usb techs

[sharki786]

a friend of mine got a usb drive, everytime she plugs it in it comes up with format, she cant afford to loose her data on it, i said what everyone says (you should have 2 backups of it). dose anyone out there know of any good recovery software that will recover the data of it? IF YOU HAVE RECOVERED ANY DATA OF A USB

thank you 

[justalex81]

not possible mate. with a conventional drive, when you delete the data it usually stays written to the disk until new data replaces it. with a solid state usb key. if you cant access it you're knackered. my mrs did the same recently and lost 3 days worth of work. a sector was corrupted

[Ant1981]

If it comes up with as you say, format, it's likely the drive is in another format to the pc she has it connected to.

Is it an IBM format? 32bit or NTFS? Is she a barley who has used it on a Mac or trying to?

[Jay]

Is it a flash drive or a 2.5" or 3.5" in a caddy (mechanical)?

If it's a mechanical drive does it click at all? You could pop it in a ziplock bag. put it in, start sealing the bag, leave a small gap and squeeze the air out and seal the bag. pop it in the freezer for at least 6 hours, take it out and connect it to a PC/Laptop IMMEDIATELY as you'll have a few minutes to an hour to get it back, if this method will work on it.

If it's a flash drive, good luck 

We used Datastor last week to recover data from a failed laptop drive badly clicking for a customer, they managed to recover EVERYTHING. They may be able to help, if you go through a company as a partner it'll be cheaper than going to them directly iirc.

I can't remember the software we used to recover a formatted drive and deleted files it was so long ago.

[sharki786]

sorry its the usb memory stick. oh well
thanks all!!

[Jay]

If what is on it is worth £300-£400 or more it's worth asking a company like Datastor for advice, they can look at the device for a fee, and they'll let you know if they can recover it.

[bodga]

try opening the key on a pc using windows 98 or xp, or windows 7, basically an operating system you havent yet used the key with.

I have a usb key on my car keys which gets a bashing but still works LOL. sometimes i have to spray it with contact cleaner to get it to work, and the USB socket came loose so i had to solder it back up. take it apart if you can to see if its physically ok.