USB key not detected - how to recover contents?

fizzy

My sister hops from PC to PC in her job rather than having her own one and was saving everything to a USB key.
Suddenly this morning the USB key stopped working - she has tried it on 5 different PCs. It is either not detected at all, or if it shows up as a drive, when you click on it it just says please insert disc.
Is there any way of getting the contents off the USB key in situations like this e.g. software that will work or a particular IT repairs outfit that offer this service?
Many thanks for your time

yeppydeppy

Boot up a PC with ubuntu and use that to try and read the key.

Elvis_Presley

There's lots of data recovery software out there. Google it. Most offer a certain free data recovery allowance before you have to pay, so you can selectively recover only the important stuff. Professional recovery will be quite expensive, only use it if data is crucial.

Not to nag, nut USB keys are notoriously unreliable. Never rely on one, I recovered a guy in my office's PhD thesis for him a few weeks ago from a dodgy key. Use drop box or someother online backup service and make multiple physical copies. However, this is for future use, none of this is of any use to you now.

On the computers she worked on, there may be autosaves of her work so she may get lucky.

fizzy

Thanks for the replies - we do not have access to any computers running ubuntu, just windows.
She would be happy to buy software to get the data back, I think she is just wary of spending money on software that's a scam or won't work - did not realise most let you try it for free.
Good to know there is some hope of getting her work back and you're dead right Elvis about backing up to dropbox etc in future!

Elvis_Presley

fizzy wrote: »

Thanks for the replies - we do not have access to any computers running ubuntu, just windows.

You could download a live CD for free and boot any pc from it, fairly straightforward, but I reckon recovery software is your best bet. The more you plug the key in/try to access it/recover data the less chance you have of getting anything back, so only plug it in when you're ready to go!

riclad

See http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
get 32bit version fits on cdr,
use imgburn free program to burn iso ,image file to a cd.
Boot pc from cdr, plug in usb key,it should show up in computer, external drive.
USB drives are not reliable, important data should be backed up in 3 places at least.hardrives can fail any time .
Business ,s should at least have a dropbox account ,or similar service ,to transfer info or backup info easily.
or at least have 2 usb keys,copy all data to both drives .

riclad

This is a good free program,
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

SerialComplaint

fizzy wrote: »

Thanks for the replies - we do not have access to any computers running ubuntu, just windows.
She would be happy to buy software to get the data back, I think she is just wary of spending money on software that's a scam or won't work - did not realise most let you try it for free.
Good to know there is some hope of getting her work back and you're dead right Elvis about backing up to dropbox etc in future!

Why was she using the USB key in the first place? Was this standard operating procedure at her office, or was it her genius idea? If it was the SOP, then it is really up to her employer to look after the data recovery issue.