How to recover scanned photo files
A patron came in to the FSC recently and scanned a number of photos using the scanner on the Lexmark printer with "Windows Fax and Scan" on the FSC computer. The files were automatically stored in the "Scanned Documents" folder on the FSC computer.
The patron did not have a portable drive to download the files and left.
The patron came back the next day to retrieve the files but the "Scanned Documents" folder and all the files were gone.
Is there a way to recover them?
Answers
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Saving personal files on FamilySearch Center computers is not permitted. I don't know if the current version of Tools is still set up to delete such files, but I suspect that may be what happened. We keep a small supply of very inexpensive USB thumb drives in our FSC specifically for that purpose, when visitors aren't aware they can't save files to the computer and don't have a USB drive with them. We used to charge just our cost ($3.00 from Amazon in bulk of 10 or more), but have since been directed to go "cashless," so we used what little cash we still had in the FSC and purchased several more USB thumb drives. We always urge visitors to bring their own USB devices, and have a small notice to that effect on the printer.
Elder Richins would likely know for certain whether Tools deleted those files, and whether there is any way to recover them. The safest course in the future is to never save files to the FSC computers and let the visitors be responsible for their own files.
Note that a USB drive can be plugged directly into the front USB port on the Lexmark printer for saving scans directly from the printer with the built-in printer touchpad scan routine. While the printer is just black and white, the scanner creates color scans.
--Chris
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