Accidentally formatted a usb drive- please help

take everything

Hi.
I was reinstalling Windows XP there and unwittingly formatted a usb drive that i had left in the machine (stupidly thinking it was a partition on the hdd).
Now the usb drive is unusable.
Now any machine i plug it into can't even format it (F32, NFTS etc).

So:
1. Ideally i'd like to recover what was on it before i formatted.
2. Failing that, i'd just like to be able to use it again.

How do i go about this.
Any advice much appreciated.
Thanks

Odaise Gaelach

For now don't plug the USB drive into any computers. If you format the drive, or a computer does any writing to it, it will overwrite any data that can be recovered.

The first thing to do is get some good data recovery software. I use R-Studio 5 and it's always worked grand for me.

When you have the software, if it's possible to you should create an image of the USB disk and save it on your computer. You can then make copies of this image and try whatever you need to recover your data. Failing that you could also try and perform a recovery from the USB disk itself.


If you're not too pushed about the data on the USB disk (you do have backups, don't you?) then you can skip to getting it working again. But we need to know a bit more. Can you see the USB disk in My Computer? Do you get an error when you try to format it?

pieface_ie

check out PhotoRec, ive used it with Ubuntu before, but it also runs on Windows if thats what your using. Easy to use and its free.

The file names are not recovered, they where numbered something like 001234566.pdf etc

joshbishop1982

Fear not friend, if you formatted it once then there is a good chance that a lot of what was on there is recoverable. Sorry I cant suggest any applications but I know that there are many 'DOZENS' of them out there and I too have used them from time to time with success. go to places like www.download.com and type in data recovery and search. You should get a few choices, some freeware some shareware.

take everything

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

For now don't plug the USB drive into any computers. If you format the drive, or a computer does any writing to it, it will overwrite any data that can be recovered.

The first thing to do is get some good data recovery software. I use R-Studio 5 and it's always worked grand for me.

When you have the software, if it's possible to you should create an image of the USB disk and save it on your computer. You can then make copies of this image and try whatever you need to recover your data. Failing that you could also try and perform a recovery from the USB disk itself.


If you're not too pushed about the data on the USB disk (you do have backups, don't you?) then you can skip to getting it working again. But we need to know a bit more. Can you see the USB disk in My Computer? Do you get an error when you try to format it?

Thanks.
So basically:
The usb drive is recognised by my laptop.
If i click on the drive, it tells me i need to format.
If i try this it tells me windows is unable to complete the format.
I'm also getting an error saying "the volume does not contain a recognised file system. Please make sure all file system drivers are loaded and volume is not corrupted".

^That of course is if i wanted to format in the first place.
I'll see if the recovery software suggested here is any good and get back.
Thanks to all.

Gadgetman496

To get the pen drive working again, format it using THIS UTILITY:

It's a well trusted pen drive format utility from HP that works on all pen drives.


-