HELLLP!!! Flash Drive crapped out...

[Royal-T-Ltd]

...hello - i am a graphic designer and unfortunately had some [a lot] of files on my flash drive that i take everywhere.... there are quite a few recent files that i didn't back up to my computer and now the computer gods are laughing and pointing at me.... i have tried every software application on the web to try and salvage the files and now am at my wits end.... All the companies that have seen want a minimum of $200 and there is no guarantee of the qty of info recovered.... anybody have any suggestions or tips.... i have not reformatted the drive because i want to try and save the info, and if it matters this f'n flash drive was a $135 Lacie XtremKey.... i am soooo fuct. i had soooo many hours and hours of work on it.

 

[SIXBANGR]

this help?
Easy Flash Drive Data Recovery with PhotoRec - kentbrewster.com

 

[granatl]

By no means is this easy. What I recommend is downloading (say) Linux Mint onto a CD. Boot a computer from the CD. Plug in the flash drive, and then copy the contents to a file using the "dd" command. Then do all your recovery against the file instead of the drive. There are Linux tools to do file recovery, most being free. But, before I get into some long-winded how-to, please let me know if your skillset is comfortable with pretty in-depth directions.

 

[TexasT]

If you have the time, I would love to participate. In dept or just some things to try. Learning new things never hurt anyone.

 

[granatl]

http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?content=TRINITY_RESCUE_KIT_DOWNLOAD&front_id=12&lang=en&locale=en

Burn the iso to a CD, and then boot from it. This should be much easier to use than me trying to describe directions.

 

[David65]

Wonder how it comes apart...

Had a coworker friend a while back that had one of a much cheaper (HP) variety that quit working too. Took it apart and discovered one whole side of the TSOP memory device was unsoldered. It was item four in the picture on the right, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive#Essential_components We resoldered all the pins, the thing worked fine. Didn't loose any data.
Then, a couple years ago, the cheap Sandisk I use in the truck for tunes quit working. Stereo just wouldn't recognize it. Plugged it into my Windows XP computer and I could see some of the files but couldn't copy them off the drive. Eventually, after inserting and ejecting the drive several times, it started working. Was talking to a different engineer friend later about it, he said yeah, the controller chip must've been having a hard time with some sections of the memory device. Evidently they can go bad after a while. More reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAND_flash#Memory_wear
Moral of the story? Don't keep the only copy of something on a flash drive...

 

[Royal-T-Ltd]

yeah i think the firmware for the controller is corrupted i am trying different things now.... than i will try the Linux method...... oh i have learned my lesson on flash drives... i will at least do a bi-weekly, if not daily backup onto my computer....which already does a backup through OSX.7 and than another backup through time machine......i just took things for granted i guess.... sux


aaron

ps. thanks to all who are posting, i will let you know how things go, and by all means, keep the ideas flowing

 

[davelostmissing]

If eyerything else fails moving the memory onto a new identical usb drive might work for a very narrow set of failure modes.

 

[Royal-T-Ltd]

okay... anybody know how to install firmware onto a flash drive? i ASSume you would have to type some source code into the terminal app [mac] ... but thats just a guess.....

i will also put up an undetermined prize for whomever leads me to the answer to my data recovery....just to make things interesting... and once again - I THANK YOU ALL

aaron

 

[davelostmissing]

I would suspect you would need to identify the embedded processor on the flash drive and locate the jtag pins after perusing the datatasheet, connecting to them and installing that processor's compiler. Probably doesn't run a mac either.