Can I recover files from a flash drive without formatting?

Sep 26, 2018
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I know just enough about computers to be dangerous, or in this case, to be stupid. And I did something really stupid.

Scandisk flash drive. It was empty, but had a file on it that I didn't put on it, which used quite a bit of storage. I put a photo on the drive, and then removed that pre-existing file to see what would happen to the photo. I removed the flash drive and then put it back into the computer and opened the drive. My photo was still there and everything was good. So I moved ALL my photos off my hard drive onto this flash drive. That was several weeks ago.

Today, put the flash drive into my computer, clicked on the drive and it said the drive wasn't formatted. So the file I removed was apparently the formatting. I assume all my photo are still on the drive, but without formatting, I can't get to them. If I format the flash drive, it will erase everything on the drive.

I read on the sticky post that download Recuva will recover files. Will that work on mine where the original formatting was removed? Is there something better? Or have I lost all these photos forever?
 
I agree. If you successfully put your photos on that flash drive, then it was formatted. Something must have corrupted that flash drive. You can not have important data stored in just one place.

A very important lesson to learn.
 
Sep 26, 2018
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I'm afraid you are right. Normally, I make two copies of everything, but I didn't this time.

And maybe I didn't delete the formatting. After posting this, I tried to see what was on the flash drive by viewing details instead of icons, and I could see my photo folders. I quickly cut and pasted them back onto my computer. When I was finished, the SanDisk Secure Access folder was back on the flash drive again. I'm positive I deleted that folder last month.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Never cut and paste
Always copy and paste
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Cut and paste...if something goes wrong, you may not know it until it is too late. ANd the original may be gone.
Copy n paste, verify the target is good, then YOU delete the original.
 
Sep 26, 2018
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Makes sense. I was afraid for a minute you were going to say I transferred something bad to my hard drive.
 

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