Recover USB data after full format?

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mb82

223 posts

Master Geek

#185849 7-Dec-2015 20:52

Is there anyway I can recover data from a USB stick after a full format?

Drive became corrupt (said it needed to be formatted before being used). I could not open it or use 'Recuva'.
I also could not format it, disk part resulted in 'cyclic redundancy check error'
Eventually after the drive saying it was write protected and editing the registry to change this I was able to format it using 'HP usb format tool', quick format option did not work so I did full format (which I believe also writes zeros?).

In hindsight I should of made more effort to repair the drive prior to formatting, I was hoping I would be able to use Recuva after formatting but knew it was not guaranteed.

I know it is unlikely but is there any way I can get the data back?

timmmay

20575 posts

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#1442344 7-Dec-2015 21:17

Try this. It is possible, but not if it was actually corrupt.

mb82

223 posts

Master Geek

#1442351 7-Dec-2015 21:27

timmmay: Try this. It is possible, but not if it was actually corrupt.

Link results in 404 content does not exist ?

Edit: don't worry, got it.. trying it now

timmmay

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#1442464 8-Dec-2015 08:32

Updated link.

jpoc

1043 posts

Uber Geek

#1442465 8-Dec-2015 08:39

Usually, when windows reports that for a USB stick, parts of the flash memory have gone past their wear endurance and have failed irretrievably. The flash controller then refuses to co-operate with the host and you see messages such as those that you reported.

Realizing that something has gone badly wrong, Windows marks the drive as write protected as by that time, any attempts to write to the stick will make things worse.

At this point, your data is lost short of access to machines that can take the chips apart one layer of atoms at a time and can test each cell to see if it had been programmed as a 1 or 0 before the last flash page erase. Even very large sums of money are unlikely to get you access to that sort of facility.

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#1442487 8-Dec-2015 09:03

If the software wrote zeros to the drive good luck with that, if its really that important send it to a recovery specialist.

mb82

223 posts

Master Geek

#1443171 8-Dec-2015 21:51

Linked tool above did not recover anything but thanks anyway.

Have seen message before on other usb drives but not thought much of it (guess I did not have anything important on them and just wiped it).

Makes me happier knowing there was unlikely to be a way I could recover it. I imagine any professional recovery would be far too expensive to be worth it at this stage.

Will be interesting to see how usb drive holds up now it has been formatted I don't believe it is that old (a few months)

Technofreak

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#1443175 8-Dec-2015 21:56

In situations like this I have used the CHKDSK utility with pretty good success. Since you have done a format on the disk it might be a bit late for the CHKDSK function.

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