Dear Computer Lady,
Is there any way to recover data from a memory stick that shows blank?
I’ve been using a memory stick for a couple years now, and it has a significant amount of important data on it.
When I plugged it in today, the stick indicated empty.
Thanks, Matt
Dear Matt,
Your best bet to try and get your data off the memory stick is to send it in to a data recovery company.
USB data sticks are a form of magnetic media, and as such, they can be damaged by heat, moisture, static electricity, or magnetic forces.
Because of this, you should never keep your only copy of important files on a data stick. Instead, always keep a backup copy on either your computers hard drive, another data stick, or a CD or DVD disk.
Unfortunately, data recovery is expensive, but a good company will be able to look at your drive and give you a quote. A good place to start looking is Kroll Ontrack at:
http://www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery/
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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Hi, here is also a guide showing how to recover data from USB stick:
http://www.kvisoft.com/tutorials/recover-files-from-usb-stick-with-usb-recovery-software.html