Recovering files on a flash drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter DManzaluni
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D

DManzaluni

Hate to ask such a basic question but I just came back to my 64 meg
flash drive to find my 3 current .doc files on which I have done a
gigantic amount of work simply not there. Curiously there are two
directories (Firefox Portable) which ARE still there and I cant
figure out what happened to the files?

Tried downloading some utilities from CNET which didnt see or recover
anything and then came across PC TOOLS FILE RECOVER which I
installed. Playing around with the settings, I got it to scan but at
the end of the scan process it crashes and sends a crash report to
Microsoft. Tried a few times and on each, it sees the three files and
a few others and then crashes before I can pause it or recover them.

So I switched computers and downloaded directly from the what I
thought was the manuf's site. That version didnt find any files at
all. So I went to the CNET site and downloaded it again and re-
installed, though curiously it didnt see the other installation??

Anyway now it cant see any lost files in the unallocated clusters on
the drive at all. Is there a way of getting this utility to receover
files properly or is there a better program for this please?

Anyone think this program would work any better in Fusion on a Mac for
any reason? Mac programs tend to cost lots of money while PC programs
like this tend to be free? I dont suppose I would mind paying some
small amount of money these programs seem to cost but am reluctant to
do this if the program wont see the files!

(I am using an appropirately updated AVG and dont think any of this is
caused by any virus)
 
Anyway now it cant see any lost files in the unallocated clusters on
the drive at all. Is there a way of getting this utility to receover
files properly or is there a better program for this please?

Anyone think this program would work any better in Fusion on a Mac for
any reason? Mac programs tend to cost lots of money while PC programs
like this tend to be free? I dont suppose I would mind paying some
small amount of money these programs seem to cost but am reluctant to
do this if the program wont see the files!
Click to expand...

Go alt.comp.freeware, search for "recovery". You should see a thread
dating 17-Jun-2009, subject "CF Recovery Software".

Recuva: http://www.recuva.com/

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Go alt.comp.freeware, search for "recovery". You should see a thread
dating 17-Jun-2009, subject "CF Recovery Software".

Recuva:http://www.recuva.com/

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Ubuntu 9.04) Linux 2.6.29.4
^ ^ 11:13:02 up 29 days 23:16 4 users load average: 1.02 2.28 2.47
¤£­É¶U! ¤£¶BÄF! ¤£´©¥æ! ¤£¥´¥æ!¤£¥´§T! ¤£¦Û±þ! ½Ð¦Ò¼{ºî´© (CSSA):http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa
Click to expand...

If you hav edited the files a lot, they may be both fragmented, and
multiple copies on the chip. This can make recovery / reconstruction
hard but not impossible. Whate every you do, NEVER try and recover
the files onto the memory chip but only into a different drive.

The first approach I would take is to scan the chio to see how
many .DOC file starts are found, and investigate from there.

I asume the chip is FAT16 or similar.

Werte there other files on the chip as well as your important
documents

Michael
www.cnwrecovery.com
 
If you hav edited the files a lot, they may be both fragmented, and
multiple copies on the chip. This can make recovery / reconstruction
hard but not impossible. Whate every you do, NEVER try and recover
the files onto the memory chip but only into a different drive.

The first approach I would take is to scan the chio to see how
many .DOC file starts are found, and investigate from there.

I asume the chip is FAT16 or similar.

Werte there other files on the chip as well as your important
documents

Michaelwww.cnwrecovery.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

No, there were only basically these three smallish files, none larger
than 500kb on this FAT32 drive and I think I saw File Recover flash
past them before it crashed. Nothing was attempted to be recovered to
the drive yet and I am pretty sure that nothing else has been written
to the drive since the files disappeared. So I tried Recuva on my
MacBook Pro (on which none of the other recovery programs are
installed) and it started immediately, found everything immediately
and recovered everything I told it to immediately! It saved me about
a month of work and I am only sorry that my knowledge of google didnt
let me find that thread before! Thanks everyone, I thought that
there was something amiss here but all that was amiss was that I was
using some pretty wrong programs to recover the files.

(Now I suppose I had better scan the computer for a virus which
deletes documents from flash drives and presumably get rid of it.
There has to be a REASON these files mysteriously completely
disappeared)
 
DManzaluni said:
Hate to ask such a basic question but I just came back to my 64 meg
flash drive to find my 3 current .doc files on which I have done a
gigantic amount of work simply not there. Curiously there are two
directories (Firefox Portable) which ARE still there and I cant
figure out what happened to the files?
Click to expand...

<edited for brevity>

Hello, DManzaluni:

I can't help, with your current problem, but, please remember this
basic advice: Always back up vital data! Never leave it, on only one
device or piece of media. (A "flash drive" was a specifically poor
choice, on your part.)

Good luck!


Cordially,
John Turco <[email protected]>
 
DManzaluni wrote:

So I tried Recuva on my MacBook Pro (on which none of the other recovery
programs are installed) and it started immediately, found everything
immediately and recovered everything I told it to immediately! It saved
me about a month of work and I am only sorry that my knowledge of google
didnt let me find that thread before! Thanks everyone, I thought that
there was something amiss here but all that was amiss was that I was
using some pretty wrong programs to recover the files.

(Now I suppose I had better scan the computer for a virus which deletes
documents from flash drives and presumably get rid of it. There has to
be a REASON these files mysteriously completely disappeared)
Click to expand...


Hello, DManzaluni:

Congratulations! I hope that you've learned an invaluable lesson,
and will make regular back-ups, from now on.


Cordially,
John Turco <[email protected]>
 
Maybe this:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
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Click to expand...

Thank you for that suggestion:

I didnt really know how to use the utility but I assumed it was a PC
type and chose FAT16 or 32: It showed both of them as having a bad
boot sector. It had earlier asked me for the boot type and I had said
none. Then it couldnt repair the boot sector, despite my thinking
that it didn't have a boot sector, being just a storage medium. So
whatever it thought it was, it couldnt repair it.

I wonder if I am using it wrongly or is there actually somcething
wrong with this USB drive which I was using to edit this file on
various computers, both Macs and PCs.

I was under the obviously mistaken impression that MIcrosoft Word kept
some type of back up of documents being used and edited. I am not now
sure how to make a back up of a document being edited on various
computers without becoming hopelessly confused. (I STILL dont really
comprehend what on earth caused all my document files to suddely
become deleted from this USB drive while retaining the, for example,
Portable Firefox directories and all their contents)
 
DManzaluni wrote
Thank you for that suggestion:
Click to expand...
I didnt really know how to use the utility but I assumed it was a PC
type and chose FAT16 or 32: It showed both of them as having a bad
boot sector. It had earlier asked me for the boot type and I had said
none. Then it couldnt repair the boot sector, despite my thinking
that it didn't have a boot sector, being just a storage medium. So
whatever it thought it was, it couldnt repair it.
Click to expand...
I wonder if I am using it wrongly or is there actually somcething
wrong with this USB drive which I was using to edit this file on
various computers, both Macs and PCs.
Click to expand...
I was under the obviously mistaken impression that MIcrosoft Word
kept some type of back up of documents being used and edited.
Click to expand...

It does. You can see it when the document is on a hard drive.
I am not now sure how to make a back up of a document being
edited on various computers without becoming hopelessly confused.
Click to expand...

One obvious approach is to copy it to another
USB stick every time you do a significant edit.
(I STILL dont really comprehend what on earth caused all my document
files to suddely become deleted from this USB drive while retaining the,
for example, Portable Firefox directories and all their contents)
Click to expand...

Since you could recover them, most likely something screwed the directory structure.
 
DManzaluni said:
Thank you for that suggestion:

I didnt really know how to use the utility but I assumed it was a PC
type and chose FAT16 or 32:
Click to expand...

I've never used it myself.
I was under the obviously mistaken impression that MIcrosoft Word kept
some type of back up of documents being used and edited. I am not now
sure how to make a back up of a document being edited on various
computers without becoming hopelessly confused.
Click to expand...

Periodically save the document to a backup copy, such as
document.bak04.doc. Then save it back to the original document.doc to be
working on it again, or reopen it.
(I STILL dont really
comprehend what on earth caused all my document files to suddely
become deleted from this USB drive while retaining the, for example,
Portable Firefox directories and all their contents)
Click to expand...

I've had bad things happen on my flash drive too. Still can't explain
them, but when doing any heavy maintenance I always unplug it first
because that's when it happened. Also, I always use the safely
disconnect icon and if it can't, I reboot. I have a boot menu that stops
everything and I take it out then.

--
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http://realnews.com

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Thanks, robots.
 
I've never used it myself.


Periodically save the document to a backup copy, such as
document.bak04.doc. Then save it back to the original document.doc to be
working on it again, or reopen it.


I've had bad things happen on my flash drive too. Still can't explain
them, but when doing any heavy maintenance I always unplug it first
because that's when it happened. Also, I always use the safely
disconnect icon and if it can't, I reboot. I have a boot menu that stops
everything and I take it out then.

--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:http://realnews.com

Bring the Troops Home:http://bringthemhomenow.orghttp://antiwar.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War:http://ivaw.orghttp://couragetoresist.org

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.
Click to expand...

The most common reason I have seen for losing files on a flash drive
is corruption of the boot sector, or FAT. Sometimes, a save will
write data over the FAT. Recovery is often possible, but only with
specialised data recovery software.

Michael
www.cnwrecovery.com
 
The most common reason I have seen for losing files on a flash drive
is corruption of the boot sector, or FAT. Sometimes, a save will
write data over the FAT. Recovery is often possible, but only with
specialised data recovery software.

Michael
www.cnwrecovery.com
Click to expand...

I always change to NTFS on my external drives as it is so much less
damageable, and so much faster doing groups of small files.

Caveat, I did have one file corrupt at 1st on a thumb drive, but that
may have been a program's fault. I buffered it up by using the Optimize
For Performance policy that enables write-buffering just in case. Hasn't
happened again, except in someone else's computer. chkdsk actually fixed
that.

--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.
 
I always change to NTFS on my external drives as it is so much less
damageable, and so much faster doing groups of small files.

Caveat, I did have one file corrupt at 1st on a thumb drive, but that
may have been a program's fault. I buffered it up by using the Optimize
For Performance policy that enables write-buffering just in case. Hasn't
happened again, except in someone else's computer. chkdsk actually fixed
that.

--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:http://realnews.com

Bring the Troops Home:http://bringthemhomenow.orghttp://antiwar.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War:http://ivaw.orghttp://couragetoresist.org

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.
Click to expand...

I will adopt your suggestions but I have to repeat, this boot sector
doesnt seem susceptible to repair for some odd reason. Luckily Recuva
continually does find all files. In 12.1 seconds to be precise!! This
is one amazing program??
 
[email protected] said:
f you hav edited the files a lot, they may be both fragmented, and
multiple copies on the chip. This can make recovery / reconstruction
hard but not impossible. Whate every you do, NEVER try and recover
the files onto the memory chip but only into a different drive.
Click to expand...

And stronger, *do not write anything* to the drive from which you are
trying to recover data. Treat said drive as read-only, because anything
you write to the drive may overwrite what's on the drive.
 
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