One of my thumb drives is damaged, possibly corrupted? Is there any way to retrieve the info on it or am I out of luck?

It is probably done for. I havent heard of being able to retrieve or fix the portable flash drives. I know this is closing the door after the horse gets out, but my proffessor drilled in to our heads to always, always, go down to the bottom task bar and click on the square with the green arrow in the far right corner, and safely remove hardware. He explained that you could just pull the drive out 500 times or 5 times without safely removing hardware and it will be fine. But it only takes one time and poof everything is gone. Sorry. I could be wrong, I am only parroting what I was told.

Out of luck....

I've seen recovery of USB drive data - it all depends
upon the exact issue with the drive.

What operating system are you using?

Have you tried the drive in another USB port or another computer?

What error(s) are being displayed (if any)?

Is the operating system "reacting" at all when you plug the drive in?
(IOW, is the drive showing up, but you can't see data on the drive)

Have you tried another USB stick to see if it's detected?

Are you connecting the stick to a USB *port* or *hub* ?

it is worth a try to see if a computer running linux
can recognize it, or one using a different version of
windows, or a disk rescue utility program.

if you dont have access to a friendly local geek then
take it in to an electronics store where there are
geeks and ask one of them pleeze pleeze can you check
it for me and write the data onto a dvd for me?

with sugar on top? ill by you a redbull/donut/pie/bbq wings
etc...

Various computers, as it was being used for college assignments. One of the computers crashed one time and now it won't work, or will pop up when plugged in and then disconnect.

Yes, the other USB's work just fine, on any computer.


No errors shown, it just won't load, and yes on the other answers. LOL!

Thanks ya'll, I think I'll see if I can get a tech at BestBuy to try it, before I pitch it. Shakes head.

If the drive is damaged in such a way that it is not even recognized as a usb data device by any computer...then I have no idea how you would proceed.

Its more likely that the drive itself is recognized but the file system is not. In that case, if you want to recover it badly enough, and are willing to put the effort (or money) into it, the odds are good.

IMO the first step would be making an 'image' of the drive. This is a giant file which contains exactly whats on the drive, including the (presumably) corrupted file system. All of the files you have on the drive would be contained somewhere within that image file.

Once you've made that image, you can share copies of it around with your geek friends (or a company that provides data recover service) who might be able to recover your data for you.

In my experience, the people at Best Buy often have no idea what they are talking about, won't admit it when they have no idea what they are talking about, and try to intimidate and/or confuse customers with irrelevant facts to convince them to spend more than they need to.

It sounds like you do not have any data on the drive which you are just dying to recover.

Nah, it's mostly just pictures, and since I can't think of what they were on it, it's probably not worth it anyways.

I've always been hit or miss with the tech guys, but my brother, who I usually pester for help in computer-related stuff wasn't totally sure, I figured to throw it out there.

you can also try some of the free utilities out there...
for example:

http://download.cnet.com/Data-Doctor-Recovery-Pen-Drive/3000-2242_4-10700114.html

but there are surely many others...
(disclaimer: ive never tried any of them)

Your flashdrive is just a solid state drive with a ROM chip. The filesystem is standard FAT or NTFS. There just are not sectors/tracks. If only the data is corrupted, there are several flash drive recovery products out there. I don't know of one that's better then the rest. If it is not reading the USB drive at all, it is likely (gathered from my 35 years as a PC/electronics tech and programmer) that the connector is seperated from the circuit board. I've repaired several of these by splitting the case and re-soldering the connection.

Aside from that...good luck.

Well, then my advice is useless - its overkill. But I think you should still follow the more easily-implemented advice other's gave: like try plugging it into another computer, and try a recovery utility.

'preciate it ya'll!