I can actually remember when the first digital cameras available saved image files directly as a JPEG. These very large and cumbersome cameras actually had a drive capable of holding a 3.5 inch floppy disk. Digital photo images were written directly onto that disk. I believe that this could hold eight medium sized 150 KB pictures. Because of this direct transfer process image files were very rarely corrupted or lost. Because final storage of the photos remained on the floppy disk and there was no direct transfer to your computer required, image files were rarely corrupted.

That is hardly the case today as a single camera memory card can hold 100 super high res pictures each of which is held in a file 100 times larger than those used on the old floppy disk. These complicated image files are easily damaged during transfer. Because of this we very often have to backtrack the process of transfer by scanning through our camera’s SD or XD memory card. We do this using a program specifically designed for digital photo recovery. This software quickly scans even the largest camera memory cards and creates a list of all existing and recently deleted files. This ability to virtually undelete files allows us to recover photos that have been purposely deleted or simply damaged during the transfer process.