Help for recovering files from corrupted USB drive?

[Mayarose]

The USB flash drive is Sandisk, 4GB, formatted for Mac.

It became corrupted and I don't have access to stored files.
The messages on screen is that disk can not be read and invitation to reformat it...

I found special software for recovering files from corrupted drives but it is not affordable for a student like me...

I've tried to find in forums and word of mouth some shareware/freeware working on Mac OS 10.3.9 but all I got is programs that take space on HD and do nothing, that is, software that is about selling and marketing stuff, not the real thing. Tried with 3 different such a programs, sheer time wasting!
I found that this area is pretty much absolutely dark!

Do experienced fellow mac users know about some
truly working shareware/freeware that can help me retrieve the files from this corrupted Sandisk USB flash drive?

Thank you
Maya

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Whats on it, files or pictures?

Sandisk used to and might still give away file recovery software with some new USB sticks, I've thrown a few of those mini CD's away that come with a new stick or otherwise you'd be welcome to one, probably you could buy a new stick that comes with it.
I also bought a recovery app a couple years ago after I accidentally reformatted a windows partition, it was only about USD $30 and there are also various apps at about that price that will look just for pictures on USB sticks and cards and many if not all will tell you what they can recover before you pay. There used to be a very good free one lurking around, DIR but it went pay and a lot of the free versions were removed, you might find an older version one lurking in the recesses of the net. It was called digital image recovery, DIR.exe, unfortunately that's a pretty generic term so it will be hard to find that specific app.

Most if not all are PC only apps but presumably you can get access to a PC for this one-off task? I really wouldn't hamper yourself to a specific OSX OS release or not spending $30 or so. If that's an issue for you, ask yourself if the files are really that big a deal?

 

[jhall1234]

recovery of files from corrupted usb...

Yeah you are right all the recovery tools ask for the money $.I too have gone through this kinda of prob various time so I

purchased 1 "Advaced Disk Recovery".This tool has helped me all the time in case of data loss either accidentally or

intentionally.It recovers data very efficiently if not overwritten...in case of overwriting also it recovers data but the

certainity decreases.You can also try this recovery tool...in trial version it can recover 5 files but for more you need to buy

this.Buddy atleast u can recover 5 Important lost files with the help of this .Hope u get benifitted..

http://www.systweak.com/adr/download/

 

[fluffyx]

You have options:

A) You can download photorec (free software, but difficult to use).

B) You can download a free trial of Data Rescue 3, see if it can get your files, and if so, pay $99 to recover them.

C) Our price for USB flash drive recovery is $199. Other professional data recovery centers charge much more for the same work.