# -Urgent- RAW usb drive



## Darkckai (May 20, 2009)

Hello, I realise this may have been posted many many times but I cannot find an answer
Im currently in college and there is a lot of work which is due in tomorrow on my usb drive but its just changed itself to RAW file format
Ive searched and searched for an answer but I cannot find one
Basically I need to get the information off my drive but when I plug it in windows wants me to format it, when I go to properties it says its 0 bytes in size and RAW file system
Can anybody help me get my work off the drive?
I dont want to format it as this will delete all of my work
Please help! :sigh: :sigh:


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

I'm afraid the drive has failed and your data is gone. 
USB sticks should not be relied upon for storage.


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## Darkckai (May 20, 2009)

What about if I were to format the drive and use data recovery tools to recover deleted data?


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Try *PC Inspector File Recovery* (freeware). Even if the drive has been formatted or the data overwritten, it might still be able to recover some of your files.


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## Darkckai (May 20, 2009)

koala said:


> Try *PC Inspector File Recovery* (freeware). Even if the drive has been formatted or the data overwritten, it might still be able to recover some of your files.


When I use this when it is scanning drives I get a message that says "Bad parameter in boot sector. Bytes per second (0) = 0 !" or something similar


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Have you been using the drive to read and write files on a Mac and PC?

It looks like the MBR (master boot record) is corrupt. Run *Partition Table Doctor* and use 'Auto Mode' Fixboot.


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## Darkckai (May 20, 2009)

Yeah I have been using it on both, in fact I only noticed it stopped working when I immediatley put work on it from my pc then moved to my mac...


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## Darkckai (May 20, 2009)

when I run partition table doctor my usb drive isnt there, just my harddrive...


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

If both programs are saying they can't detect anything, it looks like your data is gone. Do you have backup copies or autosaves on any other computers you've been working on?


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## Darkckai (May 20, 2009)

No =[
So does this mean everythings gone?
When I plug it in I get a pop up asking if I want to format it, in my computer it is visible but I cant open it and properties say its got a 0 byte capacity so the computer is detecting it, PC inspector file recovery can detect the actual drive but nothing on it, Im praying that there is a way to recover it, my college course finishes in 2 weeks, theres no way I can re do a whole years work in that amount of time :sigh:


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## genotech (May 19, 2009)

have you tried recovering the file system on it? if you havent you should try. you can use either the windows ultimate boot cd or testdisk (if you have another flash drive that has WIndows PE and you know command line). i hope this helps.


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