lectures lost from a memory stick

[mark smyth]

I just plugged in my memory stick to work on a new lecture. Shock horror!! All my lectures are gone. For the last few months the stick has been sitting on my desk. Anyone know how to get them back?

[Susan Band]

Mark, you could use a recovery programme such as system mechanic, I managed to recover photos from a deleted camera card.
There are some programmes that you can download or you could buy one. Don't know how they could have disappeared, hope you get them back. 

[mark smyth]

I have Badcopy and Card Recovery but both have found nothing

[Maggi Young]

Did you not have them  backed-up on a disk, as well, Mark?
I wonder what on earth could have happened... I thought these memory sticks were meant to be quite stable.

[Maggi Young]

Okay, let's try a little lateral thinking.... are you absolutely sure that this empty stick is the one your talks were on? I mean, might you have bought a new one and this is it, you have got them muddled up, perhaps?

[mark smyth]

Of course they werent backed up! Hind sight etc. I only have one memory stick. I have my list that I send people so I'll have to sit down for a week or so to do them again. At least I can use Power Point by myself now

[annew]

I know just how that memory stick feels....

[tonyg]

Lectures lost from a memory stick  ...   
Lost lectures from memory ....   
Lost memory ... 
Doesn't it get your back up? 

Where have they gone? 

Thanks for the warning Mark - my first PPP is on the laptop.  Next time I turn it on I will back it up onto my memory stick .... now where did I put that memory stick 

[Paul T]

Mark,

Do you have any local computer repair places?  They may be able to help you to find what is unaccessible to you on the memory stick.  I'd imagine if you had a strong enough magnetic field near the memory stick that could wipe it.  The computer repair place would have better programmes for recovering data that we PCers do.

[Susan Band]

Are there any which have been uploaded to another computer which was used for the projection, such as the Aberdeen SRGC one? There are quite a few talks left on the SRGC comp that Sandy has.

[David Pilling]

Try the various file unerase programs that exist for Windows/DOS.

The last resort is to have a look with a disc sector editor which will show you what exists on the actual hardware.

Memory sticks use flash memory which is not magnetism based.

[Paul T]

David,

I didn't realise that they didn't use magnetics.... you learn something knew every day!!  I'll keep that in mind for the future.  Is there any way you can think of that a flash memory can be erased outside of accidentally deleting it on the computer?

[David Pilling]

Is there any way you can think of that a flash memory can be erased outside of accidentally deleting it on the computer?

As in when in use? In that case software bugs, hardware faults, electrical transients i.e. when plugging in and unplugging, user error. Flash also wears out if you write data enough times.

Or as in my friend has a flash memory card in their pocket and I want to erase it? In that case a large enough electrostatic field - which they may notice.

[Paul T]

Which means that something with an electrostatic field possibly interfered with it while on Mark's desk, which was why I was asking.  I was just checking it WAS possible for it to be blanked accidentally while on his desk, rather than accidental deletion while connected up to the computer.

[mark smyth]

something starnge happened and I forgot to report it.  Two weeks ago tomorrow I gave a bulb lecture in Belfast. The day before, very lazy I know, I worked on a new lecture. I opened the memory stick only to find all lectures present