system restore point helps to restore your computer to a previous version or date when it was free from virus and running flawlessly.

Steps to recover photos using System Restore on PC:

3. Recover photos using software from virus-infected computer or external drives

When the above solutions don’t help, use a photo recovery software that works on virus-infected and corrupted drives.

The software does a comprehensive scan of the drive or media and recovers the deleted photos in no time. It can also retrieve lost videos and audio files.

 

Steps to recover deleted photos lost after virus attack:

Figure: Select drive location to scan
Figure: Preview recovered photos in Stellar Photo Recovery software

 

4. Recover missing image files from backup

Time and again, we tell our readers to maintain backup of photos, videos, and other crucial data. Backup is an easy solution to lost files after virus or malware attack. If you have photos backup in external drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, Time Machine, etc., restore lost photos from there.

What causes virus in computer?

Since virus threats are continuous and dangerous, it is better to prevent them by avoiding actions that can lead to virus attack on your computer. There can be several reasons that make your system susceptible to virus or malware. Its important to be aware about them to protect your computer from data loss.

Some of the common reasons are:

Signs of virus attack on your computer

You may want to know how to repair video files corrupted due to virus.

Conclusion

A virus can hide or delete the photos on computer. However, you can always recover pictures deleted due to virus with the help of ‘attrib’ command in CMD. Windows Restore Point can also get back deleted pictures by restoring your files from backup created before the virus infection.

But, in case these methods cannot retrieve deleted photos or you find the methods too technical, use Stellar Photo Recovery software. The tool is extremely easy to use and fast. It scans corrupt or virus-affected drives and restores all the photos and videos without any effort by you. However, its better to use the free trial to be assured about the effectiveness of the software.

 

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Stellar Photo Recovery

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