USB memory stick lost its format

[alan_steirn]

G'day all

Xp is reporting that my 256Mb USB memory stick is unformatted. This is happening on several PC's.
The stick is not quite full and has been working happily for months. Great start to the new year.

I have important data on it that is not backed up. Is there any way to recover it, using something like Norton DD to retrieve lost clusters, or something along those lines?

Any help appreciated, as I don't want to have to re-create all my lost work.  

[GX1_Man]

Try another machine. Some floppies get that message if they were not formatted on an XP machine, but are trying to be read by one. They are totally usable on other machines with 98, etc. May be the same kind of deal.

Or as I always suggest, try a Linux LIVE CD and copy the files elsewhere with that.

http://iso.linuxquestions.org/distro.php?distro=58

[alan_steirn]

I have new info which looks promising.

I was able to download a program that recovers picture files from memory sticks. This worked well on my device, which gives me hope that all the other stuff is intact.

I use my memory stick to run a DOS application which is a PCB CAD package. It has all my latest designs and library files as well as the application. Unfortunately my last backup is too old.

I need a program that will recover all these files as well.

Living in hope.

[GX1_Man]

See above.  

[alan_steirn]

Thanks for the reply GX1_man

Sorry I'm a bit confused. What is it that I should download?
Do I need Linux system rescue? My Xp os is working fine.

[GX1_Man]

Thanks for the reply GX1_man

Sorry I'm a bit confused. What is it that I should download?
Do I need Linux system rescue? My Xp os is working fine.

Are you able to get into that drive? You may need to try something else. The download was for a bootable Linux CD which will boot your machine without Windows to see if you can access the drive.