Unable to read boot sector

Recuva
1

I doubt I'll get a quick enough answer that I need, but I am getting a "unable to read boot sector" error when trying to search a thumb drive with Recuva. When I try to access the drive in Windows, it basically keeps asking me to format the drive because it isn't formatted. I have 2 questions:

  1. Is the drive unrecoverable (eg. dead)?
  2. Do I need to format the drive first in order for it to have a boot sector?

Thanks in advance,

Keith

2

Answered my own question. I formatted the drive and Recuva was able to find the files. HOWEVER, the files were not readable :x

3
Answered my own question. I formatted the drive and Recuva was able to find the files. HOWEVER, the files were not readable :x

Bad mistake http://www.handyrecovery.com/handyrecovery-fw.exe using a professional data recovery tool like the link I provided, can recover files even from "raw" disk that windows prompts you to format.

This happens because of corrupted partition or MFT errors.

The version 4 of their software is very very good.

If you cannot get it back with that, you may as well hang it up. You had a good chance of recovering it, but when you formatted it, you made it so much harder on yourself.

No, no, never format until you do a handy recovery on it first.

4

That program is also $49 USD.

5

Im having the same issue, Already formatted it and was doing fine with the old version of the software.

Need some help please, have tried everything.

Duane

6
Bad mistake http://www.handyrecovery.com/handyrecovery-fw.exe using a professional data recovery tool like the link I provided, can recover files even from "raw" disk that windows prompts you to format.

This happens because of corrupted partition or MFT errors.

The version 4 of their software is very very good.

If you cannot get it back with that, you may as well hang it up. You had a good chance of recovering it, but when you formatted it, you made it so much harder on yourself.

No, no, never format until you do a handy recovery on it first.

Bad solution. I downloaded Handy Recovery because I also got the "unable to read boot sector" error message. But after installing and accessing the partition, it says "No valid supported file system present on the volume". So back to square 1... I'm going to try out UndeletePlus next, though I think there is no other solution than to format.

7

Can somebody confirm this? Is there no way to recover the files other than to format first they retry?