Recovering from a USB drive

[Rob52]

Dennis,

 

Yes we had good New Year here, thank you for the well wishes. I'm not in a hurry to get the drive usable, I have others and I learned my lesson and actually bought a proper back up drive. And I am using it!

 

Anyway, if you have other possibilities to explore I'm all for it. I've decided I'm in it this far I may as well go all the way with it.

[DennisD]

I've a few different options Rob, all worth trying, but it's difficult deciding in which order to try them, as I've no precedent with such an unusual drive configuration to base that decision on.

 

I've only got my own U3 Cruzer to work with, and I can't get it into the same state as yours which has both partitions corrupt in some way.

 

Saying that, I know where I'm going with it.

 

You'll need two freeware programs to work with, one you may already have as it came up earlier in the thread...

 

MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 7.0: (Free version)

 

You'll need this for one of my suggestions, but also eventually to get your drive back to a 16gb data drive.

 

DriveImage XML (Freeware, and a very small install)

 

These are actually two very worthwhile tools to have, and they don't take up a great deal of drive space.

 

Now that your Image has restored OK, the data partition will be recognized again by Windows, and consequently by "DriveImage XML", which does things differently to "USB ImageTool".

 

It makes Images in a completely different way, and only makes an Image of the data, and not the entire partition, so it won't take long to do it's thing if it finds anything to back up. If it does, you can use "DriveImage XML" to browse, and then extract any files it finds.

 

The User Interface looks a wee bit untidy, but all the relevant options are in the left pane ...

 

 

... and it will only pick up the data partition of your Cruzer, and not the CDRom.

 

If you're lucky, and get to the "browse and extract" stage, the "save-to location" button is almost out of sight in the dialogue window ...

 

 

Of course just post back and ask if you have any questions about using it.

[Rob52]

Dennis,

 

You are correct, I already have the MiniTool Partion Wizard and I have installed and ran DriveImage XML, here is a screen shot of what came up.

 

 

So that didn't work. I tried both the back up and browse options for my flash drive which shows as drive I, neither option gave positive results.

[DennisD]

OK Rob, fire up "MiniTool Partion Wizard" with your Cruzer plugged in, and run the "Check File System" routine with "Check and fix detected errors" selected.

 

 

This is one of the operations I've hung back on since the thread started, because it can screw up as well as fix a drive problem, and I was completely unsure at that time what kind of a hold, if any, the U3 CDRom had on it's data partition.

 

As all else has drawn a blank, and you do have a re-storable back up, let it do it's stuff, and it's very certain that it's gonna find errors, and with any luck it might just fix them.

 

Make sure you select the partition/volume of the drive. Click and make active the yellow section displayed and it will give you the list of options on the left.

 

If you click outside of that area, you select the device (entire drive), and you get different options. This last bit was just for info.

[Rob52]

I tried the MiniPartion Wizard and did not get the options to run the "Check File System" routine with "Check and fix detected errors". Here is a screen shot of what I had available.

 

 

I decided to look at "Show Partition Properties" and it shows 0% used

 

 

The Partition Info tab also shows 0

 

 

So, no luck with this. I don't think it's looking to good for the info.

[Alan_B]

In the column on the left of your images there are Wizards

 

The third one down is Partition Recovery Wizard.

 

My Laptop crashed, unbootable, and the Minitool Boot Recovery CD showed me that the entire HDD was unallocated.

I launched Partition Recovery Wizard and that resurrected all my partitions and all the data they previously held,

and after a simple FIX MBR by Minitool my Laptop booted up.

[DennisD]

There may be an outside chance that there's a partition to recover, and as Alan points out there is a "Recover Partition" wizard you could try on the left, but the simple fact is that your drive is now back to it's original state after the Image restore, and we have tried searching for lost partitions earlier in the thread ...

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=34355&view=findpost&p=205712

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=34355&view=findpost&p=207315

 

... although you should still give it a try. Computers are weird so you never know.

 

I would love to be proved wrong Rob, but I don't think there's been anything there to recover from the start, which makes sense of every process we've tried coming to nothing.

 

The state of the data partition isn't a lost cause of course as we can still fix that drive to be a data drive only.

[Rob52]

@Alan - Thanks for the advice and I gave the Recovery Wizard a try, unfortunately is was unsuccessful.

 

@Dennis - I'm inclined to agree with you at this point. I think the data is gone and may have been gone since it first caused problems. My vote to move forward to fix the drive as a data drive only. Hopefully that will also make it more stable since U3 won't be installed on it.

[DennisD]

OK Rob, we'll do that, and first we'll fix the data partition section of your drive, which I think will help with removing the U3 installation afterwards. A slight change of plan with the first part.

 

I used MiniTools to delete the partition on my Cruzer which gave me an identical state to yours, all "Unallocated Space". I then created a new partition with MiniTools, which was successful, but for reasons beyond me, it wouldn't use the full partition size.

 

I was left each time with a small section of unallocated space. This space wasn't the CDRom showing up by the way.

 

 

However, using XP's own "Disk Management" tool, I created a healthy primary partition using all the unallocated space.

 

Right click "My Computer" and select "Manage", and in the window which appears, select "Disk Management". In the list of drives you'll see your drive with the "Unallocated Space".

 

Right click in the "Unallocated" window and select "New Partition" ...

 

 

This will activate the "New Partition Wizard", and here are the various steps Confucius style ...

 

 

When you press finish, you'll get this window showing the drive being formatted and the partition being created ...

 

 

Once it reaches 100%, just wait a short while and you will get the final display of a "healthy" fat32 partition ...

 

 

If you want, you can fire up MiniTools, and it should appear as a partition with no leftover "unallocated space" as shown in the first screenshot. The partition may end up with a different drive letter, maybe not, but if it does that's no problem.

 

I've gone into "overkill" with the screenshots Rob, but it may be helpful for folk who may be faced with doing this at some time, and have no idea what to expect when activating a "Wizard" and even less idea of what's gonna come next when they click the buttons.

 

I can't see any reason why your drive shouldn't go through this process without a hitch, so let me know when it's done and we'll sort out the U3 installation.

[Alan_B]

I then created a new partition with MiniTools, which was successful, but for reasons beyond me, it wouldn't use the full partition size.

 

I was left each time with a small section of unallocated space. This space wasn't the CDRom showing up by the way.

I think I can explain that.

Your image shows 8 MB wasted space.

I found that if I tried to create partitions with a "safety gap" between them,

the gap was always an exact multiple of something such as 1 Mb or 8 MB,

depending upon whether I was using Partition Wizard or some other Partition Manager,

or whether I was setting the Required size / position for Macrium to Restore a Partition Image.

 

Perhaps Windows Management saw the start of the disc a few hundred bytes from the Wizard's view,

but the Wizard had to step back 8 MB to the next permitted boundary.

[Rob52]

@Alan - Thanks for the info, I'll try to remember that if I ever use the Partition Wizard to create a new partition.

 

@Dennis - That works, I now have a drive that will open. It shows as being empty of data (which I fully expected) so to test I moved a picture onto the drive. The picture shows up and I can manipulate it on the drive and take it back off the drive.

 

Before I moved the picture to the drive I was curious so, just for grins and giggles I powered up Recuva to see if it found anything, it did not but I'm not disappointed in that.

 

Anyway, my thought to all of this is the drive became corrupted due to U3 being somewhat unstable (I have read different boards where they curse U3 as the incarnate of all things evil) So, how do we go about ripping the U3 software off the drive and setting it to be a straight data storage drive?

[Nergal]

removing u3 has gotten easier it looks http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2550

 

 

also u3 eol http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5358/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzI2MDU2ODA4L3NpZC9nbzVyNkZOaw==

[DennisD]

@Alan

 

Useful info Alan, but I can't see why it needs to do that if Disk Management can create a partition to the correct size. Unless the programs which do this, and MiniTools isn't the only one, know something I don't but it seems untidy to me.

 

@Nergal

 

You think? Read below.

 

-------------------------

 

Rob, if your U3 install is working as it should now that you have a healthy data partition, go into the instructions below to remove it.

 

If it isn't, you'll have to re-install it first, otherwise an attempted removal could leave your disk in a mess, but we know it re-installs OK, even if you have to try more than once.

 

Nergals right about it being easier to remove than it used to be, and you can follow the instructions in his link ...

 

http://kb.sandisk.co...etail/a_id/2550

 

The first 3 screenshots are all you need.

 

Or you can download a dedicated "U3 Removal Tool" which does the same job ...

 

http://u3.sandisk.com/

 

The trouble is if you try either of those methods, absolutely nothing happens. The "Launchpad Remover" will appear in Task Manager, along with 3 or 4 of it's buddies because you'll keep trying it and wondering what's happening, or what's not happening.

 

 

I've found sites like the one Nergal found all over the web (no offence Nergal, I have a U3 drive to work with), and all with the same instructions. And I'm pretty sure most of them are copied from one original source as they miss the all important first stage.

 

You have to disable every other USB device you have connected to your computer before it will work.

 

That includes any USB drives, modems, Web Cams, and Card Readers if you have them installed. If you don't, the U3 Remover gets confused, runs around in circles, and does nothing. And there are no error messages to tell you why. Pathetic.

 

You don't have to uninstall them, they just need to be disabled.

 

As before Rob, right click "My Computer", select "Manage", and this time click on the "Device Manager". Find the relevant USB items you have and disable them as shown in these screenshots.

 

This will show you how to disable a Web Cam and a Card Reader using right click, which is all I had to do ...

 

Web Cam:

 

 

Card Reader: (You can see the various card types)

 

 

When you're done with the U3 removal, just go back and right click each one, and select "Enable". No need to reboot.

 

If I seem to be making a meal of the USB trick, I am.

 

I'm enjoying this because it took me an age to find out why the U3 Remover wasn't doing it's thing. And if I didn't have my own SanDisk U3 drive, I might never have found out.

 

-----------------------------

 

Before you do this Rob, remember that pm? Run that thing using "Raw Recovery". If you don't have it, shame on you.

 

I'll pm you the link.

 

In a 30 second test I recovered 50mb of files. One of them was a zip file containing a portable install of MPlayer, which I deleted an age ago. And after recovery, it still worked.

 

You never know, as your drive has only been formatted, with no files written to it since it went funny on you.

 

Any problems, you know where I am.

Edited January 8, 2012 by DennisD

[Nergal]

lol that's horrid, I'll revoke my suggestions (I used to have working instructions I'll try to find them )

[DennisD]

I kid you not, it drove me up the wall.

 

I even went looking for alternative Removal Tool downloads as I thought it was a duff copy I was using. As I said above, pathetic just about covers that tool and it's hidden shortcoming.

[Rob52]

Dennis,

 

Just a quick note to let you know I have dropped off the face of the earth. Before I rip U3 off the drive I'm playing with a couple of ideas. I'll get back to you after I'm done and explain it all.

[DennisD]

Good luck with whatever it is Rob.

[Rob52]

And I'm back. So, what I did was restore the drive to its original corrupted state to prove to myself that yes I could restore the image file whenever I wanted. Then I went back through this thread and applied each of the tools again with a little more confidence than the first time around. And Dennis, there is no shame on me as I did remember that PM and I it added to my tool kit. A tool kit that I never would have had if not for this problem to begin with so, I figure I'm ahead just for that fact. Anyway, I performed a "Raw Recovery" and was, in fact, able to retrieve one file from the drive. As it happens the file was just a bit of non-important fluff but it did show me how the recovery worked which led me to restoring the .img file and going through all the steps again to make sure I just wasn't playing it too safe the first time through. After all of that, I fixed the partition and then ripped that god awful U3 software off. I now have a usable 16gb data storage drive which is just fine. Yes, I'll have to replace all the information I lost but most of it is all in hard copies anyway so it will just be a matter of typing and scanning it all back in, time consuming but no great loss. There were some pictures on the drive that cannot be replaced but again, lesson learned to use this a back up, not a permanent storage device. All in all I'm happy.

 

And Dennis, I cannot thank you enough for the time and effort you put into this. Without your help and guidance I would have never achieved what I have. If I lived next door to you the beer and barbecue would on me. Thank you again.

 

And a thank you to Alan_B for his input and everyone else that has offered suggestions along the way. I've learned from all of you. Thank you very much.

 

Rob

[DennisD]

Rob, I've enjoyed this thread more than any other I think, and I've learned quite a bit of stuff myself as well as finding new software I didn't know existed.

 

It's a shame you couldn't get your files, but I'm pleased to hear you can redo most of them.

 

The fact that you persevered with this topic will help a lot of people who may find themselves in a similar position.

 

Sadly there's no magic bullet for recovering lost stuff, but being able to make a back up of a flash drive or camera card opens up more options, safe in the knowledge that you can restore the back up and try something else.

 

I hope we see you on here again Rob, but not in the same circumstances of course.

[DennisD]

If you come back to this Rob, I forgot to mention the U3 folder found at ...

 

"C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\U3"

 

It's no big thing, and is only a couple of files the U3 system needed to have on the hard drive for it to function correctly. I thought you would probably like to get rid of it.

 

 

EDIT: Enable "Hidden Files and Folders" to make visible the "Local Settings" folder.

[Rob52]

Dennis,

 

Thanks for that point. Interestingly enough though, the files are not there or anywhere else on my computer. I wonder if that is what caused the initial problem.

[DennisD]

Probably wouldn't cause a problem as their function was simply to run the "Safely Remove U3" routine. It couldn't do that without a bit of code on the hard drive.

 

If it's gone, no worries as there isn't anything else left behind by it that I could find.

 

 

EDIT: A sudden thought comes to me that if those files weren't there, maybe the drive was pulled when it shouldn't be. Windows "Safely Remove" routine may not have been sufficient to prevent some sort of corruption.

 

All academical now of course, but food for thought for any U3 owners out there who still use it as a launcher. Make sure you use it's own inbuilt "Safely Remove" routine.

[Super Fast]

I've found sites like the one Nergal found all over the web (no offence Nergal, I have a U3 drive to work with), and all with the same instructions. And I'm pretty sure most of them are copied from one original source as they miss the all important first stage.

 

You have to disable every other USB device you have connected to your computer before it will work.

 

That includes any USB drives, modems, Web Cams, and Card Readers if you have them installed. If you don't, the U3 Remover gets confused, runs around in circles, and does nothing. And there are no error messages to tell you why. Pathetic.

 

That's weird, Dennis. I used to have a 16 GB flash drive with U3, & I never had to disconnect every drive for it to work.

It just worked. U3 add/remove worked great.

 

Then, I lost the drive while moving to another place... So I still had an unhappy ending, lol!

[DennisD]

@ Superfast

 

No accounting for computers is there?

 

The U3 drives work fine without disabling other USB devices. It's just the uninstaller which won't work as it should. This is with XP SP3.

 

On both mine and my daughters XP the uninstaller didn't work with other USB devices attached, and there are countless examples around with other folk having the same issue.

 

And of course, there are U3 installations by companies other than SanDisk, and they all have their own unique uninstallers.

 

@ Rob

 

Apologies Rob, that U3 folder is found at ...

 

"C:\Documents and Settings\<username?\Application Data\U3"

 

Dunno where the "Local Settings" bit came from. Senior moment I think.

Edited January 26, 2012 by DennisD