USB stick corrupted - can I retrieve lost data.

[babyboo1and2]

That's it really

A work colleague was having difficulty with their pc so I lent them my USB stick as they could use something on it instead. Screen went blank. when I went to use the USB on my own pc it goes 'boing' to acknowledge I have inserted the USB stick but no icon comes up now and so i can't access any files. Is there any way of retrieving the lost data as I haven't saved it to my pc for a couple of weeks and will loose loads of hours of work.

Thanks in advance.

Can you look and see what drives are visible on your computer, i.e. manually browse to the USB stick - not rely on the usual "autorun"...? What does it say if you try to access it? Does it say it needs formatting? If so, don't actually do that - I just want a fuller picture!

Thanks for responding. When I put the USB in the pc it makes a noise to acknowledge it but when I click on computer the only thing seen under devices with remove able storage is the DVD row drive. When I put a different USB in the icon appears as normal and I can access the files so it must be the USB

If you right click on "Computer", choose "manage", then choose "disk management", do you see your device? If so (fingers and toescrossed!!) select it and choose (and as I don't currently have a storage device with an unallocated drive letter, I'm guessing!) something along the lines of "add drive letter and paths"... Choose an available letter and click on add. See if you can see it now via the usual method.

Tried that and changed the letter but still can't see the USB recognised within 'compute' does this mean all is lost .

Possibly :( The fact that you say "changed" the drive letter implies that it already had one allocated... You've probably got your computer set to not show empty drives, and the PC is seeing this as a completely blank device.

Open a command prompt (if you don't know where to find that, just type cmd in the search box of your start menu and double-click cmd.exe that it finds for you) and then type in the drive letter you gave it (e.g. h: - and note that yours could be e: f: x: whatever...h: is just an example!) Hit enter, what comes up...? Is it something like "device not ready" or "system cannot find the drive specified"...?

If not and it actually changes to that drive, what do you get if you then type "dir" (without the quotes)... Are any files/folders present?

I did that and a box came up which said there is no disk in the drive, when I then pressed continue the phrase the device is not ready appeared in the command prompt box

What about if you try to access it from an open Word document (assuming the files you want are on Word - might also work from Publisher/Excel etc..)? I used to have a USB stick that would only be usable that way. If you're lucky, then back up the contents and get a new one quick.
Good luck!

Does it show up in device manager? If so, selct it and then uninstall and reinstall the driver. I wouldn't hold out much hope for that, though, as I would have expected your computer to have thrown up an error when it was first inserted (problem installing this device, or however it's phrased) if that was your issue. It sounds like the other PC just completely screwed up the file system on your flash drive. You can't even really try the usual first choice free file recovery software (recuva) as it runs within windows and won't see the drive either...

If you go back to where you could at least see its existence in "disk management", what options does it offer you if you right click on the drive? I take it "open" doesn't work clutching at straws

Only options given when I right click are change drive letter and path, properties and help

Run out of ideas here, sorry... I think your work is lost :(

Try downloading Active@undelete a free piece of software that lets you access deleted/damaged files. I have recovered a lot of stuff that way (it never seems to get 100% though. The free version lets you recover one file at a time (you recover a file, close the program, and open it again to recover the next one) which is a real pain, but I am too stingy to buy the full thing so thats how I do it.

www.active-undelete.com/

Thanks lazy dog and clam.

Mummy abroad I will try that software. Thanks.