How to Recover Deleted Photos from Dell Laptop [3 Options]

What to do if you have accidentally deleted photos on your Dell laptop? Don’t worry, we provide you with 3 options on how to recover deleted photos from Dell laptop here. Choose according to your preference.

By @Ellie
Last Updated April 30, 2026

How can I get deleted photos back on my Dell laptop?

 

Help! I accidentally deleted some old, priceless photos that had been stored on my Dell laptop for a very long time. This occurred as I was attempting to delete pointless images from a folder on my laptop’s hard drive. How can I get my Dell laptop’s deleted photos back?”

- Question from Reddit

3 options on how to recover deleted photos from Dell laptop

Luckily, it is easy to recover data from a Dell laptop hard disk once you find the right way. Here in this section, we’ll provide you with 3 options on how to recover deleted photos from Dell laptop with ease. 

Option 1. Get back deleted photos from the Recycle Bin

The first option on how to recover deleted files from Dell laptop is to check on the Recycle Bin if you have not emptied the Recycle Bin.

Step 1. Double click Recycle Bin on your desktop to open it.

Step 2. Locate the photos you have just deleted. Right-click these files, then click Restore. Then your photos will come back to the location where they were before being deleted.

Option 2. Restore Dell laptop deleted photos from a Windows backup

If you can’t find your photos on the Recycle Bin or you have deleted the photos using Shift + Delete, this means the photos are permanently deleted. At this moment, the second option on how to recover deleted photos from Dell laptop is to restore them from a Windows backup provided by the Windows built-in utility Backup and Restore.

Step 1. Input Control Panel in the Windows search bar, and start it.

Step 2. Click System and Security and then Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 3. Click Select another backup to restore files from. (Here you can see if you have enabled Backup and Restore or not.)

Step 4. Select the backup and then click Next.

Step 5. Search for your deleted/missing pictures by using the Browse for files or Browse for folders option.

Step 6. Choose a location to save the backup, select your pictures and click Restore to recover them.

Option 3. Recover deleted photos from Dell laptop via photo recovery tool

If you need to recover photos permanently deleted without a backup, you are recommended to use the free & professional photo recovery tool for multiple Windows versions, FastRecovery.

Download FreewareWin 11/10/8.1/8/7/Server
Secure Download
⚠️Notes:

  • Don't download and install FastRecovery on the drive where you store deleted files, as this may cause data overwriting.

  • Any newly added data or disk formatting can overwrite data. Please avoid these operations after deletion.

Step 1. After launching FastRecovery on your Windows, click Deleted Files Recovery. You can also choose a more suitable alternative, such as Disk Data Recovery, Recycle Bin Recovery, etc. All of them can help you retrieve data without causing any damage.

Step 2. You'll see all available drives. Hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to get started.

Step 3. Then the scanning process will start automatically. Just wait for the final scan result. You can select files by Type (default) or Path, and combine them with options to sort, filter, search, and preview files. 

  • ⬆⬇Sort: Sort files by name, date modified, type, etc., on the right panel.
  • 🔽 Filter: Specify the Type/Size (from Less than 512KB to 1GB above) to target your search.
  • 🔎 Search: Type the file name or extension in the search box to locate deleted files precisely.
  • 👁‍🗨 Preview: Double-click files to preview formats such as wav, ico, jpg, png, bmp, jpeg, tif, svg, gif, mp4, mp3, txt, xlsx, pdf, ini, docx, etc.

⚠️Notes:
  • The Type categories and filter option include all supported data types, including images, videos, documents, mails, web pages, compressed files, etc.
  • If you can’t find the deleted or lost files, click Deep Scan to search the disk thoroughly. It will scan every sector of the disk to find files buried deeper in the file system.

Step 4. Choose the pictures that you want to recover. Click Recover and choose a new path to save the restored pictures.

⚠️Notes:
  • Don't save the recovered files to the original location, as it may cause data overwriting.
  • The free edition only supports 500MB of data recovery. To recover a large number of deleted or missing files, consider upgrading FastRecovery to the advanced editions.

Bonus tip: How to recover photos from a dead Dell laptop

If your Dell laptop has suffered physical damage and won’t turn on, you can try to move the hard drive from the dead Dell laptop and try to recover deleted photos from the hard drive on another workable computer.

Step 1. Unlock your dead laptop case with the screwdriver and take the hard drive out carefully.

Step 2. Connect the hard drive as an external hard drive to another workable computer via a USB 3.0 connection cable.

Step 3. Perform photo recovery using FastRecovery and save the recovered photos on the workable computer.

Closing words

This post primarily introduces 3 options on how to recover deleted photos from Dell laptop, or any other laptop like recovering deleted photos from an HP laptop. In other words, whenever you have lost photos on your laptop, you can try the methods mentioned above.

At the end of this post, we would like to give you some necessary tips to avoid photo loss from happening again:

  • Before erasing any photos from your Dell laptop, have close look at the selected photo files.
  • Avoid using Shift+Delete keys and Command Prompt to permanently delete pictures from your Dell laptop
  • Check for the presence of necessary photos in Recycle Bin folder before emptying it
  • Make a habit of backing up your important photos using professional data backup tool, for example, AOMEI Backupper.