Did I lose my data for good? - USB formatting help.

Alright, look. I've got this USB drive loaded with all sorts of random junk—old versions of software I use constantly that are basically impossible to track down online anymore. So, I finally decided to be "smart" and upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, but in my infinite wisdom, I totally forgot to set up a cloud backup first. Now, Windows 10 won't even let me access the drive at all. I tried playing it safe by reinstalling Windows 7, but even then, the system is just sitting there demanding I format the whole thing... 😢Is everything on there gone for good, or is there actually some kind of slim chance left to save my stuff?

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk 🙂

First, try running an error check to see if it can re-index the drive properly; if that fails, a full format might do the trick. In the worst-case scenario, the flash drive itself might be dead.
Keep in mind that when you attempt data recovery, about 90% of the time you won't actually get anything useful back. You'll likely just end up with fragmented bits of data that are impossible to use, all while waiting an eternity for the process to finish. That’s usually how it goes with those free software tools.

Eric Alvarez said:First, try running an error check to see if it can re-index the drive properly; if that fails, a full format might do the trick. In the worst-case scenario, the flash drive itself might be dead.
Keep in mind that when you attempt data recovery, about 90% of the time you won't actually get anything useful back. You'll likely just end up with fragmented bits of data that are impossible to use, all while waiting an eternity for the process to finish. That’s usually how it goes with those free software tools.

Unless the data has been overwritten (which isn't the case here), you'll get everything back 100%, and it should only take a few minutes using free software. ☕

That software restores everything from day one up until now, which is why you're seeing all those useless data clusters. If the thumb drive is newer and hasn't been through a million write/erase cycles, there should be less junk. But hey, let them try—I'm actually curious to see what happens.

Thirty minutes for a 32GB stick on USB 3.0 isn't exactly lightning fast. On top of that, the amount of clutter is maddening; the only things actually worth anything are probably just photos and text documents. Maybe they'll get lucky and stumble upon some programs, but I honestly find that hard to believe.

http://oi66.tinypic.com/15cytf5.jpg

Look what these two clowns sent me. -.-" I'm gonna try messing around with this software to see if it actually fixes anything...

EDIT:

Nope, the software is a total bust. Same exact issue as before. Just my luck, I guess.

But hey, I finally sorted it out. A buddy of mine had a backup of the program sitting on his hard drive, so he tossed it up onto Google Drive yesterday. Now I can just wipe this USB clean without any more headaches...

Anyway, thanks for trying to help. 🙂

Reading this makes me seriously nervous about my USB😬

What can I actually do to prevent this from happening? How should I handle backups? Are there specific programs worth downloading? Any advice would be huge! (Please quote!)

Lisa Perez50 said:Reading this makes me seriously nervous about my USB😬

What can I actually do to prevent this from happening? How should I handle backups? Are there specific programs worth downloading? Any advice would be huge! (Please quote!)

Just buy an external hard drive and move all your critical files onto it.

I’ve got my setup with Google Drive and Box.com, and honestly? For me, that’s plenty... enough to get by without any extra headaches.

Eric Alvarez said:Just buy an external hard drive and move all your critical files onto it.

I already have an external drive. But I’m assuming the same thing could happen to that, right? That's where my most critical data lives. I've tried uploading stuff to Google Drive, but I'm constantly adding new files. Who has the time to manually sync everything to Google Drive all day long?

It’s honestly better to just stick with the cloud. As far as I know, an external drive can fail just as easily as a standard USB stick, but at least they're built to be a bit more durable.

Is there anyone out in the Washington, D.C. area who would be willing to help me try and revive a USB drive along with all the data currently sitting on it? The drive is almost certainly infected with viruses; nothing will open, and every single time I plug it in, it just keeps prompting me to format it.
Shoot me a private message if you can help. Thanks.

Maybe give a Linux Mint live USB a shot—just download it, boot from it, and see if you can access the USB drive to rescue your files...

https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

I'd grab the Cinnamon version

Thanks