Recovering Data From USB Flash Drive

[LSmith4285]

Hi guys

I have a Sandisk Cruzer which appears to be faulty. When it is plugged into my Windows 8 laptop it doesn't show up. When it is plugged into a Windows 7 machine it shows up under system for a short while as "WPD FileSystem Volume Driver" under Portable Devices but then disappears. During this time if I go into Disk Management or anything like that I can't see the drive.

I also booted a Ubuntu boot DVD and tried that but it couldn't see it.

This isn't my drive but my girlfriend's colleague and it has pictures of her dad who passed away a few weeks ago so getting it back would mean a lot to her, any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Splash]

Have a look at PhotoRec - it specialises in exactly your situation. Obviously don't try to recover the data *to* the USB key

[LSmith4285]

Hi Splash, unfortunately as it's not seen in Device Manager it's not being allocated a drive letter. I tried TestDisk/PhotoRec last night but it appears to need the drive to have a drive letter to work.

[peterb]

Do other other portable (USB) drives show up OK on that machine?

When you plug it in under Ubuntu, is the device seen, even if it is not mounted?

[LSmith4285]

Yes, all other drives show without fail.

I'm no Ubuntu expert but I can't see it anywhere.

[peterb]

The error you are getting suggests a driver problem in windows, although as other devices are seen normally, that tends to rule that out.

You need to start using command line tools under Linux to start investigating further. If you aren't happy or familiar with that, it can be risky.

How big is the drive? Do you know what the file system is?

[LSmith4285]

Command line definitely isn't a place I am familiar with now a days, I'd be more than a little concerned about venturing into that world unless I had it in front of me what I was typing in.

It's a 8GB drive, not sure about file system.

I've had it plugged into two Win 7 machines (shows up as described above), one Win 8 (doesn't show up), one Ubuntu 14.10 (doesn't show up). Plus I'm guessing the original owner plugged it into several before asking for help.

[Bryanandrews]

did you get any error messages like "disk in drive * is not formatted...." it's possile the file allocation table is damaged and I'm not sure whether you can get back all data successfully. there are many recovery tools out on the Internet and you can try some of them.
Good luck

[Kumagoro]

It sounds like the firmware has been corrupted. You can reflash them but you lose the data.

[blairchen0]

First, try another available computer, if that still doesn't work, you need to find a program to recover your data. You could google "recovery software" to choose suitable app. Or you could try Jihosoft File Recovery. Works for me.