Rob52

Dennis, Thanks for that point. Interestingly enough though, the files are not there or anywhere else on my computer. I wonder if that is what caused the initial problem.

And I'm back. So, what I did was restore the drive to its original corrupted state to prove to myself that yes I could restore the image file whenever I wanted. Then I went back through this thread and applied each of the tools again with a little more confidence than the first time around. And Dennis, there is no shame on me as I did remember that PM and I it added to my tool kit. A tool kit that I never would have had if not for this problem to begin with so, I figure I'm ahead just for that fact. Anyway, I performed a "Raw Recovery" and was, in fact, able to retrieve one file from the drive. As it happens the file was just a bit of non-important fluff but it did show me how the recovery worked which led me to restoring the .img file and going through all the steps again to make sure I just wasn't playing it too safe the first time through. After all of that, I fixed the partition and then ripped that god awful U3 software off. I now have a usable 16gb data storage drive which is just fine. Yes, I'll have to replace all the information I lost but most of it is all in hard copies anyway so it will just be a matter of typing and scanning it all back in, time consuming but no great loss. There were some pictures on the drive that cannot be replaced but again, lesson learned to use this a back up, not a permanent storage device. All in all I'm happy. And Dennis, I cannot thank you enough for the time and effort you put into this. Without your help and guidance I would have never achieved what I have. If I lived next door to you the beer and barbecue would on me. Thank you again. And a thank you to Alan_B for his input and everyone else that has offered suggestions along the way. I've learned from all of you. Thank you very much. Rob

Dennis, Just a quick note to let you know I have dropped off the face of the earth. Before I rip U3 off the drive I'm playing with a couple of ideas. I'll get back to you after I'm done and explain it all.

@Alan - Thanks for the info, I'll try to remember that if I ever use the Partition Wizard to create a new partition. @Dennis - That works, I now have a drive that will open. It shows as being empty of data (which I fully expected) so to test I moved a picture onto the drive. The picture shows up and I can manipulate it on the drive and take it back off the drive. Before I moved the picture to the drive I was curious so, just for grins and giggles I powered up Recuva to see if it found anything, it did not but I'm not disappointed in that. Anyway, my thought to all of this is the drive became corrupted due to U3 being somewhat unstable (I have read different boards where they curse U3 as the incarnate of all things evil) So, how do we go about ripping the U3 software off the drive and setting it to be a straight data storage drive?

@Alan - Thanks for the advice and I gave the Recovery Wizard a try, unfortunately is was unsuccessful. @Dennis - I'm inclined to agree with you at this point. I think the data is gone and may have been gone since it first caused problems. My vote to move forward to fix the drive as a data drive only. Hopefully that will also make it more stable since U3 won't be installed on it.

I tried the MiniPartion Wizard and did not get the options to run the "Check File System" routine with "Check and fix detected errors". Here is a screen shot of what I had available. I decided to look at "Show Partition Properties" and it shows 0% used The Partition Info tab also shows 0 So, no luck with this. I don't think it's looking to good for the info.

Dennis, You are correct, I already have the MiniTool Partion Wizard and I have installed and ran DriveImage XML, here is a screen shot of what came up. So that didn't work. I tried both the back up and browse options for my flash drive which shows as drive I, neither option gave positive results.

Dennis, Yes we had good New Year here, thank you for the well wishes. I'm not in a hurry to get the drive usable, I have others and I learned my lesson and actually bought a proper back up drive. And I am using it! Anyway, if you have other possibilities to explore I'm all for it. I've decided I'm in it this far I may as well go all the way with it.

Dennis, Okay, the Holidays have passed and things are back to a semblance of normal. I have restored the image file to the SanDisk and I agree with you, I truly believe the files are gone. So, if we can put this drive in a condition to just be a 16gb storage drive I would be happy. Rob

@Superfast - Thanks for the heads up on NOT throwing the drive away, I will admit there have already been a few times I have been tempted to feed it through my wood chipper. @Dennis - I must be truly brain dead, I have read back through this thread trying to figure out how to restore the image to the drive. We've used so many tools that I cannot figure out which one to use to restore the image. I'm sure it is not as simple as copy and paste so, if you don't mind, which tool am I using to restore the image?

Dennis, As it is Christmas Eve and I've family coming in, I will leave this lay for a couple of days. I will restore the image and we can see what else you have up your sleeve. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Rob

Well, I was able to reinstall the U3 software but only with checking the "do not backup" option. I tried and failed several installs with the "backup" option selected and continually received a pop up window instructing me to install a device in drive "I". Clicking either "okay" or "cancel" causes the installer to fail. However, since we have an image I decided to attempt the install without the backup, that was successful. However, attempting to launch the U3 software results in a message that states the drive is not either corrupt or not formatted. At this point I figured I had nothing to lose so I attempted to reformat the drive, it will not reformat. So, unless there is a magic bullet out there somewhere I really believe the drive itself is a lost cause.

Dennis, No problems at all. With Christmas around the corner, take your time and enjoy family and friends. This thing isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Rob

Dennis, I guess it's good news/bad news. TestDisk did successfully write a new MBR code to the SanDisk. I received a message in TestDisk that the code was successfully written must it must be rebooted to take effect. So I ejected the drive and rebooted my computer (I didn't know which it wanted to reboot so I did both). That's the good news. The bad news is now the SanDisk shows up as drive "I" and when I attempt to open it Windows gives the message "Please insert a device in Drive "I". So while it does display, Windows does not acknowledge there is anything there. Also, it does still show up as a CDRom drive.

Dennis, Okay, so I tried the first option and this is what I came up with: So, it says there is no partition available. Unless you have an different idea I will try the second option you gave. I'll do that after I hear from you on this. Rob