Flash drive is saying it needs to be formatted

[idoluvken]

I have a flash drive full of wedding pics. I opened it two days ago and printed several pics. Today it won't open. It says that it must be "formatted" first. I don't want to lose my wedding pics... please help me!

 

[mubin]

Did you pull out the flash drive during data transfer?

 

[idoluvken]

I'm not sure. I left it in the computer all weekend and when I came into work today the computer had shut down (probably power failure) and I pulled it out before turning computer back on.

 

[Guest]

open my computer> right click on the removable drive icon > in the pop up menu select properties> in properties menu select "Tools"> In tool menu select "error checking"> There will be two option to choose , only go with the first option (default one).
This option should be suffix for ur problem.

 

[idoluvken]

I tried the above... and chose the first option which said: "Auto fix file system error" and it didn't do anything. Should I try the section option: "scan for an attempt recovery of bad sectors"

 

[mubin]

Do try. If not working then you might need to format it.

 

[idoluvken]

If I format it won't I lose it for sure? I thought format meant to clean the file.

 

[willard]

Yes, formatting destroys the data. You've already gotten into a situation where the data is likely destroyed. If you don't have other copies of the pictures, you could consider taking the drive to a data recovery specialist. They may have more luck, but it's expensive and may not do any good.

This is why you should always back up your important data.

 

[mubin]

If you format, you will lose all data.
Try with this recovery soft:
http://download.cnet.com/Pen-Drive-Data-Recovery-Software/3000-2242_4-186132.html

If it is not working, then search in net for a good flash drive data recovery soft if you dont want to loose the data.

 

[Guest]

never format. think that ur file system is badly damaged or ur pen drive may have developed fault. before doing any data recovery first make an image of ur pen drive. do a online search and u will come across tools to do that. try data recovery from that image file. if u try to do data recovery directly from the pen drive it may further damage it along with ur file system.

normally formating wont destroy ur data ( those can only be recovered with data recovery software after fresh format) unless u over write with them some other data.
as willard said if ur data is to important and u r bit like noob with respect to computer , better go to data recovery people.