Fix corupted thumb drive MFT

[John L]

I have an external USB 2.0 thumb drive that shows ascii cahracters for
folder names (the ascii line segments). The drive is a Kingston Data
Traveler 1 GB.

I believe this is a result of not using "safe to remove" process but rather
just pulling out.

I googled this issue and got plethora of "use this software"

The files are FAT32. Is there a prefered method to fix the MFT? The folder
show bytes underneath but I can ot access them.

THX. - This is graduate level work that my niece only had on the drive. I'll
train her better!

 

[smlunatick]

I have an external USB 2.0 thumb drive that shows ascii cahracters for
folder names (the ascii line segments). The drive is a Kingston Data
Traveler 1 GB.

I believe this is a result of not using "safe to remove" process but rather
just pulling out.

I googled this issue and got plethora of "use this software"

The files are FAT32. Is there a prefered method to fix the MFT? The folder
show bytes underneath but I can ot access them.

THX. - This is graduate level work that my niece only had on the drive. I'll
train her better!

--

*****************
John Lenz
(e-mail address removed)

MFT is the Master File Table (???) If this is "damaged" then Windows
by itself will not access the files correctly. You must use advanced
recovery software in attempts to retrieve the files to a known working
drive. Look for TestDisk, which is open source and well documented.
There are others but you usually have to "pay" to be able to save the
files.

 

[John John - MVP]

The FAT file systems have a File Allocation Table (not a MFT). FAT32
has a backup copy of the FAT, if the backup is sound the file system
uses it, if the file system can't use the backup you pretty well have to
resort to recovery software or to professional data recovery services.

But then maybe the FAT has nothing to do with it, thumb drives are prone
to sudden and unexpected deaths...

I can't recommend any flash drive recovery software in particular, try
searching:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt..."+"flash+drive"&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt..."+"thumb+drive"&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...overy+software"&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-501&sao=0

John