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Thread: Flash Disk data recovery

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  1. #1
    Only african to own a PC! Cider's Avatar
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    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.
    The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
    Albert Einstein

  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    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 )

    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...........

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

  3. #3
    Blast From the Past
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    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
    work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger

  4. #4
    Senior Member wolfman1984's Avatar
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    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!
    I AM... THE WOLFMAN!!
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    Do you dig the Wolfman?? Sign his Ghoulbook or listen to him Howl

  5. #5
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hmmmmm,

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

    One of my cool cats had the same problemo and it ended up being a faulty stick.
    That tells me it wasn't a Micro$haft product or it would be: "this behaviour is by design"

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

    EDIT: For $2500 I would come to South Africa and fix it
    Last edited by nihil; September 4th, 2007 at 09:36 AM.

  6. #6
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    There is a free program floating around for flash drives.

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

  7. #7
    Senior Member wolfman1984's Avatar
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    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??
    I AM... THE WOLFMAN!!
    The Wolfman's Homepage: http://www.fangtastic.org
    Do you dig the Wolfman?? Sign his Ghoulbook or listen to him Howl

  8. #8
    AOs Resident Troll
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    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 people treat you is their karma- how you react is yours-Wayne Dyer

  9. #9
    Leftie Linux Lover the_JinX's Avatar
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    How a Corrupted USB Drive Was Saved by GNU/Linux
    http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8366

    why not
    ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI.
    When in Russia, pet a PETSCII.

    Get your ass over to SLAYRadio the best station for C64 Remixes !

  10. #10
    Only african to own a PC! Cider's Avatar
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    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?
    The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
    Albert Einstein

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