USB files changed to strange symbols

[max8699]

Hi All,
Had a student show me her USB stick, she was saying all her files were strange looking. I opened the stick and all of the folders and files names have been changed to <?/>..< like symbols and the date last modified have all been changed to strange dates 2064, 1985, 2099,etc..

I scanned the stick for viruses which came up clean but it did report 20 errors. Never seen this one before I suspect the work of a virus but any ideas anybody??

Regards
Max
Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience

 

[karlisi]

Corrupted file system? Run chkdsk on it. One week ago similar problem was on my USB flash, all files gone

===
Karlis
ECDL; MCSA

 

[goombawaho]

I like to think of memory sticks as the "new" floppy disks. A lot of people don't think about memory sticks failing or getting corrupted. They are not all that reliable and can suffer from failure at the soldering joint from inserting/removing repeatedly.

Never mind the concept that you may be inserting your stick into multiple PCs which increases the likelihood of getting a virus on it.

Everybody should back them up periodically or they can go bye bye very quickly and with no warning.

 

[linney]

Can the files be copied successfully to the hard drive of another machine?

I also recommend at least trying ChkDsk on the USB.

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Try it first by not checking either box (this will run it in a Read-only mode) to see if it flags any hard drive or file problems. If it does, restart it by ticking both boxes, and rerun it to allow it to attempt to fix any found problems.


Data recovery.

The first link is freeware, the others are free to try before purchase. The last two are a slightly better product in my opinion.

PC Inspector

http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?language=1

GetDataBack

http://www.runtime.org/hints.htm

Data Recovery tools for Windows 98/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/Windows 7

http://www.restorer-ultimate.com

 

[dilettante]

Is there a Windows 7 question here somewhere?

 

[max8699]

thanks guys got the data back used getdataback


Regards
Max
Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience

 

[goombawaho]

Is there a Windows 7 question here somewhere?

What if there's not???

thanks guys got the data back used getdataback

Glad it worked for you but that was expensive and not that useful since most hard drives are NTFS. You almost have a one time use product purchase.

 

[max8699]

OK version I used was getdataback for fat and I used a free version had to do one file at a time but only had a couple of files to recover so was OK.

Regards
Max
Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience

 

[goombawaho]

I was unaware that ANY version of GetDataBack would allow you to recover files. Does the trial of GDB for FAT in fact allow you to restore a file or files??