Need Data Recovery on USB Flash Drive - HELP!

Computer Help and Discussions Software
1

Hi

I have downloaded Recuva and ran the software hoping to recover lost files on my USB Flash Drive.

I was previously getting a message telling me the drive hadnt been formatted but I think it may have been failing as its got all my photos on and has been in regular use.

I have tried the check disk command but it tells me the drive is RAW(?) which appears to be a problem.

I have downloaded EaseUS and that software can access the files on the USB so I know they are still there but to actually restore them there is a HUGE cost - typical!

Have now tried Recuva but when I specify the E: drivefor file recovery (where my USB stick is!) it says"Unable to determine file system type".

Any ideas what to do next please?

2

Hi Lil, and welcome to Piriform.

Yes, you have a faulty drive and although now recognized by Windows as RAW, your files will be there.

How big is the drive by the way and what total size of files are you looking to recover, because "EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free" allows you to recover 2GB of data for free?

Have you been using a different version?

http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

If you have more data than that to recover, we'll look at something else, but if you can get the 2GB, go for it as that's better than nothing at the moment.

3

That's the perfected suggestion Dennis, I used it to recover raw files off of 3 hard drives over the last 6 smonths. I did purchases it at 1/2 off but it was definitely worth the $40. I tested tons of freeware but the freeware couldn't recover the raw data unfortunately.

4

Lazesoft Recovery is freeware which recovered from a 600 GB HDD all the :-

RAW data on the first two partitions,

and all the data in the next half dozen partitions which Windows said was now Unallocated Space.

It also works on Flash Drives

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Lazesoft-Recovery-Suite-Home.shtml

NB

There were many 6 GB Macrium Partition Backup files on that 600 GB HDD

Lazesoft recovered them all and Macrium validated them all, based upon the internal hash checksums.

Alternative Data Recovery costing $69 was able to recover the correct amount for each file, but they were rejected.

Lazesoft correctly assembled the file fragments on that drive which I had never defragged.

I am guessing that the alternative software costing $69 was able to detect the first sector of each file,

and then simply read all the sectors in sequence and thus composed an output that consisted of fragments from many different files.

5
If you have more data than that to recover, we'll look at something else

Lazersoft was also my "something else" Alan, but I'm sure Lil will appreciate the heads-up and the link.

:)

6

Thank you for your useful post! It helped a lot!

In fact, last weekend, I also formatted my USB flash drive and lost most of my school papers there. In order to rescue them, I searched and read a lot. Finally, I successfully restored my wanted files back by trying some data recovery tools, like Recuva, iCare Data Recovery Free, 4Card Recovery, EaseUS Data Recovery, etc.

Thank you very much!!!

7

Pleased you got your stuff back Alan.

Welcome to the forum. :)

8

Hi people, seems I have a similar problem my 64GB USB stick ( almost half full with video and music) suddenly stopped showing any data. Windows says without interruption that I've to formate´drive E: first. So I've tried Recuva but it says only " invalid drive size".....

Thanks for your help

9

I've lost a few USB drives in my time, either through power surges via faulty ports, failed controller chips on the USB stick or just plain wear & tear.

Sadly it sounds like yours too has 'just died'.

If you can, try plugging it into a Linux PC. It's a long shot but I have had drives successfully read under Linux when Windows couldn't.

You could also try a quick format of the drive. This would hopefully get the drive readable so Recuva can do its thing.

It all depends on what's happened to the drive.

If you have important data you simply must get back, a professional data recovery mob may be needed.

10

After 2 years for the first post, and then 6 months for the last and now its resurrection... ...I'll close this topic.