New USB drive became corrupted as copying target

Kernel_Sanders

I bought a new 8GB USB 2.0 thumbdrive which I used to transfer files from my full PC to a spare one. The next time I did this, I also decided to add the folders off my old USB drive. I had moved about half the folders and all was well until the Windows SP3 file started to copy over; Windows wouldn't let it, suggesting I choose another method. However, the whole pasting process had come to a halt. When I looked at the target USB drive (which Windows had named USB20F) I was astonished to find it completely empty. When I restarted the PC I left the room but when I returned I just caught a blue screen with white text informing that Windows had been repairing files (using something like 'CHKDSK'?) I reopened it, finding that Windows had renamed it USB20FD( I: ) .The files I had just been transferring seemed OK but a couple of folders already on the drive were not (see pic); one was about 240MB of PDFs, the other a similar size of videos. I have not tried any further to open them. There are no 2.0 ports on this PC.
What would you advise as my next move, please?

paddyrg

Personally I'd reformat the thumb drive and start from scratch - I presume you still have the data on the original 'full' PC?

Kernel_Sanders

paddyrg wrote: »

I presume you still have the data on the original 'full' PC?

To avoid getting the 'free space critical' warning again I had to free up space pretty niftily, so had to empty the recycle bin. I'm really asking what is the best way to recover the two folders mentioned.

fwor

Have you tested the pendrive with h2testw or f3?

Last year I bought a series of pendrives, each of which had faulty memory sectors. All of them were faulty at the "full" end of the drive's capacity, so it would not otherwise become apparent until you copied lots of data onto them. IIRC I had to return 5 or 6 of them as faulty.

[Edit: if it is faulty, the data will be gone. There is no way to recover data from a drive in that state.]

Kernel_Sanders

I think I didn't use up more than 2/3 of the available 7.45GB.
If I ran that H2testw, would it compromise any recovery action such as http://www.filehippo.com/download_cardrecovery/ ?

fwor wrote: »

IIRC

For anyone else wondering..... http://www.acronymfinder.com/IIRC.html

fwor

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

If I ran that H2testw, would it compromise any recovery action such as http://www.filehippo.com/download_cardrecovery/ ?

Yes - I would try something like Recuva before testing the card with h2testw, given where you now are.

I don't know the software that you link to, but I'd advise you to check what limitations are included in the "commercial trial" version. It may be just time-limited, but some trials are really irritating - for example those that tell you what they ~could~ recover, but won't unless you pay up...

FWIW, I would always use h2testw on a new pendrive as soon as you get it, but hindsight's a wonderful thing...

Kernel_Sanders

fwor wrote: »

FWIW...... hindsight's a wonderful thing...

aND SO ARE SEARCH ENGINES
i'LL HAVE A GO WITH rECUVA IN THE MORNING

TTTCC GN. (too tired to change case)

prowla

Was it a cheapo thumb drive?
I remember some time back buying a large capacity one (for the time) on ebay, and it turned out not to work properly and would corrupt after a certain amount of data was put onto it; I think it was really a lower capacity one tweaked to say it was more.

paddyrg

prowla wrote: »

Was it a cheapo thumb drive?
I remember some time back buying a large capacity one (for the time) on ebay, and it turned out not to work properly and would corrupt after a certain amount of data was put onto it; I think it was really a lower capacity one tweaked to say it was more.

There was a big spate of them, and also of ones which had a few megs actual memory which was overwritten and overwritten as new data came in, so you only ever ended up with the last few megs of data, but it would appear 'fine' in a test. The shocking thing is the deviousness and programming and extra parts to make that work must cost nearly as much as an honest drive. There's the rub, 'nearly' as much, so a few extra cents on a unit, which is why the bottom end of the market is so cheap and cruddy!

Kernel_Sanders

prowla wrote: »

Was it a cheapo thumb drive?

Yes, a PNY. It's the 8GB version of this.

What do you think of the benchmark test suggested in #21 here? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4010155
In the 2nd table it states that the 2Gb BUFFALO USB Flash Disk can write at 1763 MB/s; Is this likely? Also, they quote the drive sizes in Gb, which to me is a unit of 128MB!

vale46_2

i used testdisk the other day to recover some files/pics i deleted by mistake of a dongle
if your folders are on the dongle it will recover them

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

guide http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/File:Create_log.gif

i extracted the testdisk zip folder it created a folder called
testdisk-6.14-WIP
in that folder i created a new folder called rec1

from folder testdisk-6.14-WIP run
testdisk_win.exe

create
next screen
select your dongle / then proceed

intel

analyse

select backup / enter / enter / deep search


p list files

scroll to the files you want to copy/backup

hit c

select the rec1 folder you created

hit c

your files/folder is backed up to the testdisk-6.14-WIP folder

this will recover anything from a memory card / dongle etc
it will repair dongles too if you get an error reading dongles / memory cards
like format error or unreadable message i've made 2 dongles work again that were dead
with testdisk it re-writes the bootable partition on them and makes then fully working again