USB Stick Nightmare

[Disco Dust]

A flash stick of mine with loads of valuable files on it, is suddenly fucked up to the max.


I've put it in 3 or 4 different computers and I just get the notification that it needs to be formatted. When I check its properties, it shows that the entire 4 GB on it are free. I'm pretty sure that means that it has already been wiped clean, but if anyone thinks they have a way were I could try to rescure some of my files, I would be quite grateful

[nacho]

Man, do you give off EMP blasts or something? Or do you just own a bunch of stuff that's 10 years old?

If there's no sign of the files, then they're probably gone.  This happened to me about three years ago and, since then, I've backed that shit up on my harddrive, on an external harddrive, and in Dropbox once a week.

As to fancy backdoor rescue kind of stuff... Maybe the computer folks here do have an answer.

[Disco Dust]

If I was in the US, this incident would likely cost me my job, as all the important files I mentioned were work-related.

I was just too lazy to back it up, because they all would have needed to be updated on a daily basis.....and more importantly, despite some previous troubles with such sticks; I thought the chances of the entire stick being suddenly wiped away without my control were slim and none.

I guess one lives and learns...

[Reginald McGraw]

There are places that do deep forensics on hard drives, but I dunno about USB.  Also abroad...dunno.