Thumbnail only, no back-up

Question

Level 1

107 points

Thumbnail only, no back-up

I recently reformatted a MBP (2 years ago) and have just gone through some of the photos on a backup EHD and it appears only the thumbnails are visible, not the actual photos.

Is there ANY possible way of getting the data/image back as I no longer have the MBP (Sold it to a friend) and it appears the back up is only thumbnails. There are some really important photos on there as something recently happened family wise and really would like to get them back. Surely there must be some technical way that isn't usually advertised as the data of the image is there in the thumbnail?

Any help greatly appreciated. Ian

Posted on Dec 28, 2012 3:20 PM

Reply

Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Dec 28, 2012 3:37 PM in response to Ian Thompson4

Surely there must be some technical way that isn't usually advertised as the data of the image is there in the thumbnail?

no - you can not create a high resolution image from a low resolution image - do not even understand why you would expect there to be one

How was the backup made? What are the sizes of the photo files on the backup?

LN

Reply

Answer 2

Ian Thompson4 Author

Level 1

107 points

Dec 29, 2012 6:49 AM in response to LarryHN

It was over a year ago but I believe I just dragged and dropped iPhoto Library, or I copied and pasted. I don't have the MBP that these photos were on anymore, I sold it to a friend and reformatted the HD.

Could there possibly be a way of retrieving them from the MBP even though the software has been overwritten?

I don't know how big the photo files were but I would imagine somewhere between 1-4MB per photo.

In

Reply

Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Dec 29, 2012 8:36 AM in response to Ian Thompson4

SOftware like File Salvage http://subrosasoft.com/software/filesalvage can find and restore files if they have not been overwritten - the free download will tell you what cna be recovered - you have to pruchase to actually recover the photos

How big are the photo file on the backup that you have?

Reply

Answer 4

Ian Thompson4 Author

Level 1

107 points

Dec 29, 2012 11:30 AM in response to LarryHN

Hi,

Not sure I follow. I don't have a back up of the files, this is my problem, only the thumbnails within iPhoto.

So if there is any type of solution please let me know, I'm happy to pay for some software or company if there is a solution to getting the photos from the data I have.

Thanks, Ian

Reply

Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Dec 29, 2012 11:39 AM in response to Ian Thompson4

I guess I do not follow

You said

it appears the back up is only thumbnails.

And I ask what is the size of the photos on the backup that you stated you have

As potential solutions

again I said

Software like File Salvage http://subrosasoft.com/software/filesalvage can find and restore files if they have not been overwritten - the free download will tell you what can be recovered - you have to purchase to actually recover the photos

That is a potential solution -- if the photos have been overwritten then there is no solution - the onluy way to tell is to down load the softrware and run it on the MBP to see what can be recovered - as I said

LN

Reply