usb pen drive lost data, how can i recover it?

**0okami** · 10-26-2006, 04:02 AM

Ok, after putting a usb drive though some real world everyday abuse, i hit a snag... the drive lost all its data and claims its not formatted. It offers to format, but at 16mb instead of 2gb.

It appears i puled the drive before it was done beeing used. ^_^ wee! fun.

So, this is where it gets interesting... I need to recover some data off that drive (photographic evidence compressed in two zip archives.)

I plug the drive in and use a program called ontrack easy recovery pro... but when I plug my usb pen drive in, it does not see the drive/device at all in the program.

Windows keeps offering to format. I dont really want to dot that yet...

I was wondering if anyone else had similar issues with a pen drive and how did they solve it?

**miztahsparklez** · 10-26-2006, 09:32 AM

well i had an issue with a compact flash card.. teh program was called file recovery for compact flash, theres ones for other types of media too. and basically it scans what it can and tries to rip it. whats funny is that it also recovered pictures that was first taken from the camera which was deleted a long time ago.

on another note. NEVER EVER EVER compress anything thats of any importance. lol cause if you lose one archive, or you corrupt it... theres no way of getting back any of the data. and always have multipe backups... ive learned this the hard way and now i just leave the files as be..

**blkwrx** · 10-26-2006, 09:40 AM

I use a program called file scavenger. Its worked for me every time

never had to recover a solid state drive though.

**Jahntassa** · 10-26-2006, 11:09 AM

You'll need a program specifically for removable media like that. Most file recovery programs will only work on drives that are recognized as having some sort of formatting on them.

**DJCentrino** · 10-26-2006, 01:13 PM

I use File recovery Pro. My girlfriend lost the her entire hard drive last year (the night before the hand in for her 20000 word dissertation was due in). I stumbled accross this site and downloaded the demo. This told me which files it could recover and i could browse the entire HDD. Obviously i had to pay to get the full software to get my files back - but it worked. I am a teacher and the amount of students that now come to me when their drives/disks have broken is astounding. It hasn't let me down yet - Oh and by the way, windows couldn't even detect the drive.

I would down load the demo, if it can detect your files then it may be worth stumping up the money - depends on how much your info is worth:

http://www.lc-tech.com/

Good luck!!

Daniel