Radified Community Forums - Lost data on USB Drive

spuddo

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	Lost data on USB Drive Jul 15^th, 2008 at 12:10pm I have a friend with an 80Gb USB drive that has been used to store photos. When the drive is plugged we get a message requesting that the USB drive be formatted before it can be used. Is there some way that I can retrieve the data from this drive please?
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Brian

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #1 - Jul 15^th, 2008 at 4:36pm spuddo, Does that USB HD work with other computers?
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spuddo

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #2 - Jul 15^th, 2008 at 10:50pm Brian, I have tried it on two diffferent computers and get the same result?
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Brian

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #3 - Jul 16^th, 2008 at 12:24am That doesn't sound good. How does it appear in Disk Management?
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spuddo

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #4 - Jul 16^th, 2008 at 12:51am Brian, Thanks for responding. I am overseas at present and don't have access to it to check. I rather naively thought there would be a simple tool that would let me recover this and I would just use it on my return home. Let me check when I return from overseas. I will then post again. Thanks.
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Brian

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #5 - Jul 16^th, 2008 at 1:07am I'm interested in knowing if the USB HD partition has a drive letter. If so, from a command prompt change to that drive letter and run chkdsk /r
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spuddo

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #6 - Jul 16^th, 2008 at 3:30am Thanks Brian, Will do as soon as I am back in Australia.
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spuddo

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Re: Lost data on USB Drive
Reply #7 - Sep 6^th, 2008 at 2:18am

Brian,

Now back in Australia and having another look at this USB drive. Very strange. When I plug it in it all sounds fine. The system assigns it a drive letter and I can see it in device manager where it is reported as working propely. It shows as a Seagate FreeAgent Go USB Device. In Disk Managemt it reports as 111.79GB and Healthy and is a Primary partition. When I check its properties it reports as 0 bytes used space and 0 bytes free space. When I try to explore it reports as unformatted and asks if I wish to format now. When I try to error check and repair it from the tools tab, the window just shuts and nothing happens. PQ Magic reports it as 114.79GB and unformatted.

I am wondering if it may be encryted? Any ides?

regards

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spuddo

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Re: Lost data on USB Drive
Reply #8 - Sep 6^th, 2008 at 2:30am

Brian,

Just a little more info. I tried to examine it from a command prompt.

When I go to the drive it reports that "The volume does not contain a recognised file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaed and the volume is not corrupted."

I then ran chkdsk /r. The response

"The type of file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive."

"Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)"

I will keep trying.

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spuddo

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #9 - Sep 6^th, 2008 at 2:46am Brian, Please ingnore Reply #8. I was checking the C: drive. Its late. I need to go to bed. My info in Reply #7 is correct. regards
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Pleonasm

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Re: Lost data on USB Drive
Reply #10 - Sep 6^th, 2008 at 11:08am

Spuddo, I have used WinHex to successfully recover files. The utility is extremely flexible and powerful; however, it does have a 'learning curve' and requires some investment of time for study, especially if you're not moderately familiar with the details of file systems.

I believe there is a 30-day trial for WinHex, if you wish to test it.

ple • o • nasm n. “The use of more words than are required to express an idea”

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Brian

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #11 - Sep 6^th, 2008 at 10:12pm spuddo, Do you know if the HD used to be NTFS or FAT32? When it contained the photos? What does pqedit32.exe say about the HD? Could you post a screen shot? ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip
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spuddo

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Re: Lost data on USB Drive
Reply #12 - Sep 7^th, 2008 at 5:24pm

Hi Brian,

Thanks for taking an interest in my problem.

I don't know if it was FAT32 or NTFS and the owner would have no idea. It was connected to a Windows PC running XP?

PQ Edit does not show any USB drives when I connect them, only the two hard drives. I have tried another USB drive. Is there something I should do to get it to recognise USB drives?

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Brian

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	Re: Lost data on USB Drive Reply #13 - Sep 7^th, 2008 at 6:38pm spuddo, I'm running out of ideas. This web page is concerning. (Bottom of page) http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_20762156.html
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El_Pescador

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Re: Lost data on USB Drive
Reply #14 - Sep 7^th, 2008 at 11:30pm

I had a 250GB Seagate FreeAgent USB external HDD go sour on me. After painstaking research, the problem turned out to be my habit of providing power and USB connectivity to it 24/7/365. I disconnected it totally from everything so as to let it "chill-out" for a bit and now it is its old self - no sweat !!!

El Pescador

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