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Files lost on Flash Drive

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by troof, 2009/05/16.

  1. 2009/05/16
    troof

    troof Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I am using a Dell Latitude D600,Intel pentium M with a 60GB HD 1GB Ram, service pack 3, running windows xp v2002.

    I have a new 16mb flash drive that I wanted to move some files to in order to free up some space on my computer.

    I downloaded a couple of files first to make sure that everything worked normally. I then downloaded the files I wanted to store. Everything worked as it should and the files were now on the flash drive. When finished I checked the flash drive several times and being satisfied that the files were safely installed on the flash drive I then proceeded to move the original files to the trash.

    The next day I decided to empty the trash and free up the space as was my original intent. Later that day I needed to go to the flash drive and retrieve a file from a folder. The fun has now started. Upon accessing the flash drive all the folders appeared as expected. When I opened a folder it opened with what appeared to be a file list but the titles under 'name' were nothing but symbols and squares and other jiberish.

    When I click on properties of the flash drive it shows 3.61GB of used space. When I click on the properties of the folder containing the moved folders/files it it reads 13GB. At this point when I open a folder the files are now down to two and these are still listed as jibberish and under size they are zero KB.

    Can these files be recovered with any kind of file recovery software or is it terminal?

    Losing these files is not the end of the world but at some point I will wish that I still had them on my computer.

    Hope someone can help.

    Thanks, Troof
     
    troof,
    #1
  2. 2009/05/17
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    You can try the following to see if you can recover the files from both drives:

    Recuva (pronounced "recover ") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
    http://www.recuva.com/
     
    Steve R Jones,
    #2


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  4. 2009/05/17
    troof

    troof Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Steve,
    Thank you for pointing me to Recuva. I was able to retrieve files I wanted to keep. May I never need to use a file recovery program again but it is nice to know that this one exists.

    Thanks again - Troof
     
    troof,
    #3
  5. 2009/05/18
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Now would be a good time to develop a BACKUP routine;)
     
    Steve R Jones,
    #4
  6. 2009/05/18
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    How did you remove the flash drive after you copied files to it?
    Did you use the icon next to the clock to "safely remove hardware?" If not, that's why the files were corrupted.

    I suggest you format the drive fat32 and start fresh with it.
     
    TonyT,
    #5
  7. 2009/05/18
    troof

    troof Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Steve and Tony,

    Steve- I guess I really need to develop a backup rotuine but better then the one I used. This cure was worse then the ailment.

    Tony- I do use the "safely remove hardware" when ever I disconnect external drives,printer,mouse etc. In this case I had no reason to remove the flash drive since I was still using it. Makes me wonder if the flash drive is bad? I will take you suggestion of reformating the drive before using it again. I will proceed with caution though.

    Thanks, Troof
     
    troof,
    #6
  8. 2009/05/18
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    Flash drives are not a good medium for backups... They frequently fail. We're not talking about the high quality flash memory used in SSD drives here, but the cheapest stuff they can get away with (most of the time).

    Now if you're using high(er) quality drives from Corsair, SanDisk etc it would be different, but a lot of people are just using the generic drives they get as 'freebies'.
     
    Arie,
    #7
  9. 2009/05/18
    troof

    troof Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Thanks, good to know. I just figured for a relatively small amount of files it would be just fine. I guess "live and learn" would not be a good phrase in this instance. -Troof
     
    troof,
    #8

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