Flash Disk data recovery

Hi all

I received a flash disk from one of my customers. The owner apparently has her whole thesis on the flash disk however it has failed.

When I check it, the OS recognizes it but nothing is on the disk.

"Please insert on f:\ etc etc."

Same thing when you insert a cd that is damaged.

"Please enter CD into drive D:\"

My work colleagues says that when a flash drive goes, it is gone and move on. I'm sure there is an inexpensive way just to get the data from the flask disk before discarding it.

Now I know data recovery may be possible, I dont know if it is however I have never done it before.

Please could someone advise on this.

Thank you.

Cider,

I am guessing that you are just trying to look at it on Windows? you might try Linux? ;)

You might also try:

http://www.roadkil.net/unstopcp.html

Available in both Windows and Linux versions. It is pretty good with stuff that is actually damaged, rather than "deleted" or just generally stiffed in the software. A sort of "lower level forensics approach" to data recovery.

Incidentally, your two messages are NOT the same. The CD one means that the media is not recognised, the usb one means that it has been recognised but cannot be read ( that is much more promising from a data recovery viewpoint :D)

There is other software that will attempt to recover scrambled data. It might work, but I always use Roadkil's first because it creates an "image"............. just in case the media is progressively deteriorating

OK the downside ( there had to be one, didn't there?)........... because of the way it works, Roadkil's USTCP recovers file by file so you lose the indexing, folders, and such. Can be a real PITA to rebuild, but that is a good way to teach them an object lesson...........

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The owner apparently has her whole thesis on the flash disk however it has failed.

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Muhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..................................:lildevil:

At geeksquad, we have a data recovery service... We have our own service center just for these types of things..

USB drives, flash sticks and cards, cds dvds hdds floppys zip, etc etc etc

its not cheep though.. our little pricing sheet says "data recovery, 250$ - 2500$"

so it is possible.. it just may not be cheep.

i suppose if you really wanted to have fun and get dirty, you could look up how that flash device works and design something to pull the info directly off the chip it is stored in..


there is always a way to do something in the computer world, it just may not be cheep

The Wolfman has seen this before. One of my cool cats had the same problemo and it ended up being a faulty stick. So what the Wolfman ended up doing was call the manufacturer of the USB D-Vice. They provided the Wolfman with free data recovery similar to the cats at geek-squad and made all my problems disappear.....oh-yeah!

Hmmmmm,

I guess I am not in a good humour this morning?

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One of my cool cats had the same problemo and it ended up being a faulty stick.

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That tells me it wasn't a Micro$haft product or it would be: "this behaviour is by design" :p

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So what the Wolfman ended up doing was call the manufacturer of the USB D-Vice.

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I am totally impressed............. fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean are we?............... I cannot even be bothered to change the question marks into bug splatters :D

EDIT: For $2500 I would come to South Africa and fix it :D

There is a free program floating around for flash drives.

http://www.pc-inspector.de/Sites/sma...htm?Language=1

Nihil can't handle the funk-ness of the Wolfman?

Cider, my man. A quick call or email to the vendor of your Memory stick should tell you if they can recover the data from the stick (for free). The babe I was working with would have had to pay big bucks to get the data back, but instead the Vendor did it for free. (I believe the vendor was SanDisk). Try the programs out there, but if you get frustrated and loose the funk, give the vendor a call.

Can you Dig it??

Cider

i have used the easy recovery data recovery to recover\repair corrupt data off a flash drive...

The trial is free...and it will tell you if it can recover the data...

http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/f...very-software/

Lite goes for about 100.00 USD.

MLF

How a Corrupted USB Drive Was Saved by GNU/Linux
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8366

why not ;)

wow thanks guys. I am going to try and check out every possibility that everyone has given me and I will let you know who's has worked.

The guys I worked for didnt even try and recover her data for her. They just said its gone?

Well I love challenges...so I am one to try at least.

All depends what is wrong with the drive....I have recovered data off a jump drive where the connection became broken and you just had to give the drive some support (hold it in) til the data was off...user bumped it while it was sticking out the front of the machine.

MLF

Ive tried your guys suggestions, nothing seems to work. On the PC inspector it will give me the option to "start" on my hard disk but on the flash drive there is no option.

I will try the rest after I do some other work. Dont want to spend so much time on it and neglect other customers.

I downloaded EasyRecovery Proffesional trail version and it doesnt seems to pick it up as a formatted drive or a removable media.

Anyone got any suggestions?

The Wolfman doesn't want to sound like a broken record of soul music, but Cider, my man, call the Vendor of the USB stick. The Wolfman has gone through everything you are going through now. The only fix was contact the Vendor and have the cool cats recover the data.

Trust The Funk! Trust the Wolfman!

LOL, hows this oke. I am looking at the stick right now and it doesnt seem to have a vendors name on it...

Is there a serial number or model number? Is there anything written on it at all? The fact that your stick doesn't have a name on it like Sandisk or Kingston may indicate that the vendor (who ever they may be) may not support free data recovery. It's still worth looking into though.

The Wolfman I am!

They don't............

Unless you are a rich whiteboy?

Me? I am just a poor old white fart.............. so mine don't have names either :D

Would a "Musgrave" be effective against "wolfmen"? that is a South African question?

Bitis Gabonicus........ ack phtt! that would be a long train ride................. :lildevil: