How to Recover Deleted Photos from Nikon Camera SD Card: Full Guide

Can You Recover Deleted Photos from a Nikon Camera?

Nikon stands as one of the world’s most beloved and widely recognized camera brands, with its popularity continuing to grow and a rapidly expanding global user base. Like most other storage devices, data loss is inevitable on Nikon cameras. Can you recover deleted photos from Nikon camera SD card?

Absolutely Yes! When a photo is deleted from a Nikon camera SD card, the data isn’t wiped immediately. Instead, the space is marked as “available” and the actual image data stays until overwritten. This means, with the right Nikon photo recovery methods, those deleted files can be retrieved unless new data has overwritten them.

This guide will walk you through how to recover deleted photos from a camera SD card, including using Windows built-in tool and professional Nikon photo recovery software. Whether you formatted the card, deleted files by mistake, or faced a corrupted SD card, there's still hope.

But before the detailed steps, it’s crucial to stop using the SD card immediately after deletion to maximize recovery chances.

How to Recover Deleted Photos from Nikon Camera SD Card

In this section, two professional data recovery tools will be introduced for recovering deleted photos from a Nikon camera's SD card. One is a command-line tool, and the other is a GUI tool. Whether you're a professional or a computer novice, there will be a tool to meet your needs. They can help you recover NEF files, JPEGs or even videos.

Windows File Recovery (Command-line Tool)

Windows File Recovery is a free command-line tool from Microsoft that lets you retrieve permanently deleted files from local storage devices like HHDs, USB drives, camera SD cards and more. However, it is only compatible with Windows 10 and later versions. Follow these steps to recover deleted photos from Nikon camera SD card with Windows File Recovery command:

Step 1. Download and install Windows File Recovery on your computer from Microsoft official channel.

Step 2. Connect the Nikon camera SD card to the computer with a correct card reader.

Step 3. Open Windows File Recovery and run it as administrator.

Step 4. Type the command "Winfr F: E: /regular" and press "Enter". Replace the drive letters "F" and "E" with your actual drive letters.

★Tips:

F: the source drive letter (the camera SD card).

E: the destination drive letter.

Regular: perform a quick scan. If you want to recover more lost photos from your camera SD card, you can switch to "extensive" mode to perform a deep scan.

When the process is finished, press "y" to check the recovered files in the destination folder.

Use Third-Party Tool - MyRecover (GUI Tool)

If you're a computer novice or find command-line tools cumbersome, you can try third-party data recovery tools like MyRecover. It features a user-friendly visual interface that simplifies the data recovery process, allowing even non-professionals to complete data recovery independently with just a few clicks.

Here are some stunning points of MyRecover:

✅500+ Devices Support – Recover files from all types of devices like SSD, HDD, USB flash drive, SD card, cameras, game console drives and more.

✅Handle 500+ Data Loss Scenarios – Recover from deleted partition, formatted hard drive, emptied Recycle Bin, system crash, virus attack, etc.

✅Supports over 1,000 File Types – Including documents, photos, videos, audio, archives, and Outlook data files.

✅Smart Scan Modes – Choose from Quick Scan for recent deletions or Deep Scan for formatted/corrupted drives.

✅Smart Filtering – Recover files by type, date, or size with precision.

✅OS Compatibility – Work not only on Windows 11 /10, but also on Windows 8.1/ 8/ 7 and all Servers.

4 Steps to Recover Deleted Photos from Nikon Camera SD Card

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover on your computer from secure channel. Connect the camera SD card to your computer.

Step 2. Launch it and select the SD card to scan for lost files, then click "Scan".

Step 3. Choose files you intend to recover from the recoverable lists and click "Recover".

Step 4. Select a location (not the original one) to save the recovered files.

When the process is completed, the message "Files have been recovered successfully" will pop out. You can access and check the recovered files by clicking on the destination folder path or "Browse" button.

FAQs:

1. Is there a Recycle Bin in a Nikon camera?

While Nikon cameras do have a "Recycle Bin" option, it doesn’t work like the computer’s Recycle Bin, from which you can restore deleted photos or videos. If you wish to recover these files, you can use data recovery software like Windows File Recovery or MyRecover to retrieve deleted photos from the camera’s SD card.

2. Can you recover deleted files off a SD card?

Yes, in most cases, you can recover deleted files from an SD card—even if they were deleted from a camera, phone, or PC. You can use professional data recovery tool to retrieve them.

3. Are camera photos recyclable?

Not exactly. “Recyclable” in the traditional sense doesn’t apply to digital files like camera photos. However, deleted photos can still be recovered if you use photo recovery software before the space is reused. Think of it as “digital recycling” through data recovery.

Conclusion

Losing photos from your Nikon camera can feel devastating, but thanks to data recovery tools, you still have a great chance of retrieving them. Whether you’re using professional data recovery software like MyRecover, or simply restoring from a backup, there’s always a path forward.

MyRecover also offers a Professional version that allows users to recover data from crashed systems and supports previewing file contents in advance before recovery.