Data recovery - usb

Electronics & Technology
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Can Choice recommend or has Choice investigated which online providers/websites (both free and paid AND for both windows and macOS) are reputable, safe to download and can successfully recover data from a corrupt USB or an accidently deleted USB?

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For data recovery, you can do it in Windows without the need to buy or use freeware. It uses the command prompt (CMD). This website explains how to do it:

For deleted files:

The restore previous versions feature can also be used as well. This website provides information of how to use this feature:

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Thanks for the feedback. I will look into it.

For the record, my 2 x USBs were used in both mac and windows machines. One USB (brand EMTEC) is not even recognised when inserted into a port of either a mac or windows device. And I tried multiple devices.

The other USB (LEXAR) shows that there are folders on the USB which I was accessing, before they were presumably corrupted, but their names are gobbledygook and their contents are inaccessible.

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I forgot to ask you @phb , but are all the websites listed in your post safe and legit? I can only wonder what damage could be done to my mac if I download or use software/application etc that is not 100% independently verified to be problem-free, virus-free, malware-free etc. Thanks.

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They are legit. Windows has programs/tools inbuilt. I can’t comment if Apple OS has similar abilities as not an Apple user.

Using third party software potentially has greater risks.

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Thanks. I will therefore attempt to use a windows computer for this exercise. I tried in two libraries recently to download recovery software but those libraries oddly allowed me to download but not to launch those programs.

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You would not want to use a public computer for anything if it was permitted to install and run not approved executables, it would be a morass of malware.

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You would need to distinguish between

  • the USB device has failed and is completely unresponsive (it is likely that no software solution will fix that and it is unlikely that a cost-effective solution is available)

and

  • the content on the USB device is corrupt to the extent that the file system is not recognised and the file system won’t mount (software may still be able to recover files that are not corrupted, potentially even all or most files).

Are you able to exhibit one such?

Sounds like file system corruption. Software should be able to salvage some of the files at least.

In all cases the best approach is to restore from backup.

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Umm, the backup is on the USB. The thingy that seems not to be able to be read anymore.

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That would be a question for the Choice team to respond to @BrendanMays.

As a Choice consumer I don’t recollect seeing any recent reviews, articles or advice per your enquiry.

There are professional services offering the best opportunity to recover your data. At a cost!
EG https://www.payam.com.au/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqdnE_6mWhAMVFzJ7Bx08KAXMEAAYASAAEgLMTvD_BwE

Going the self help route YMMV. Previously I’ve recovered files and content from Hard drives, SD cards and USB drives using readily available software. These solutions relied on your data still being stored without corruption of the content and a functioning device controller.

One lesson I learnt with USB drives is they are more prone to physical failures. Which is what appears to be the way for one of the two USB memory devices. All it takes is a broken track or solder joint on a pcb or one solid state switch to fail on a die. No software solution can repair a physical failure.

These days I don’t rely on keeping content on a single device or common location. Hence when a device fails it does not matter. I can always access the data from a different place. Even the digital camera has the ability to sync photos in real time using bluetooth to my mobile device. And the mobile device backs up routinely each day to the cloud. Not perfect for reasons others here could explain. Proof enough against a camera or memory card failure.

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I didn’t see where that was stated but if that is the case (and it could be) then you eWaste the USB flash drive, get a new one, and make the backup again.

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I sort of assumed that as the topic was data recovery, that meant recovering from a now unreadable backup on a USB memory device.

But redoing the backup may not be possible. The original may have been deleted, or is corrupted, or has had undesirable alterations that need to be backed out.

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Thanks again to all for suggestions. I will look into them as I have not had the chance so far.

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