Data Recovery from USB Memory Stick - Clubhouse

Clag

02/05/2011 at 15:36

AAAAAAARRRRRRGGH! My memory stick (often described as being as vital in life as my arm) has suddenly stopped working. Plugged it into the computer today and it wanted to format it.

I have declined, not very politely it has to be said, and am now extremely hacked off as I have so much data on it that is not backed up - very stupid I know. Everything for my uni course is backed up in 2 or 3 places so I'm happy with that. Unfortunately I've got a couple of years worth of work stuff which isn't backed up anywhere as I lost my other stick and the computer system at work is rubbish and doesn't have room to store everything.

Does anyone know if it's possible to retrieve the data or is it a complete lost cause? I've written it off in my head but we have an inspection coming up at work in a couple of weeks and life would be so much easier if I could rejig forms etc that I have saved rather than having to input everything all over again!

Any thoughts?

Nessie

02/05/2011 at 16:38

The only thing I can suggest is plugging it into another PC somewhere, and see if it works there.

Unfortunately, memory sticks don't have on/off switches, which is my only other computer fixing technique.....................

Mr Puffy

02/05/2011 at 16:41

I had a photo card that malfunctioned and we took it into a photo shop, they were able to recover not only the photos that were on it but a lso hundreds of others that had been previously been deleted.

Try just restarting your pc first though.

Broadsword Calling Danny Boy

02/05/2011 at 16:42

It will often sort itself out again if you plug it into a UNIX machine.

All is by no means lost, but whatever you do, don't format it!

IT repair man should be able to help.

Squeakz

02/05/2011 at 17:04

Where about do you live Flag, im experienced with data recovery and would be willing to have a look at it for you.

The first thing I would do would be to check if it has a damaged file system, easiest manner to do this is with a Linux based system, if you have a computer with a cd rom you can download a linux live cd (runs from the cd without installing) popular linux distibutions are ubuntu and knoppix. Once you have booted your system from the live cd attach your usb device and linux may be able to read it.

Windows does not safely mount and unmount hardware as such it is not uncommon for it to corrupt the file system. In most cases it can be repaired or recovered

Broadsword Calling Danny Boy

02/05/2011 at 17:08

Yeah, good point, in future make sure you click that little green icon in your system tray "safely remove hardware", it ensures your drive will properly de-mount.

Clag

02/05/2011 at 18:33

I'll ensure that I do that in future. I've been very guilty of not using the wee icon thingy in the past.

Squeakz - thanks for the offer. I'll take it to work tomorrow and see if it'll work there as that was the last place it was used (eternal optimist). Failing that, a friend's partner who's an IT geek has offered to have a look and see what he can do.

Broadsword Calling Danny Boy

02/05/2011 at 18:35

Don't panic. If you have someone who has a linux machine it will be sorte din 5 seconds. Just putting it into a windows unit won't achieve much unless you have specialist software.

Russell Nimbus

02/05/2011 at 22:55

Would a chkdsk /F on the USB's logical drive fix it?

Clag

03/05/2011 at 07:12

All getting a bit technical for me now!

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