un-erasing stuff on a usb stick, how to?

ButterflyMelissa · 06-23-2012, 07:23 AM

Hi Gang,

Okay, I've done it! I wiped a usb stick clean...stupid of me, but hey.
Can a usb stick be un erased? How?

Thanks for helping out!

Thor

rosehosting.com · 06-23-2012, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor_2.0

Hi Gang,

Okay, I've done it! I wiped a usb stick clean...stupid of me, but hey.
Can a usb stick be un erased? How?

Thanks for helping out!

Thor

I'm not quite sure if you'll manage to somehow restore your data, but ArchLinux's File Recovery wiki may be the place to start from.

Out of my curiosity, what file-system your stick was/is using?

for fat32 / ntfs you may give TestDisk a try.

Good luck.

Randicus Draco Albus · 06-23-2012, 07:56 AM

For the record; It is impossible to un-erase anything. It is like trying to un-thaw something.

(Sorry, but I feel like being a jerk today.)
As for recovering or restoring deleted files, it is doubtful if you formatted the device, but hopefully I am wrong.

ButterflyMelissa · 06-23-2012, 08:01 AM

Hi gang!

Well, the stick reports as a fat 32 (fdisk -l) and nothing happened to it since. It just happened about an hour ago...
I feel like a noob...how could I do this? Well, I guess it's because I'm in love, I guess...

I'll give the suggestions a whack! Thanks

Thor

Randicus Draco Albus · 06-23-2012, 08:07 AM

Best of luck.

ButterflyMelissa · 06-23-2012, 08:40 AM

Thanks for the best wishes...but testdisk reports the filesystem as "broken" (unable to read it?) - eh, it was a transfer stick, anyway...serves me right for not paying attention...

Randicus Draco Albus · 06-23-2012, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor_2.0

...serves me right for not paying attention...

Been there, done that.

I could tell you horror stories of the messes I have created with my system by not paying close enough attention. The good news is I never make those mistakes a second time. Learning can be painful.

arifur · 06-23-2012, 11:50 AM

You can use
Photorec
Testdisk
Ddrescue

They are the best recovery linux recovery tools out there. Give Photorec a try I found this very helpful.

dru8274 · 06-24-2012, 05:16 AM

Just in the last week, I've read about some company in Oz getting rapped over the knuckles. They had formatted some USB-drives, and then sold them by public auction! But those antivirus people Sophos bought these USB-drives, and then recovered all of that supposedly deleted data. Red faces all around...

Sophos didn't mention what recovery software they used, apart from it being "off the shelf". But clearly data-recovery on a USB-drive is doable...

ButterflyMelissa · 06-24-2012, 04:32 PM

@ Randicus Draco Albus - yup, it's a mess, just like a bowl of spaghetthi, and everyone loves one of those once in a while

@ arifur - thanks, testdisk reported the filesystem to be damaged...no luck there, I'll look into Photorec next..., thanks
@ dru8274 - thanks for the note of support...its really no big deal, but it's what you dont know you lost that can bug...