Author Topic: Lost thumb drive documents (Read 2301 times)

joedon204 · « **on:** April 12, 2010, 10:59:38 PM »

OK, I think Will Rogers said, "Everyone is ignorant about something." Well, I'm ignorant about computers and admit it. But I need help.

I am retired, but before I left work, with assistance, I transferred much of my personal word documents onto a thumb drive?? I think that is what it is called. It says USB 2.0 and smaller letters read 8 GB.

For a time, once I inserted the thumb drive when I clicked "Start" all of my document titles came up in the margin for me to select from. But, recently I get the various storage options, like floppy disc, etc. My removable storage icon also shows up, but when I click it I only get a partial list of documents. The others have disappeared and I don't know how to retrieve them. Can anyone help me find them?

EEVIAC · « **Reply #1 on:** April 13, 2010, 04:14:55 AM »

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Avira_UnErase_d5284.html

It seems like the files were accidentally deleted. As long as you haven't copied any files to the thumb drive since the files disappeared, you might be in luck.. What really happens when files are deleted is, the pointers that point to the location of the files in memory on the thumb drive are deleted, but the files are still there. If Windows doesn't see the pointers it determines that the space is available and writes over the files that you are trying to rescue.

Use the link and download Avira Unerase. Install it, run it...Select what drive to want to save files from. Be sure you know what drive letter your thumb drive is using.. Click OK.. The program will then find all files that have been deleted and it will take you through the process of rescuing them. The files you are rescuing will need to be saved to a place other than the thumb drive, which it will ask you to do...

After you successfully copy the files to another location, from the thumb drive, try opening them. If they appear like scrambled text, it's because you either didn't open the documents with the correct program, OR worse, data was written over the files, as I described before...