Help Computer!

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

ias31By60N8

With all the tech and computer savvy people here, I am surprised we've yet to have a thread about general computer problems or observations about troubleshooting various computer/computer related problems.

So after asking Ymix which forum would be most appropriate for this: here it is.

Post computer/tech related questions in this thread and maybe someone will be kind enough to answer.[/b]

Of course, I hope anyone would feel free to talk shop or share some neat tips and tricks as well...maybe we can learn something here.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

And surprise, surprise, it seems like I got the first question.

I have a particular thumbdrive that seems to have stopped operating. I tried a few troubleshooting ideas I found online to no avail (like trying to change the pathway letter to see if another device was blocking it.)

It has some important documents and file which I need for work purposes, but it is also sentimentally important because it has most of my photos and videos from my time overseas....

I know I should have backed the stuff up a while ago,but after the way things ended with my ex-fiancee, I just didn't want to look at it 'ya know. So I'm afraid that something may be wrong with the drive itself and I am wondering how easy are those things to fix? Or would I have to send it to some sort of specialist?

Is there anyone out there who could suggest an out of the box solution I could try....or should I be resigned to the fact that everything is gone.....

[Skin Job]

I assume you've tried different machines already. If you can't get the drive to mount on any machine, it is probably dead. Professional data recovery from flash drives can be very expensive and involves disassembling the drive and placing the flash memory chips onto a reference board. If the drive has mounted, and at any time an OS asked to "repair" it and you clicked yes, the data is probably more corrupted than before. If you can get it to mount, you might try Photorec.

[Enki]

Data recovery is expensive. Basically you could send it to a data recovery company, but it's going to cost you about $ 1000.

[Farcus]

Is this a Windows 7 system with an NTFS-formatted thumthingy?

[noddy]

i havent done it for many a year but remember having mixed success with one of freeware usb recovery programs, alas i cant remember which and i am now quite ruthless at the "multiple locations" for backup approach and just ditch em.

sniff your way through a google query on "usb recovery freeware" and do the appropriate forum grinding on reports for them... you may get lucky or you may have to download all your pron again.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Thanks all for the replies:

Skin Job: That's actually one simple thing I should try which I haven't been able. The next time I see my brother I will try it in his laptop and see if it's my computer. Thank you for the PhotoRec too.

Enki: I was afraid of that. I might just walk away from the stuff. But it basically has a portfolio of my work (as well as all those pictures and videos I'd like to keep) that I need to prove that I was actually busy during that period. Otherwise, it seems like a big gap in employment which doesn't look good. So if I can't get it to work with any free software, I may have to simply absorb the financial hit and do this.

Farcus: I am not really sure what an NTFS-format is. Right now I am working on a Windows 7 computer. Most of the files on the device were saved from a Mac I was using. Then the last time I used it (before trying to access it a few weeks ago) was on a PC that was running Vista [possibly XP] and it worked fine. The USB-drive is simply not being recognized as being connected to the computer running Windows 7- that's the best I can tell you.

noddy: Well, I hope a free program works, and I'm glad to hear that you've used it before- it is comforting to know that it has worked. I'll try this stuff out and see if I can get it up and running.

[Enki]

NTFS is the current Microsoft File System. It is a FAT 32 filing system. That means the files are stored with a 32 bit encode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT32#FAT32

Meaning he's asking you if it was a legacy file-system from before the NT file-system became the norm, i.e. prior to 2000. Since you don't know what it is, the answer is 'probably not'.

Your files are most likely in NTFS, unless you were using a Mac, in which case it's the Mac file system

[Skin Job]

Point of order, NTFS is a distinctly different file system from FAT32, they have little in common. NTFS descends from IBM's OS/2 HPFS file system, while FAT32 descends from Microsoft's original 1977 8-bit FAT.

Most USB sticks come formatted in FAT16 or FAT32 for compatibility, this is the expected format unless someone has manually changed it.

[Enki]

Point of order, NTFS is a distinctly different file system from FAT32, they have little in common. NTFS descends from IBM's OS/2 HPFS file system, while FAT32 descends from Microsoft's original 1977 8-bit FAT.

Most USB sticks come formatted in FAT16 or FAT32 for compatibility, this is the expected format unless someone has manually changed it.

Thanks, I wasn't sure if I remembered all that correctly. It's been a while since I was doing Help Desk support.