I have a 16 GB Flash drive that cannot be picked up by any usb port. I tried a few computers, HP and Macs, but no results. The message on HP computer says that it is not recognized. A tech has looked at it and couldn’t do anything with it.
I have most of the files backed up but the most recent stuff that I use for work wasn’t backed up yet and if there is any way to recover it, I am willing to try.
Any suggestions? ( I know this might be a long shot)
I’ve done recovery on a few “dead” flash drives, and SD cards. But you’re really far away 
. Can you mail it? Or find a nerd there who can do recovery?
I thought technology was making the world smaller, not larger. Couldn’t you walk BT through it via Skype or something similar? I understand surgeons even operate on patients remotely, however, I don’t know if I’d sign-up for it.
Is there a way to see the files through Terminal?
I phone the manufacturer ( Relay from Staples) and they will send me a gift card to replace it. They suggested using the Command Prompt function on my hp machine to see if the files were visible through the directory but the command prompt defaults to a u drive and I couldn’t change the drive ( maybe because I needed admin rights).
I was wondering if I could try the same with Terminal on a Mac. And from that, if I could transfer the files to another usb drive.
I’m in Mexico, BigThumb is in Eastern Canada, you’re in BC, and we’re posting on a website in California. I think the world is smaller. But that doesn’t mean you can just discount experience and physical presence.
BigThumb, the most important thing at this point, if you are serious about recovering the files, is not to write anything to the drive. Don’t format it, or do anything else to it unless you are sure it won’t write to the drive. That’s if you are serious about recovering the data.
You basically have to make a decision about the value of the data. Is it worth the trouble to try and recover some of it, or is it easier to just start from scratch?
Anyway, the offer stands if you want to send it along.
Won’t work. If the device isn’t recognized, it can’t be opened or formatted. If was recognized and formatted, it would be pretty hard to recover the files. Which is what he wants to do.
There’s this company that changed it’s name to Telus because you have to tell them over and over again and they won’t listen. Go work for them.
There’s ways to muck with the registry that rarely work too. Plug it in a Linux box, if it doesn’t mount waste more time trying manually.
Then give up.
My advice, don’t ever store something important on a stick, copy it off your stick and onto a hard drive or CD/DVD ASAP.
I wasted days once and even $$ on commercial programs just for a learning experience. Managed once or twice, some times I recovered a couple useless files but not the ones I was after.
Good advice. I do have a lot of my important stuff on a USB stick. Just burned to DVD and moved onto my HDs on several PCs.
I had my 2004-2008 taxes on one…
it was quicker to use the numbers off the 2008 paper printout. Eventually I recovered a stupid icon off the stick and that’s all. About 6 months later I found a “USB stick” folder on the netbook I used at work… there they were. Kicked myself in the arse for that one.