Memory Card Help Needed

[adamf154]

I have a memory stick that when i try to open it, it is saying "THE DISK IS NOT FORMATTED DO YOU WANT TO FORMAT IT NOW", there is stuff on here that i need to keep, has anyone had a problem like this or does anyone know of a way or a program that i can get my files back.

Thanks in advance for any help

[zoobie]

you obviously don't want to erase/format the stick...
you may have to delve into the shady world of file recovery
some apps are free, though...try those first
worst case scene is taking them to a pro recovery service

[adamf154]

no i dont want to erase the stick but i seen somewhere saying that i could format the drive then use data recovery but that will be the last option, i downloaded ddr pen recovery but that was useless

[DB83]

You should NOT format the disk.

Try this software at:

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

Free version is limited but you can run it multiple times on different folders.

I had a 300 gig HDD 'vanish' on me and this got 99.99% of its contents back. But do not even try to save the recovered contents on the same drive - chances are that is fooked.

[adamf154]

Thanks for that but its not working saying can't continue, unsupported file system type

[DB83]

Thanks for that but its not working saying can't continue, unsupported file system type

How was the drive originally formatted ?

[adamf154]

I have no idea im looking at it for a friend, it was working then it wasn't, there is no actual partition on it and when you click on properties of the disk it says file system raw and disk management has the size as 10 mb when the stick is actually 8gb

[DB83]

Ok. I realise this is a stupid question but you have not tried to install the program on this dirive. You install it on your PC and access the drive from that.

Your scenario is exactly the one I had. One moment the drive was there. I ran (tried to run) disk checking utilities as I felt the drive was failing. Then it did - showed up as RAW/unformatted. The drive was NTFS formatted but the software supports FAT drives as well and some others.

[adamf154]

I have no idea what you are talking about "Ok. I realise this is a stupid question but you have not tried to install the program on this dirive. You install it on your PC and access the drive from that. What Program on what drive??

[DB83]

I have no idea what you are talking about "Ok. I realise this is a stupid question but you have not tried to install the program on this dirive. You install it on your PC and access the drive from that. What Program on what drive??

The program "Zero Assumption Recovery" - link provided earlier. The program you said did not work !!!!!!

[adamf154]

The program worked but when i scanned the stick drive thats when it said "can't continue, unsupported file system type"

[DB83]

The only other s/w I tried when I had this problem was from:

http://www.easeus.com/

But I found ZAR much better. If it does not work for you then I can go no further with this thread.

[adamf154]

thanks anyway that didn't find anything either its actually my friends so she is going to take it to a repair shop tomorrow and see if they have more luck

[johns0]

Try the memory stick on another computer,i have a sd card that opens with no problems on my pc but when i try it on my moms it asks to reformat.

[byteguy]

What MEMORY SIZE is the card?

I'll bet you it's an "HC" card and you're trying to read it in a reader that doesn't support HC.

New readers are dirt cheap (I got a usb one for about $5 on eBay).

Even many relatively new computers don't have HC readers. My desktop at home didn't support that standard.

[adamf154]

Well its been checked on my friends pc as thats where she discovered it not working so i told her to bring it here so i can check on my pcs as i have 2 and there both the same, the memory is 8gb but there is no partition and it says the memory is about 7 - 10 mb, it was working until the other day then it just kept asking for a format

[DB83]

I wonder if someone has tried to 'format' this disk when asked to. An unformatted disk should not even have any bytes set . The format could well have screwed up the chance of recovering anything.