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For no apparent or obvious reason, the files of my usb-flashdisk (32gb) are not visible/gone.

The drive is located, I get an 'autoplay' dialogue and all the folders are visible, but all the files (photo's, documents, .rar's, everything) is not visible (or gone...) The folders show no contents, and the properties also show 0 bytes. The drive itself, on the other hand, shows that roughly half of the space is used.

I tried several usb ports and different pc's, but there is no difference.

What is the next step?

Sathyajith Bhat
  • 62,374
Joris
  • 111

4 Answers4

1

but all the files (photo's, documents, .rar's, everything) is not visible (or gone...) The folders show no contents, and the properties also show 0 bytes.

This goes under my definition of "data loss" and IMO should be treated as such. This implies:

  • Drive should not be written to. So no chkdsk or other repair type tools that write to a drive to make repairs, no running attrib commands as these involve writing to the drive as well.
  • Image / clone the drive using a sector-by-sector 'backup' tool that is designed to handle failing devices (ddrescue, hddsuperclone, dmde).
  • Once you have a clone or disk image, put patient drive aside

Open / mount clone or disk image file using a file recovery tool like dmde as it will bypass / ignore whatever file system level restrictions apply and that may hide files from you.

Make sure you configure the file recovery tool of choice to display files with deleted status as well. If missing files are detected, select them and copy to a safe drive.

If missing files are not detected, run a full scan. Check RAW results as it may detect files that are not linked to by the file system.

-1
  • try a data recovery tool/file system scanning to see whether the file system is just corrupted
  • open up the drive itself (most drives are snap lock designs. Easy to pry open using a sharp knife). Look for physical damage. In this case, my guess is that it's possible that the first chunk of the flash memory is unaffected but the chunk which actually holds the data is in trouble. Look for a gap between parts that should be in contact. It may only take a bit of bending to get back access to your files (had this problem before. Used a soldering iron to weld back relevant points)
  • I've seen something like this with my one of my optical drives. Basically, anything it wrote would show up as zero sized files after written. It was only when I updated the firmware would things act normally. Try on a newer machine
  • power problem. There is a malfunction electronically somewhere (on the drive itself or on your system). Power issues can result in a ll sorts of strange anomalies including possibly this
  • use a different Operating System (Knoppix, a Live Linux Distribution is probably best suited to this) to see whether it is specific to it. Had something similar before where a NTFS filesystem would show up normally under Linux but corrupt under Windows
dtbnguyen
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-2
  1. click start>>run>>type in "cmd"
  2. type the location of your flash drive.. e.g. "d:", "e:", "f:", etc..
  3. type "dir /ah" *you will now see the files/folders with hidden attributes
  4. type "attrib [name of file/folder] -r -a -s -h" *if you're going to unhide files, you should type the whole name plus the extension (format).. example "attrib party.jpg -r -a -s -h" **if you have folders with 6 characters and above, type the first 6 characters then "~1".. example for folder named "birthday" "attrib birthd~1 -r -a -s -h"
  5. you should repeatedly type dir /ah after unhiding some files/folders so you'll know if they're now working or not..
  6. now check you flash drive.. it should be there..

heres another possible fix

  • go to FOLDER OPTIONS.
  • On the view tab CHECK "show hidden files and folders".
  • UNCHECK "Hide protected operating system files".

You will see your missing folders/files which were hidden by the virus. navigate through your these folders and just copy the files in them to a new location.

If neither of those work try this data recovery tool

MalwareManiac
  • 832
-2

Run a CHKDSK command (Check disk) from a Admin level DOS prompt, or from the Disk properties (Right click drive in my computer : Properties : Tools tab : "Check now" button in windows 7). This will check the directory structure, which sounds like the problem here. I am old school so I usually type this into a command prompt and if the drive was F: then it would be --

CHKDSK F: /F

I like to do this without the /F flag to start with, so that it is "read only" and you can see what issues are likely to be fixed if you run it in fix mode. What you are hoping for, most of the time, is "No problems found". For a USB this should run at any time assuming files are not already open, on the C drive you have to schedule it for a reboot.

Sometimes a drive will not appear at all because the drive letter it is assigned is in conflict. That doesn't sound like the problem here, but a look into DISKMGMT.MSC might be a good thing too (type this into Start : Run). This will tell you how the drive if formatted and the partitions, and its "Status" (Healthy?).

Your USB might have gotten into this state by being pulled out at just the wrong time, and not dismounted gracefully.

Saulysw
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