Right, my pen drive had an issue today.

Long story short, I can't view anything on it, and every time I try to view it it tells me I need to format it.


I've tried a couple of programs (Recuva and FreeUnDelete) to no avail.

I greatly request help. I really want to get the data off it.

Have you tried it in a different computer or usb slots?

Umm get data from a backup of the drive? I mean they aren't that reliable.

Pen drives die.

There are no backups. >.<

I did start making them after having problems with another one, but typically I stopped after it didn't break.


I have tried it in different PC's, different ports, with the same result.

Thats basically it.



May I ask what it eas that you trusted so much on your pen drive, knowing well how often they die.

If you have a Linux Live CD or another USB memory stick with Linux Live on there, you might be able to boot off one and read the 'faulty' memory stick. Alternatively, if the drive is picked up and assigned a letter in Windows, you can try the RECOVER command with the following syntax:



So if it were given the letter F: try this:



And see what happens!

It gives it a drive letter, but it wants to format it. Is this Recover thing safe? I don't want to accidentally format it. >.<

It will warn you if it wants to format the drive. You can opt out of it.

I have tried the RECOVER command before on a faulty hard disk drive and it worked wonders. The drive was registered as having 0 bytes capacity when it was faulty. RECOVER fixed it up good and proper, and only took a few seconds.

RECOVER on an entire volume is no longer supported.

To get equivalent functionality use CHKDSK.

EDIT:

CHKDSK says the file system is RAW.

And that CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

use CHKDSK then

RAW eh? so it thinks it actually is an "unformatted drive", well has no file system

Looks like it Si.

I am about to try this.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm