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Trouble with USB flash drive

Started by Monsterlover, October 20, 2010, 12:23:30 PM

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Monsterlover

October 20, 2010, 12:23:30 PM
I have a 1G drive I carry on my key chain.  I don't use it a whole lot, but it's handy for transporting files between home and office.

I have been working on a spreadsheet (xls) and this afternoon when I opened it up, nada.

Excel opens, but all i get is the main window (like when you close the sheet but not excel itself)  I've run the defrag and scanned for errors and that's about the limit of my knowledge.

I did read about freezing the drive and may try that later.

I can't remember if I have a copy of this on the server at the office or not.  I hope i do.

I mean, I have older copies of it so Im not totally SOL, but still.

Anybody have any data recovery tricks?

All the other files and pictures I have on the drive open just fine, every one of them.
"The Vincent was like a bullet that went straight; the Ducati is like the magic bullet in Dallas that went sideways and hit JFK and the Governor of Texas at the same time."--HST    **"A man who works with his hands is a laborer.  A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman.  A man who works with his hands, brains, and heart is an artist."  -Louis Nizer**

Monster Dave

#1
October 20, 2010, 12:28:53 PM
Because USB drives are solid state (no moving parts) they can act up after so many read/writes. I've had that happen on occasion to drives that are used a lot. I don't know about freezing the drive as I've never heard of that - and I can't see how that would do anything.

Have you tried opening the file on a different computer?

Monsterlover

#2
October 20, 2010, 12:38:39 PM
I tried on my wife's laptop (runs linux) with no luck.

It's about 2 years old, but it probably hasn't read/written more than once a month on average.
"The Vincent was like a bullet that went straight; the Ducati is like the magic bullet in Dallas that went sideways and hit JFK and the Governor of Texas at the same time."--HST    **"A man who works with his hands is a laborer.  A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman.  A man who works with his hands, brains, and heart is an artist."  -Louis Nizer**

Monster Dave

#3
October 20, 2010, 01:02:37 PM
hummm.......



Then there's no reason (work use related) for what could have caused that to happen. When you plug it in, is there anyway to tell if it's powering up?

If so, a colleague of mine highly recommended Roadkil Unstoppable Copier which:

"Recovers files from disks with physical damage. Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data. The program will attempt to recover every readable piece of a file and put the pieces together. Using this method most types of files can be made useable even if some parts of the file were not recoverable in the end."

Which you can download here: http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29

Monsterlover

#4
October 20, 2010, 01:14:05 PM
Oh it powers up no problem.

As I mentioned, every other file I have on it will open.

Just not the one I wanted to work on today [bang]
"The Vincent was like a bullet that went straight; the Ducati is like the magic bullet in Dallas that went sideways and hit JFK and the Governor of Texas at the same time."--HST    **"A man who works with his hands is a laborer.  A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman.  A man who works with his hands, brains, and heart is an artist."  -Louis Nizer**

Monster Dave

#5
October 20, 2010, 01:19:28 PM
Quote from: Monsterlover on October 20, 2010, 01:14:05 PM
Oh it powers up no problem.

As I mentioned, every other file I have on it will open.

Just not the one I wanted to work on today [bang]

Try that piece of software and if all else fails, at least you have a backup saved elsewhere.

il d00d

#6
October 20, 2010, 01:40:04 PM
Are you able to open any other Excel file at home?  What version of Excel were you using when you created it?  You might could try opening it in Google Docs or Open office or the like to see if there is a version incompatibility.

Monster Dave

#7
October 20, 2010, 01:43:46 PM
An incompatibility wouldn't make sense if he's been able to open it in the past.

il d00d

#8
October 20, 2010, 01:49:59 PM
Probably not, but you can save excel files in different compatibility modes.  Might be worth a shot.

erkishhorde

#9
October 20, 2010, 01:52:39 PM
I don't have any suggestions on recovering the data, but I have noticed that some Lexar brand flash drives don't like being battered on a key chain. I know it doesn't quite make sense considering that it's solid state but it's something I've noticed.
ErkZ NOT in SLO w/ his '95 m900!
The end is in sight! Gotta buckle down and get to work!

Monsterlover

#10
October 20, 2010, 01:56:22 PM
huh.  I got this one at a trade show a couple years ago, no brand name on it, just company logos

I'll try google docs and see. . .

Excel 2000 on both home and office computer

As mentioned above, I can open any other excel file off the usb drive, just not this one :(
"The Vincent was like a bullet that went straight; the Ducati is like the magic bullet in Dallas that went sideways and hit JFK and the Governor of Texas at the same time."--HST    **"A man who works with his hands is a laborer.  A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman.  A man who works with his hands, brains, and heart is an artist."  -Louis Nizer**

erkishhorde

#11
October 20, 2010, 02:20:28 PM
Quote from: Monsterlover on October 20, 2010, 01:56:22 PM
huh.  I got this one at a trade show a couple years ago, no brand name on it, just company logos

Eck... My mom got a no-name flash drive from Olympus when their salesman came to sell them a microscope. The darn thing died after 6mo of light use and something close to 1yr of non-use. Those no-name things can be really iffy. I'd back up all your other stuff now to make sure that you don't lose anything else.  :-\
ErkZ NOT in SLO w/ his '95 m900!
The end is in sight! Gotta buckle down and get to work!

Monsterlover

#12
October 20, 2010, 02:47:16 PM
I did!

[thumbsup]
"The Vincent was like a bullet that went straight; the Ducati is like the magic bullet in Dallas that went sideways and hit JFK and the Governor of Texas at the same time."--HST    **"A man who works with his hands is a laborer.  A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman.  A man who works with his hands, brains, and heart is an artist."  -Louis Nizer**

ducpainter

#13
October 20, 2010, 02:50:51 PM
Quote from: Monsterlover on October 20, 2010, 01:14:05 PM
Oh it powers up no problem.

As I mentioned, every other file I have on it will open.

Just not the one I wanted to work on today [bang]
I think you screwed it up. :-*
"Once you accept that a child on the autistic spectrum experiences the world in
 a completely different way than you, you will be open to understand how that
 perspective
    is even more amazing than yours."
    To realize the value of nine  months:
    Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.
"Don't piss off old people The older we get, the less 'Life in Prison' is a deterrent."


Monsterlover

#14
October 20, 2010, 05:48:48 PM
Operator error?

Inconceivable!
"The Vincent was like a bullet that went straight; the Ducati is like the magic bullet in Dallas that went sideways and hit JFK and the Governor of Texas at the same time."--HST    **"A man who works with his hands is a laborer.  A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman.  A man who works with his hands, brains, and heart is an artist."  -Louis Nizer**
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