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File Recovery USB Devices: Finding And Retrieving Lost Data

Posted by Fitz

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

In terms of data recovery USB Flash devices are just as simple to scan for lost documents as an internal hard drive. This article discusses simple process for retrieving files from USB device along with some of the problems associated with finding your documents.

Using software to recover USB data is one of the easier PC repairs that most people can do for themselves. The process does require using specialist software, but due to the fact that Flash memory uses the fat 32 file system (same as Windows), there are a large amount of freeware tools available for doing the job.

The process is normally quite standard:

Download, install and start your data recovery tool of choice. Some suggested freeware options would be Recuva, Undelete Plus and Photo Rec.
Once started, select the USB drive for an initial scan and analysis.
Your file recovery tool will scan through the USB memory looking for signs of data clusters. Several of these constitute each document that you work on and maybe situated around the Flash memory (i.e. not all on the same sector). The program also uses the file allocation table as a way of identifying which clusters belong together.
The tool will finish its scan and show you a list of all the documents it was able to find. This may turn out to be quite a large list full of temporary and cached versions of files, so you may need to trawl through a large list in order to find your files. Once found, pick the ones you want and copy them over to a new location (CD/DVD/HDD).

The success rate of these applications can vary based on a few factors. First, if you continued to save files to the USB device then there is a good chance of these new documents overwriting any old or deleted clusters which had been lost. As a result, you may only be able to find partial fragments of some of your documents.

If you are attempting to recover USB contents from a formatted device then be aware that some formatting tools will also do a data/evidence cleansing sweep of the device. This will, in effect, clear away all your old data clusters completely. If you simply use a regular formatting tool then there is a good chance that you will be able to find your files as the normal format process only clears down the file allocation table (leaving data clusters untouched).

When it comes to data recovery USB devices can easily be analyzed. However, this does not mean that the software will always be successful, therefore, it is even more essential that USB devices are backed up as this will prove to be a much more effective way of restoring lost data.