We’ve all done it. We’ve accidentally hit ‘delete’ on a photo when that really wasn’t what we intended to do. It might be a terrible nightmare, but it doesn’t have to be. There are tools available to help you recover lost images. One of those is made by Stellar. Right now, you can buy its professional level photo recovery software for £37.49. Usually it is £45.49. But is it worth it?

I was sent a review copy to give it a try. 

To put it to the test, I formatted an 4GB memory card that has been used in various cameras in my possession to be sure that no photos recorded on it could be accessed from my camera or my computer. To all intents and purposes the wild collection of photos had gone. Then I ran the memory card through the Stellar programme and waited to see what it would produce.

The software took about four minutes to process the memory card, and then listed all the files it found, arranged by date and separated into JPEG and Raw files. (Naturally, a larger card would take longer to process.) Each image gets a good-sized preview, making it easier to see precisely which file it is, and all you have to do is select it and hit the ‘Recover’ button to download it. You can choose where you want to store it, and if you choose a Raw file, you can go on to develop it just as would a freshly shot image.

I was intrigued to know how far back in a memory card’s history Stellar would be able to recover images, as I was fairly certain some of the photos that it had recovered weren’t visible on the memory card when I formatted it. So I took some fresh images on the formatted memory card, deleted some of them, formatted the card again, and took a look.

There they were: the newer images along with the older ones. A treasure trove of images dating back years.

Stellar Photo Recovery does present you with the option to narrow down your search parameters, for example to look only for Canon Raw files, or JPEG files. I tried this and didn’t have any success. I was told that there weren’t any files there, when this wasn’t the case. Perhaps I wasn’t doing something right, but it seems a shame that a valuable tool could be limited like this.

Do I think that everyone needs to rush out and buy the software? Probably not. But if you do accidentally delete an image or format a memory card when you had no intention of doing so, the chances are that it will be able to recover what you lost. It’s great to know that the technology exists and can help you out if you need it. It’s also a useful reminder: whatever you have on your memory cards never really goes away.