mac_shinobi Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 Just had a teacher come to us last friday afternoon and wanted some data retrieved from her memory stick that was about to die at first it kept flashing in my computer and appearing and disappearing every second, had to reboot it to let windows install drivers. It managed to copy most of it except one file from what I am aware but was just curious if anyone had any extra info regarding the best way of retrieving files / data from a memory stick that is failing or on the virge of failing ? Thanks
ChrisH Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 You will need some recovery software for that. There are some suggestions in a recent post here
mac_shinobi Posted November 11, 2006 Author Posted November 11, 2006 Found testdisk on that url, looks good : http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk Think I will have to download those and slap them on my shuffle
mac_shinobi Posted November 11, 2006 Author Posted November 11, 2006 Just thought, you know with hard drives that are about to die , not sure if its true or not but ive heard you can put it into a sandwhich bag ( zip locked ) and put it into the freezer for some time and then use it again to get the data off of it. Is that true and also would that work for a memory stick considering they use memory chips and its not magnetic etc. just a thought
Grommit Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 I look at them all caring like and say.... do you have a backup of this Flash Drive ? If they say no.. I put the flash drive in and see if it works or not.. if not I say .. sorry you should have backed it up... its dead and chuck it in the bin.... and then get back to the other 50 billion more important jobs I have to do before lunch... we only give staff 128 or 256mb data sticks to stop them putting too much on them and losing ALL thier work.. Or biggest issue now is staff dumping their full 512mb disks on the servers and not checking before they dump more 512mb sticks onto the server and duplicating the backups...
mac_shinobi Posted November 11, 2006 Author Posted November 11, 2006 thats fair enough and a good point
beeswax Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 Just thought, you know with hard drives that are about to die , not sure if its true or not but ive heard you can put it into a sandwhich bag ( zip locked ) and put it into the freezer for some time and then use it again to get the data off of it. Is that true and also would that work for a memory stick considering they use memory chips and its not magnetic etc. just a thought what freezing/chilling does is to make the disks to contract and create a little more space for movement. it sometimes works, it sometimes doesn't
Geoff Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 Or biggest issue now is staff dumping their full 512mb disks on the servers and not checking before they dump more 512mb sticks onto the server and duplicating the backups... Quotas?
john Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 I have used the freezer method, and works well, and WDC don't even notice when I return it to them, they are funny when defrosting though, they start dripping water down them, and be careful you can get your hand stuck on them
kingswood Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 I look at them all caring like and say.... do you have a backup of this Flash Drive ? If they say no.. I put the flash drive in and see if it works or not.. if not I say .. sorry you should have backed it up... its dead and chuck it in the bin.... and then get back to the other 50 billion more important jobs I have to do before lunch... we only give staff 128 or 256mb data sticks to stop them putting too much on them and losing ALL thier work.. Or biggest issue now is staff dumping their full 512mb disks on the servers and not checking before they dump more 512mb sticks onto the server and duplicating the backups... My sentiments exactly. BTW- as Geoff said, quotas are good for making sure user areas are limited or that the administrator is warned about people misusing storage on servers. If you use Server 2003 R2, the new File Server Resource Manager snap-in tool has great reporting features that let you run a report on user areas and detail file sizes and total space used...I ran one last week and found a few surprises! Paul :-)
ChrisH Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 Or biggest issue now is staff dumping their full 512mb disks on the servers and not checking before they dump more 512mb sticks onto the server and duplicating the backups... A good feature of R2 is the storage reports. You can schedule them to run and email the user the report specificially pointing out the duplicate files. You can change the template of the message as well explain it better to them. Edit sorry missed the post above me but I went into a bit more detail about automation and getting the users to tidy up after themselves
mac_shinobi Posted November 12, 2006 Author Posted November 12, 2006 Just thought, you know with hard drives that are about to die , not sure if its true or not but ive heard you can put it into a sandwhich bag ( zip locked ) and put it into the freezer for some time and then use it again to get the data off of it. Is that true and also would that work for a memory stick considering they use memory chips and its not magnetic etc. just a thought what freezing/chilling does is to make the disks to contract and create a little more space for movement. it sometimes works, it sometimes doesn't Are there any other tricks or tips like that which would also help ? Aside from obviously making back ups ( Golden rule # 1 obviously )
kingswood Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 Errmmmm...yeah...make sure you have a ghost image of the HDD and just restore it to its former glory. That way you don't spend two hours on a job just looking for scripts and stuff trying to fix the issue and get on with some real work...hehehehe...
kingswood Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 Of course for memory sticks you could use this: http://www.brothersoft.com/utilities/system_utilities/memory_stick_data_recovery_46681.html But it does mean spending money. And I know you are loathe to do that. It *is* only around $40. Peanuts really. And no. The school won't buy it for you ;-)
plexer Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 And no. The school won't buy it for you Well in thats case it's not a solution then is it? Ben
mac_shinobi Posted November 12, 2006 Author Posted November 12, 2006 Errmmmm...yeah...make sure you have a ghost image of the HDD and just restore it to its former glory. That way you don't spend two hours on a job just looking for scripts and stuff trying to fix the issue and get on with some real work...hehehehe... We are going to get them to use ghost and make an image of there memory stick(s) ?
kingswood Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 Why would that be? It's a piece of shareware. We get around two requests for USB memory stick restores in any given year. We *cannot* spend 30 minutes recovering one special file that should have been backed up to a network drive, when we should be taking that time and using it more productively. Staff *know* that we can only restore files they have backed up to network drives. In the example Shane gave it was simply a case of rebooting the system after USB drivers were installed so that the stick could be mounted properly. It took five minutes. The member of staff in question *knew* policy and when asked said that she had backed up most of the files on the stick anyway. It was just that she needed the stick home with her... Long story short: no. The school will not buy the utility. $40 shareware application from an American "supplier". Doesn't sound good for the auditors now, does it? But *I* am going to buy it so that we have it for use. That's where you jumped the gun. I'm not unreasonable- I just don't like people assuming too much. If it were left to Shane we would be buying tons of scripting utilities and little applications that can end up making spaghetti out of what should be a simple job (and Shane knows my sense of humour ;-) Thanks ;-)
kingswood Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 Errmmmm...yeah...make sure you have a ghost image of the HDD and just restore it to its former glory. That way you don't spend two hours on a job just looking for scripts and stuff trying to fix the issue and get on with some real work...hehehehe... We are going to get them to use ghost and make an image of there memory stick(s) ? Prat. Read the responses I gave. One after the other. Slowly.
mac_shinobi Posted November 12, 2006 Author Posted November 12, 2006 I see grommit made a comment about quotas and users dumping there memory sticks onto the server and duplicating backups and I've read the rest of it and I am obviously missing something here as I still don't get how ghost comes into it but ok I do however agree with you on backing up to the network and also I wasn't expecting the school to pay for it. As for the question that I asked part of it was --> "curious if anyone had any extra info regarding the best way of retrieving files / data from a memory stick that is failing or on the virge of failing ?" I was thinking more along the lines of someone maybe suggesting to use a linux live disc so that windows doesn't try and write to or from the usb memory stick or just some articles that briefly describe some good practises when doing data recovery and stuff like that. I wasn't really interested in use x, y, z pieces of software, although that test disk piece of software that is open source looks interesting : http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk LOL @ the scripting thing "I'm not unreasonable- I just don't like people assuming too much. If it were left to Shane we would be buying tons of scripting utilities and little applications that can end up making spaghetti out of what should be a simple job (and Shane knows my sense of humour" You being un reasonable never crossed my mind !
ranj Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 bad copy pro is a good program to recover data
kingswood Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 I see grommit made a comment about quotas and users dumping there memory sticks onto the server and duplicating backups and I've read the rest of it and I am obviously missing something here as I still don't get how ghost comes into it but ok I do however agree with you on backing up to the network and also I wasn't expecting the school to pay for it. As for the question that I asked part of it was --> "curious if anyone had any extra info regarding the best way of retrieving files / data from a memory stick that is failing or on the virge of failing ?" I was thinking more along the lines of someone maybe suggesting to use a linux live disc so that windows doesn't try and write to or from the usb memory stick or just some articles that briefly describe some good practises when doing data recovery and stuff like that. I wasn't really interested in use x, y, z pieces of software, although that test disk piece of software that is open source looks interesting : http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk LOL @ the scripting thing "I'm not unreasonable- I just don't like people assuming too much. If it were left to Shane we would be buying tons of scripting utilities and little applications that can end up making spaghetti out of what should be a simple job (and Shane knows my sense of humour" You being un reasonable never crossed my mind ! YOU: "Just thought, you know with hard drives that are about to die , not sure if its true or not but ive heard you can put it into a sandwhich bag ( zip locked ) and put it into the freezer for some time and then use it again to get the data off of it." My response: just use ghost (in a light hearted way). YOU: "I see grommit made a comment about quotas and users dumping there memory sticks onto the server and duplicating backups and I've read the rest of it and I am obviously missing something here as I still don't get how ghost comes into it but ok" You only see what you want to see. You thought someone had a strike against me and so wanted to join in. And now you patronise me with this tripe. OK. You wanted software (though you say not specific "X, Y, Z" unless it is Linux which you hardly use anyway) that can recover USB drives (not a big deal on our network anyway). You have had some suggestions. Take them and actually do something with them without trying to score some kind of ego trip on a public forum for goodness sake. Amd then do what you're supposed to be doing and learn to use Server.
GrumbleDook Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 Ouch ... I really want to be a fly on the wall come Monday!
kingswood Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 Ouch ... I really want to be a fly on the wall come Monday! I'm charging enough so that I can cover the cost of that utility that Shane now says he doesn't want I'll let you in free though ;-)
john Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 All sounds like good fun in your school hey Kingswood.
kingswood Posted November 12, 2006 Posted November 12, 2006 All sounds like good fun in your school hey Kingswood.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now