Recovering stuff from my formatted USB Drive

[SIRCOOKS]

Whilst installing a new OS, in the bios when you must select a drive to install windows on, i missed, and formatted my usb drive with all my pictures, resume and everything else on it. Is there some way i can get these priceless things back? It was a Sandisck cruzer micro 4gb flash drive. any help will do.

[Snakebyte1]

I take it now is not a good time to mention that you always need to keep an backup of your important data, preferably an off-line archive.

Remember, there are two types of computer users:
* Those that have lost data
* Those that will lose data

There are some utilities out there. If you Google "USB Flash Drive Recovery" you'll see some.

How good they are and how successfully you will be is another thing. "Individual results may vary"

Good Luck

[SIRCOOKS]

thanks man

[classfour]

recuva.

PC Inspector - completely free.

File Recovery - recovers deleted files on hard drive
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1

smart recovery - recovers files deleted on memory devices
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/smart_recovery/info.htm?language=1

I had to download them to verify it, but I used smart recovery to restore photos from a formated SD card (that had more photos taken after the format) for a co-worker. The program found about 30 photos that had been lost in the format.

I tested it on a PNY USB drive that has been formated, and found 80 files: A few (about 5 or 6) were damaged, but the remainder previewed in windows.

[Relayerman]

I use BadCopy Pro. I actually bought it cuz the wife likes to edit Word documents on 3 1/2" floppy disks and they get so corrupted. Works like a charm. Try this:

http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/flash_drive_recovery.asp

It may help. Never tried recovering data from a USB drive, but it says it does.

Relayerman

[SIRCOOKS]

O.K. Guys heres an up date....i got the stuff back, however a lot of the stuff especially the photos, its like the properties aren't there. When ever i put it on thumbnail view, i don't get anything from a lot of them, and there was over 1000 pics on that drive......is there any type of software that can fix this? I got the pics they just arent showing me anything...holla back when you can guys

[Biodroid]

Getdataback the best for me.
use it to recover ntfs and fat
penddrive, memory cards etc.

[SIRCOOKS]

Getdata back is what i first used, thats the program i go to recover these files now.....i just dont know how to get their properties back?????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????

[Tom Saurus]

I don't know if this useful information or not, but a freeware program called "Irfanview" has a plug-in that is called IPTC Info. If your photos are in the jpeg format, it allows you to embedd comments and additional informtion into the picture. If you do a google search for Irfanview you should be able to find the Irfanview website. I don't know if would be of use to you or not, but I thought I would mention just incase it would be. Be careful when installing it, because if you don't uncheck a couple of boxes during the installation you could end up with a Yahoo or Google Toolbar and you might not want that additional program. I am fairly certain IPTC comes as a plug-in for Irfanview.

[SIRCOOKS]

Ill try it even though i dont think its what i want......thanks anyway

[lordsmurf]

Do the images load in Photoshop?

[AlanHK]

O.K. Guys heres an up date....i got the stuff back, however a lot of the stuff especially the photos, its like the properties aren't there. When ever i put it on thumbnail view, i don't get anything from a lot of them, and there was over 1000 pics on that drive......is there any type of software that can fix this? I got the pics they just arent showing me anything...holla back when you can guys

I guess this is a Windows problem, not a problem with the files themselves. Look at the view options for the folder, there should be a way to regenerate the thumbnails (I turned all that off long ago on my PC as it just slows things down). There was probably a hidden file that cached the thumbnails that has to be rebuilt.

[Biodroid]

IF YOU HAVE LOST PHOTOS AND HAS NO PROPERTIES WHEN YOU RESCUE THEM , THE PHOTO IS SCREWED OR IMCOMPLETED

[SIRCOOKS]

BIODROID - how do u know this, all the files are completed, its just that when they were recovered i cannot seethe actual pic anymore???

[jollyjohn]

Try deferent programs. Some recover pictures better and other recover text better, but try many programs. I use FileScavenger and O&O DiskRecovery.

[SIRCOOKS]

Thanks....will do...

[Xylob the Destroyer]

filescavenger

[Nitro89]

I don't understand that when you delete anything, it doesn't actually delete, where does the data go or where can it go, the PC doesn't have unlimited disk space now does it?

[oldandinthe way]

I don't understand that when you delete anything, it doesn't actually delete, where does the data go or where can it go, the PC doesn't have unlimited disk space now does it?

The deleted data persists until it is overwritten by new data. So that if you haven't written new data in the same place on the disk it is still there and can be recovered.

[Des]

At the shop I use PhotoRescue to recover customer's deleted image and video files from cards. Works on most formatted cards too.

You can get it from here: http://www.datarescue.com/
I give it a 90% success rate and we use it often.

Also, Irfanview works great at trying to open incomplete files. Sometiimes even if the file is corrupt you can still crop the image to keep the important parts.

--dES

[edsmith77]

As you know just formatting the drive does not necessarily destroy the information. However, writing new data to the same sector DOES. The amount you can recover is dependent on the data written to that same sector. If the original file took up 3 sectors and the new data only needed 1 sector then you can get two sectors of returned data. If this is a text file then you will have to fill in the missing data. If it is a jpeg file, then as you can guess the main elements of the picture that are restorable depends on the sectors recovered. In some cases you can get some of the detail and in some cases nothing.
I personally use GetDataBack. It is not the fastest thing on the earth but it is fairly comprehensive on recovery. The main thesis here is to NOT overwrite the formatted area for the best recovery results. My experience shows that anything in sub folders is pretty much a goner when the folder was deleted.

Good Luck,

Ed

[edsmith77]

Nitro89,
When data is deleted, all that is really removed is the a pointer to the sector containing that data. The data is left intact. Thus, by scanning the sectors, a new pointer for potential files can be rebuilt. When you do a directory search all that is happening is returning the pointers to the files in the allocation tables, not the files themselves. Thus, when the file is deleted, it pointer is usually set to NULL. Thus, when a directory scan is done, that file not having a valid pointer is skipped.
However, if the original sector stream for the file was changed by the addition of a new file by either complete or partial overwrite, then the recovery program has some options.
For a complete overwrite, you will get the new file and the old is history. For a partial overwrite, you often will get two files. One is the new one and one is the old version (with some missing portions). There are other variances possible depending on where in the sector stream the overwrite happened. The bottom line is that you will have to make the decision on what to call a recovered file. In some cases, the file can be completely recovered with you filling in the missing blanks. In some cases, no amount of fiddeling can replace the lost data.

As Snakebyte1 said, there are only two types of computer users


Ed

[noki]

out of curiosity when you look at the right pane of your file manager of the recovered files do they have jpg extensions and/or a filesize for each recovered file? if not what are is one of the filenames (the FULL name with any extension if it applies).

[Nitro89]

what does 'shred recycling bin' do?

[guns1inger]

Nitro : open a new thread for your questions - they aren't relevant to the problems of the OP.

sircooks : Are you saying you cannot open the files at all ? Or just the Exif data is missing ?

[harrisonford]

Try File Scav 2.1, you might find better results but use "exhaustive search" first.

You might find this setting for to your liking,
Last, I have seen special programs for recovery of USB drive,

I did a search and got this http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/index.htm
there are tons, from what I have read when I tried to recover data from USB devices, about a year ago.

Found difference between HHD and USB drives, read a little, you might find your answer, sorry I forget the details.