How To Recover Deleted Photos After A Malware Attack

Are you trying to access photos on your PC, but they are not opening or are missing? Your PC may be facing a Malware attack.

Usually, when malware enters the system, it interacts with the files on the hard drive and corrupts or infects them. Your PC’s firewall and antivirus programs are usually enough to remove these malicious files from the PC. However, it is often too late for users as the damage has already been done, i.e., your image files have already been compromised.

Sure, you can rectify the errors caused by malicious files using an antivirus and get rid of these files. However, it becomes difficult to recover deleted photos after a malware attack. The good news is that while it is typical to do so, it is not entirely impossible.

This post will examine ways to recover lost pictures while resolving malware errors on your computer. Without further ado, let’s begin!

3 Best Ways to Recover Deleted Photos After a Malware Attack

So your PC was attacked by malware, and while you have finally gotten rid of the infected file, you have lost your images. What do you do? For an average user, deleted files are gone and lost. However, you should learn more about storage to recover them. All the files you store on your computer use storage blocks on your hard drive. Hence, when they are deleted, they are not completely removed unless new data is added to the blocks. This means data recovery is possible.

Let us take a look at 3 ways for malware-infected photos.

Method 1 – Recovering Hidden Images Through CMD

A virus attack does not permanently delete pictures or files from the hard drive, USB, SD card, etc. Sometimes, the threat actors write the code so the data stays on the PC but becomes inaccessible. Use the ‘attrib’ command in Command Prompt (CMD) to unhide hidden data.

To use the command and unhide files using Command Prompt, follow these steps:

1.  Note the drive letter from where you want to recover hidden files.
2. In the search bar, enter Command Prompt > right-click Run as administrator.
3. Type attrib command: attrib -h -r -s /s /d F:\*.* and press Enter.

‘F’ is the drive letter from which your files are missing.

4. Wait for the process to finish and let Windows start recovering the hidden files.
5. After that, go to the drive, USB, or SD card from where the images were lost to see if you can see them.

If not, it seems there were no hidden files. In this case, let’s proceed to the following method.

Check This- How to Recover Deleted Photos on Every Device

Method 2. Restore Deleted Photos using System Restore

When a virus attack infects the Windows PC, you can recover lost or deleted files using the System Restore point.

A system restore point helps restore your computer to a previous version or date when it was virus-free.

To recover photos lost due to a malware attack using System Restore, follow these steps:

1. In the search bar, type Restore.
2. Click System Protection tab > System Restore > Next.

3. Select the restore point from the options listed. Click Next and follow the prompts.

To know what programs will be affected after performing System Restore, click Scan for affected programs.

4. Confirm the restore point and click Finish.

5. Your PC will restart, and you will get the message ‘System Restore completed successfully.’

Check the drive to see if you have recovered the lost or deleted photos. If not, you must use the third-party tool to restore images.

Method 3. Restore Deleted Photos From the Infected Drive Using Systweak Photos Recovery

When the above solutions do not work, use Systweak Photos Recovery, which helps restore deleted or lost photos from corrupt and virus-infected drivers. The image recovery tool performs comprehensive scanning of the drive and helps recover deleted or lost media files. With just a few mouse clicks, you can easily recover wiped photos, audio clips, and videos.

Here’s how to use the Photos Recovery tool:

Step 1: Download and install Systweak Photos Recovery software.

Step 2: Launch the image recovery tool and select the drive you wish to scan. Before clicking the START SCAN button, choose from the two scanning modes. Systweak Photos Recovery offers Quick Scan and Deep Scan to recover media files. You can use Quick Scan to perform a quick scan. However, for in-depth scanning, we suggest using Deep Scan.

Note: To scan an SD card or attached storage device, click the Removable Drive tab.

Step 3: After you click the START SCAN button, wait for the scan to finish. Depending on the size of your storage disk and the amount of data, the process will take time.

Note: If you perform Quick Scan and no deleted files are found, Photos Recovery will ask permission to move to Deep Scan. We recommend clicking YES.

Step 4: You will not get a list of photos and videos that can be retrieved. You preview the search results and select the media files you want to restore.

Step 5: After selecting the images or videos to recover, hit the RECOVER button and choose a different location to save data.

Note: Saving data on the same drive overwrites data and reduces the chances of data recovery.

Step 6: Wait for the recovery process to finish. When done, you will get a success message. To check the restored data, go to the location where you saved the images to check the restored data.

This is how using Systweak Photos Recovery; you can get back your precious memories.

See This- How to Choose Best Photo & Video Recovery Software

Recovering Images After a Malware Attack is EASY!

We repeatedly tell our readers to maintain a backup of essential data. Still, due to our busy schedules, many of us miss that and end up losing data. Not to mention, malware attacks are always uninvited. Hence, you must be ready with a backup or photo recovery tool.