Usb Stick Gone Haywire

[X-Cannon]

Very strange, I plugged in a USB stick to install some software today and the software ran and installed without any problems. To my surprise a few minutes later

the USB stick looked empty (nothing was inside, no files, folders) But when I go to its properties it still sees the used space and how much I have left (the old

amount). Maybe theres a chance my files are still there? What should I do?

[lefty1953]

Very strange, I plugged in a USB stick to install some software today and the software ran and installed without any problems. To my surprise a few minutes later

the USB stick looked empty (nothing was inside, no files, folders) But when I go to its properties it still sees the used space and how much I have left (the old

amount). Maybe theres a chance my files are still there? What should I do?

Have you tried to reboot your PC? Can you try that device on another PC? I have a Jump drive and when I first got it, I backed up all the files on it to my hard drive. Good thing I did since it has lost those files 2 times and I just copied them back and it worked again. You might be able to download the files needed by yours off the INTERNET.

Edited March 18, 2008 by lefty1953

[X-Cannon]

I like the INTERNET part, yes I have tried other PC's approx 3 others to be exact. Would you guys reccommend a file recovery program? or maybe get a new USB stick?

...I've had this 4 GB on for about 1 1/2 years and I don't think the nand chip has gone bad. I've only filled it up max maybe twice so there should still be a lot of life on it right?

[MetallicRed914]

I think you can just quick format the flash drive. I've had that happen before, and I just did a quick format and it essentially "reset" the flash drive.

[shanenin]

I like the INTERNET part, yes I have tried other PC's approx 3 others to be exact. Would you guys reccommend a file recovery program? or maybe get a new USB stick?

...I've had this 4 GB on for about 1 1/2 years and I don't think the nand chip has gone bad. I've only filled it up max maybe twice so there should still be a lot of life on it right?

I use RecoverMyFiles on a regular basis. It works great. Just a couple of days ago I forgot to back up 200 pictures on a client machine I was working on. After a full format and reload, I was able to recover all of the files(man I got lucky). Recovermyfiles allows you to try the program, if it is able to get the data, you can then pay the money which allows you to save the data. I have never tried it, but a fellow tech friend has used it on sd cards. You have nothing to lose by trying the program. You only have to pay if it gets the data back.

[X-Cannon]

recover my files didn't work it only lists the current files I ahve on the USB stick...But in explorers properties it still shows I have used up 3.2 GBs when in fact I only have 5 MBs worth of files on the stick.

What is there to do? What options do I have?

[shanenin]

make sure you use the option "complete format recovery"(you probably did), not just the fast search.

[Pete_C]

recover my files didn't work it only lists the current files I ahve on the USB stick...But in explorers properties it still shows I have used up 3.2 GBs when in fact I only have 5 MBs worth of files on the stick.

What is there to do? What options do I have?

Sounds like the issue where you save to many files to a USB drive root.

It has to do with the FAT addressing used, and just like with a floppy you can actually fill the table of contents long before you fill the drive and the result is a drive which acts corrupted and shows invalid results as to how much space is there and what files.

One solution is to copy from the drive to a folder on your hard drive, re organize things and then format the drive and move stuff back.