GUIDE · WINDOWS PC · 4 NOVEMBER 2026

Recover deleted photos on a Windows PC: where to look first

Check the Recycle Bin, OneDrive and File History first. If the photos are in none of them, see what a read-only scan of the drive can still find.

Check the places that keep a copy

Photos deleted from an internal drive normally go to the Recycle Bin, unless you used Shift+Delete or they were on a USB stick or network share. If the folder was synced, the OneDrive recycle bin keeps deleted items for 30 days on personal accounts and 93 days on work or school accounts by default. If File History was turned on before the deletion, right-click the folder and choose Restore previous versions. None of these needs recovery software, and any of them gives back the original file.

If the photos are in none of them

Deleting a file removes its entry from the file system; the picture itself stays where it was until something is written over it. On a hard disk that is often a long time. On an SSD, Windows tells the drive which blocks are free (TRIM) and the drive may erase them, so the chance falls quickly: see what TRIM changes. Frame Witness reads the NTFS, exFAT and FAT32 records that survive, then searches the raw bytes for photo and video structures: JPG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, HEIC, AVIF photos and MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM, TS, M2TS, MPG, WMV, MXF, DV video.

Stop writing to the drive

Every new file, download or update can land on the space your photos still occupy. Stop using the drive, do not install recovery tools onto it if you have another disk, and never save recovered files back to the drive you are scanning.

What a read-only scan gives you

The scan only reads the source. For a drive that matters, create a RAW image first and scan the image, so the original is touched once. Each recovered file can be shown with its offsets and SHA-256 hash; recovered media you can document explains how to describe them.

What cannot come back

Overwritten data. Bytes that new files replaced are gone for every program.
Full and overwrite formats. A full format in Windows writes zeros over the volume; an overwrite format or a wipe does the same with other patterns.
SSD TRIM. A drive that receives TRIM usually erases freed blocks itself.
Encryption without the key. A BitLocker volume, or a phone with file-based encryption, cannot be read without its key.

Step by step

Stop using the drive. Close the programs that save files to it. If it is the system drive, avoid installing or downloading anything until you have scanned.
Look in the Recycle Bin. Open it, search by file type or date, right-click the photos and choose Restore.
Look in OneDrive and File History. Open the OneDrive recycle bin on the web. In File Explorer right-click the folder, choose Restore previous versions and pick a version from before the deletion.
Install Frame Witness. Download the signed Windows release (version 1.1.1, Windows 11 x64; Windows 10 not yet tested) and create a free account: it gives a quick scan of the first 8 GiB, up to 100 results, previews and saving files up to 1 MiB each.
Scan the drive. Choose Scan a card or drive, select the drive and start the scan. For evidence, create a RAW image first and scan the image.
Review and save elsewhere. Open each photo and check that it is complete. Export the ones you need to a different physical drive.

Frequently asked questions

Can permanently deleted photos be recovered on Windows 11?

Sometimes. If they were emptied from the Recycle Bin but nothing has overwritten them, a scan of the drive can find them, more often on a hard disk than on an SSD. Anything a backup or OneDrive holds is the safer route.

Does recovery software work on an SSD?

Rarely for files deleted a while ago. If TRIM ran, the drive erased the freed blocks, and no program can read what is no longer there.

Does the free account recover photos?

The free account gives a quick scan of the first 8 GiB, up to 100 results, previews and saving files up to 1 MiB each. Larger files and full scans need a licence.

Try it on your own source

Download Frame Witness for Windows (version 1.1.1, Authenticode-signed by Aurelio Avila, SHA-256 0d6410aff0413d02517a179d28c2039b3757c861559659f5845930b8aa055db9). The free account gives a quick scan of the first 8 GiB, up to 100 results, previews and saving files up to 1 MiB each; full scans and larger files need a licence, with current prices on the pricing page.