File Recovery

[donski1]

A user has passed me a USB pen, it has vital / essential files on it.

However the thing is corrupted!

It shows as either unreadable, or unformatted, depending on what PC I try to access it on.

Any suggestions as to how I might progress ~ ie software solutions, kicks, and acts of God.

Ta D1

[elvisuk]

H! donski1,

What kind of files are they, Doc, open office, zip files?

[donski1]

I'm expecting them to be *.doc

[jackhackett]

Give PC INSPECTOR™ smart recovery a try

[elvisuk]

H! yes it's the same as i use and it work. ;D

PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x is a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems. The current version 4.x replaces the previous version 3.x, which is now over 6 years old.

Here are some of the new features in PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x

» Finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged

» Recovers files with the original time and date stamp

» Supports the saving of recovered files on network drives

» Recovers files, even when a header entry is no longer available. Competition products cannot recover such files. The "Special Recovery Function" supports the following disk formats:

ARJ AVI BMP CDR DOC DXF DBF XLS

EXE GIF HLP HTML HTM JPG LZH MID

MOV MP3 PDF PNG RTF TAR TIF WAV

ZIP

PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x is so-called FREEWARE. This means that the software does not cost you a single penny.

All you have to do is go to our download area to download the latest version of PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x.

PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x cannot help if you have mechanical problems with the disk drive. If the hard disk is no longer recognised by the BIOS or is making unusual noises, you should contact the specialists, "CONVAR - The Recovery Team". They will certainly be able to help

[elvisuk]

This s the best bit ;D


"PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x is so-called FREEWARE. This means that the software does not cost you a single penny."

[donski1]

and i'm currently running it!

[jojo]

Tell us how you got on.

I've lost a number of important files over the years. Never had a lot of luck with any file recovery programs.

But I will download PCInspector.

[donski1]

Not working for me at all.

"Error No 1110, drv129 lba3840 blocks 1" is the likes of what it keeps telling me :-(

[jackhackett]

Does the original data still exist on the PC itself??


There is a saying in the business: Data you don't have at least two copies of is data you don't care about.

The point at which data is placed onto a flash drives and then lost control of or disposed of the original storage place is the point at which you no longer have two copies of the data.

A single copy is never safe regardless of the quality media.

[donski1]

Jack

You're talking the common sense of the common man, so to say.

We're dealing with a person ~ six figure salary and so highly skilled in ALL things IT that some base essentials don't apply. Like a backup.

You and I know that if you make a backup every Friday then the most you can ever lose is the most recent week's work. Spend a while remembering what you've done and there's a good chance your email outbox will contain attachments, being what you thought you'd lost.

But lets go through that six-figure barrier.
If we keep the only copy (secure?) on a USB pen in the handbag, under the purse. Keep a close grip on the bag, keeping it shut so the purse can't get nicked? The pen is WELLsecure. And data can't be shaken out of a pen?

We can always find the pen in the bag. It gets stuck to the little ornamental fridge-magnet that the granddaughter made at school?

We're not talking common sense ~ we're talking high salary common sense. And that's where it goeth awry.

D1

[jackhackett]

Oh, one of those types of person eh..??! LOL

Tell me... do you have any hair left??? You need the patience of a Saint when dealing with folks like that

'ID ten T' errors and 'PEBKAC' come to mind

OH what fun you must have helping this person, sounds to me your the one that needs the 6 figure salary

Back to the flash drive: sounds well and truly corrupted to me.
so the original data on a PC no longer exists?? as the Chuckle brothers would say
"Oh Dear, Oh Dear Oh Dear, Oh Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear"

[donski1]

Finally giving up, I've spent too much time at it.

I can see some files and folders on the stick, but can't do anything with them.

Important work ~ Important loss. Its a balance of sorts.

D1

[mikkh]

This one works - at a price of course (*cough* or a bit of research on the naughtier side of the internet)

www.diskinternals.com/download/NTFS_Recovery.exe

is the trial version and if sees the files, it will recover them (after you've inserted a valid serial number)

It's $99 to buy, but if it's important enough data he'll/she'll pay it

It's also a lot quicker scanning than most others

I recently recovered some DOC and XLS files with it from a 40 GB HD in less than 20 minutes

[donski1]

That's actually a good bit of kit that you suggest / recommend, Mikkh. We (the employer) own a couple of licences ~ fortunately, cos if I'd used ANY software from the other side of the tracks I'd lose my job. It offered some files, but only less than 5Kb, and then couldn't read them.

We, as IT Support, have learned a bit from this episode; mainly that our forensic software system is greared to INTERNAL drives. It failed to even SEE the USB stick.

I spent something like a day-and-a-half trying to make good a bad job.

The User needs to learn that ~ no matter how high the salary ~ clicking fingers doesn't ensure rabbits are in the hat.

End of rant!

D1