Let’s face it…you will lose your digital photos at some point. Unfortunately, it may be at the worse time. I routinely get desperate phone calls from a newlywed couple that just lost their honeymoon pictures from the beach or a contractor that lost important photos from a client’s site. LUCKILY, there are some things that you can do to prevent data loss and recover your lost digital photos. Here are my top 10 tips for photo recovery that I have expanded on from a previous list:

1.The Golden Rule – back up your digital photos frequently. You can backup to a hard drive, an online service, using a kiosk to burn to a DVD or even to another digital media device.

2. After data loss, immediately stop using your digital media. The worse thing you can do is to continue taking new pictures…potentially overwriting your lost photos.

3. Do NOT attempt to format or initialize your media. Even if your camera is telling you to format, resist the instructions. Performing a format may write over your lost data. Some camera models will even completely wipe the digital media!

4.Do NOT try to open your device. This is the checking-under-the-hood syndrome.  The inside of your digital media is extremely sensitive. There is no need to open the device as there are no moving parts.

5. Do NOT expose your digital media to extreme temperatures. Most digital media is rated at 32° F to 140° F (0° C to 60° C) during operation or -4° F to 185° F (-20° C to 85° C) during storage. Any extreme conditions can cause permanent damage and lost photos.

6. Keep your media card away from magnets! Similar to credit cards, magnets can quickly scramble the data on your media card.

7. Store your digital media in your camera or a padded case. Shock damage to your digital media can quickly ruin your vacation!!

8.Use photo recovery software or services to get your files back. A good quality, highly-rated software or service should be able to quickly retrieve your files.

9.After your files have been recovered perform a wipe to the media card. This will completely clean the card from old, fragmented data giving you a fresh start. Next, initialize the media card in your camera to take new photos.

10. Be cautious! Understanding your camera’s functions goes a long way towards preventing data loss. Read up on the format/initialize functions and how to properly delete single frames versus entire card deletion.

I hope these tips help! Data loss is not fun…using the proper precautions, your digital photos should be secured and enjoyed for the future.

An article on News.com states that a large manufacturer (read: Dell) is getting a return rate “an order of magnitude higher” on flash based notebooks versus standard HDD notebooks. The return rates are between 10-20% compared to 1-2% for traditional hard drives. It seems that a Samsung SSD drive is to blame for lackluster performance.

The price to add on a SSD drive – $900!

As this nascent industry grows up these problems will dissipate. More demand will create better products at lower cost.

The best fact of this article: current flash sells for around $3/GB…a 50% decline from last quarter of last year.