Lost USB Storage Device

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony
  • Start date Start date
T

Tony

I keep a lot of my confidential bank details, bank balances, passwords,
customer account details, etc stored on a USB storage device. I prefer not
to keep them stored on my laptop for security reasons but ironically I have
lost my USB device and I fear I am going to have to make a good many calls
and letters to retrieve this information.



On my laptop I edited the excel file, that contains my data, only hours
before losing it. Does a pc keep a temporary copy of the file that I could
retrieve?



I would happily buy some un-delete software if the data can be retrieved. I
have made a point of not using the pc since knowing the USB device has been
lost so as not to possibly overwrite any temporary information.



Thank you
 
Possibly the AutoRecover file IF you had that feature turned on and it
is still not over written, You would need to look in Excel to see where
its stored for your particular setup default is C:\Documents and
Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\
 
While the data is important to recover and BobI has helped all there is
right now, if the USB drive is unencrypted, I would be contacting the
companies where any of these passwords, account information is used and
start changing that information also. You have given someone who finds this
drive valuable information to start stealing your identity. Hope it was
encrypted or at least password protected.
 
Thanks for the advice.

One other reason for having the data on a small USB device was so that I
could on occasion go to meetings without my laptop and access data by
plugging it in to a pc at the meeting. Should I assume that the data could
be retrieved from that pc after I have left? Which would be a cause for
concern also.
 
The data has to move to PC memory to be read, it may also be moved to
the page file, as I indicated earlier, the settings on the PC may result
in another copy residing on the drive. In any of those instances,
someone would need to make a determined attempt to recover the info from
the PC. That said, have you considered a PDA?
 
Bob, he can't hold onto a "thumb drive" what makes you think he could hold
onto a PDA (LOL)?
 
Actually, I use a program called Folder Lock (
http://www.newsoftwares.net/folderlock/ ) and it works pretty well on Flash
drives (Hide, scrambles or encrypts the files/folders/drives) and only takes
3 MB of the space to store the program on the thumb drive to transport it to
and use on all other computers. All my portable devices, USB hard drives,
thumb drives, etc. are protected this way.
 
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