Any way to recover lost files on USB drive?

elvisruns

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Feb 16, 2011
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I haven't found an answer or method that completely answers my question so I thought I would post.
In my eagerness to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and wanting to do a clean install, I did not catch the caveat that the USB drive to do this should be void of any data (I know, dumd, dumb, dumb). Anyhow, the USB that I used had files (all sorts of file types) that I do need and am hoping to recover. I'm not sure if during the Windows process those old files of mine were deleted, overwritten, or if the drive itself was re-formatted, or whether any of that matters.
I did try downloading two programs last night to try and recover files (UndeletePlus and Recuva) and both seem to find a lot of what I know I had on it.

Since I'm familiar with Piriform from some of their other products I decided to use Recuva to recover and relocate the files it did find. When I started looking at the recovered files, I was initially able to see a couple of jpg's but now every one I look at says "We can't open this file" in whatever Windows is calling their image viewing program now. I've also tried to open some svg files and I get an error message from the program used to open it (Inkscape) that says failed to load requested file, but Inkscape itself does start.

Is this a case of just not being able to recover enough data from the USB that it can locate the file names but not enough of the information to build complete files again or is there another method I might want to try to get these files recovered? Also, I notice there are a lot of programs that offer a possible next level of recovery for some amount of money and has anyone had any better result with any of those?
 
Solution


Exactly. The filename may exist, but the actual file (or parts of it) may well be overwritten and unusable.

You've tried a very good tool. Possibly try TestDisk, but I wouldn't hold out much hope.
If that does not work, anything else will cost money. How much is it worth to you?

1. Never have a single copy of any critical files.
2. Never ever have a single copy of a critical file on a USB stick. Ever.


Exactly. The filename may exist, but the actual file (or parts of it) may well be overwritten and unusable.

You've tried a very good tool. Possibly try TestDisk, but I wouldn't hold out much hope.
If that does not work, anything else will cost money. How much is it worth to you?

1. Never have a single copy of any critical files.
2. Never ever have a single copy of a critical file on a USB stick. Ever.
 
Solution
Thanks - will try TestDisk.
It's mostly time that's lost...will have to rebuild and/or redesign some thing...although there were a few more important files. I need to do a better job of archiving, at least on a semi-regular basis. DOH!