USB flash drive recovery

[Comdrpopnfresh]

I have a 2gb flash drive that recently was accidentally bent at the usb connector body. Now whenever it is initialized by a computer, it only reads to be 8mb in size, and needs to be formatted before it can be used. Is this thing and my files on it toast, or is there some common, yet unknown to me me, way to at least get my data off of the flash drive?

 

[Elixer]

Hmm, if the circuitry isn't damaged (but it sounds like it is) then you could use http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Other than that, you are most likely SOL, unless you handy with a soldering iron, and then you can try to fix it.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

I (at the bare minimum) own a soldering iron. So, any resources (off the top of your head, of course) for aid if things go that route?

It's actually my mom's flash drive; she's a teacher and it has all the ciriculum developement and documents she's created/amassed since the start of the school year.

Also, lightly bending the usb connection on the drive (enough to stress the solder points) allowed the computer to ID the full 2gb size of the drive... it just couldn't find a visible format, nor could it reformat the volume. Does that point toward hope, or SOL?

 

[RaiderJ]

Chances are the actual data is fine... just a matter of getting the connector working to pull the data off. If you're not handy with an iron, someone here can probably help out (myself included).

 

[Tech_savy]

Try this software to recovery of the data.

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/File_Maintenance_and_Repair