OT: Help! USB Flash Drive

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January 15th, 2010 at 7:11 PM
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Zonereadstretch
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Joined: 11/21/2008
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OT: Help! USB Flash Drive

This past week my little 4 GB Sandisk USB flash drive died on me, and unfortunately I didn’t have the information backed up onto another drive. I tried the drive on multiple computers with no luck. With that being said I took the drive to a local computer shop and they ran a program called “get data back,” but to no avail. They also took the flash drive apart to see if the internal prongs needed re-soldered, but everything was in tact based on their examination. My question is… Are all data restoration programs the same? Is there anything else I can try? When visiting a Sandisk blog this was a common program that was recommended

http://www.lc-tech.com/software/frprodetail.html.

I also contacted the Geek Squad @ Best Buy for what it’s worth and they basically said they just farm it out and there were no guarantees. As you can see I’m a novice when it comes to trouble-shooting; so any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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January 15th, 2010 at 7:44 PM | I feel your pain (Score:1)
Florida Blue
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Joined: 07/28/2009
MGoPoints: 528

My hard drive crashed on me last week and I lost my backup CD's with everything that was on it when I recently moved. I guess I threw them out on accident or something while packing. Anyway I did the same thing with the geek squad and they basically told me that getting the data back can be far more expensive than it is worth. It really depends on the severity of the issue with the hardware but they couldn't even give me a guestimate.

Anyone have any other ideas or any idea what it might roghly cost to get my data as well?

"Obviously you're not a golfer."

January 15th, 2010 at 8:16 PM | I realize I'm starting to sound like a GetDataBack salesman (Score:1)
Blue_Bull_Run
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Joined: 11/25/2008
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But I can't recommend that program enough. It worked like a charm for me, recovering about ten years worth of family photos as well as pretty important financial documents.

January 15th, 2010 at 8:10 PM | I just contacted the website (Score:1)
Zonereadstretch
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Joined: 11/21/2008
MGoPoints: 109

I just contacted the website I linked above as it appears they specialize in the Sandisk product. I talked with Eric Beaudoin 1 of three sales reps, and he stated as well as their website that if the data can't be recovered it's free. Since my drive is 4GB the flat rate cost is $125. Not exactly how I want to spend my money, but well worth it if they can recover everything. I'd assume the same policies apply for hard drives etc. He said they recover in upwards of 90% of the data, long story short he's a sales guy, but he did have some impressive technical knowledge, and he made me feel a bit more warm and fuzzy inside as opposed to the Geek Squad.

January 15th, 2010 at 8:15 PM | I would try to run GDB myself before I spent that money (Score:1)
Blue_Bull_Run
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Joined: 11/25/2008
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You can download it here:

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

I'm not sure if you need NTSF or FAT - surely someone on this board can tell you that.

The program will let you preview anything that it can recover, and you then pay to actually complete the recovery. If this program can't do it, then I suspect the data may be permanently lost.

In any event, you should be able to find out within an hour or two.

January 15th, 2010 at 8:55 PM | FAT (Score:1)
ZooWolverine
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Joined: 02/27/2009
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USB drives are pretty much guaranteed to be formatted as FAT32 so you'll want the FAT version of the program.

January 15th, 2010 at 8:12 PM | I recently went through the same drill (Score:1)
Blue_Bull_Run
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Joined: 11/25/2008
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Except that for me, it was a crashed hard drive, not USB drive.

GetDataBack is considered to be the best program, though I am not sure if there are different ones that might work better in different circumstances.

This is their website, its pretty useful: http://www.runtime.org/

As far as the USB stick, the only thing I can suggest is downloading GetDataBack and trying to run it yourself to see if they missed anything. The program is free to try, but if you want to keep the results you must pay about $80 - although I think you can save the files individually for free (that probably wasn't their intention to allow that)

best of luck to both of you!

January 15th, 2010 at 8:13 PM | Try using Knoppix (Score:1)
WestWolverine
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Joined: 11/03/2008
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http://www.knoppix.net/

It's easy to use. Mount the drives and copy the data to another disk. Knoppix has recovered data for me on roughly 40 computers (I'm a Systems Engineer) as long as the disk isn't physically damaged. If Knoppix can't do it you may need to shell out some dough, typically around $2,000 for a good job. God speed my friend, I've been down your road before many times.

I once had to comfort Cap'n Crunch after he had been sailing for 7 years only to come home to his wife in bed with Count Chocula.

January 15th, 2010 at 8:45 PM | the geek squad... (Score:1)
GOBLUE4EVR
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just wants your money... last year the pin in the port where ac adapter plugs in on my laptop broke off into the computer... my wife and i were at bust buy later that night and asked the geek squad what it would cost to get it fixed... they told us that the mother board would need to be replaced and would be around $500... we went to the "mom and pop" computer fix it shop around the corner from our apartment and the guy said it would be $100 and that the mother board didn't need to be replaced to fix the problem...

@GOBLUE4EVR

January 15th, 2010 at 9:44 PM | LOL Geek Squad (Score:1)
I Bleed Maize N Blue
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Leaked Memo: Geek Squad Killing Its Scammy "Optimization" Services
http://gizmodo.com/5443082/leaked-memo-geek-squad-killing-its-scammy-opt...

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January 15th, 2010 at 9:15 PM | I don't have anything useful to add, unfortunately (Score:1)
Don
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Joined: 06/30/2008
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but the fact that this thread exists illustrates why the internet tubes are irreplaceably awesome. Good luck.


January 15th, 2010 at 10:07 PM | sounds like a hard failure (Score:1)
SysMark
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Joined: 11/15/2008
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If it is a true hardware failure there may be nothing you can do. These recovery programs are dependent on the drive at least getting power and having some physical functionality. If it were truly critical data your only option may be to find out what tiny component in there has failed and try to replace it...not a happy proposition but possible.

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