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many thx, jaclaz. I will spend some time browsing through these links and try to see if I can pick up a trick or two... Meanwhile, I will probably have to seek professional assistance and try to get my data recovered. Unfortunately, I just rebuilt my home PC few weeks ago and moved most of my data to that damaged USB stick. Although I did manage to find some back up data in a separate external hard drive, I may still lose some data saved this year if I can not recover data from the damaged USB.

thx for the candid suggestion!! I understand my case is probably on the complicated side so my hope to get my data back is not high.... If not too much of trouble from your end, I really appreciate for any pointers you can share on learning how to do data recovery. I don't plan to re-format my USB stick any time soon and have a new one ordered so I can keep this damaged one. Maybe use it as a learning opportunity.

Many thanks for this thorough explanation. In my mind, when I encounter an issue, I like understand it and try to solve it along the way if I have to learn along the side. In the beginning of this process, i totally had no idea about data recovery, slowly but surely, I start getting some idea how data works in the computer world. Although I don't have a computer science degree under my belt, I am interested in learning how to do this data recovery technique if you think this is something can be taught over the world wide web. If, for whatever the reason, you think this is beyond the purpose of this forum, I totally understand and respect that. Still, I really appreciate all the explanation and instruction received from you through out this exercise. thanks

Tools->Update Custer maps Tools->Cluster Map then you start "navigating" the "bottom window", (with cursor keys) you will see how clusters from 331 to 370 are not allocated, (and thus may contain the "beginning" of the excel file), if you continue (right cursor arrow) up to vcn 271 and go beyond it over vcn 272, you see that the filename changes, BUT if you go "backwards" (left cursor arrow) you will notice how the "same" area is now linked to "other files". ********************************************************************************************************************************************************* OK, i followed your instruction and went through the cluster map for those lines regarding the “Yahoo v Impulse System.xls” file. Like you said, this file if fragmented. Please correct me if I am wrong.... if I have a "good" USB stick, the cluster map will show consecutive sequence for each file and cluster # will match to file attributes in the upper panel. Currently, my cluster map is just like a scramble egg.... correct? I like to continue diving into this topic of manual recovery of a file..... Since DMDE provides the cluster map for a file, can I use the cursor arrow to locate other "fragmented" - “Yahoo v Impulse System.xls” piece and perform something like "cut and paste" so I can glue them in the same cluster area in order to fix the fragmentation issue? If my approach is not a good idea, would you recommend a way to piece back fragmented file together? thanks

Hi Jaclaz, I have attached some screen shots with some comments and questions for you on the instruction you posted earlier. Hope these screen shots will yield some suggestions how to proceed for the next step. thanks Fixed DMDE Stats.doc

Many thx, Jaclaz.... I will spend some good amount of time going through the instruction carefully and see if I get get to the final step. I'll let you know the process from my end. Again, many thanks for all the suggestions...

hi Jaclaz, I have posted the file via the link below for that 2 GB http://www.filefactory.com/file/complete.php/5nwpeox3z7az/ May I trouble you be a bit more specific what larger DMDE stat data you are looking? I will try to get that information over for your diagnostics. Yes, once I get the "larger" snippet, the "DMDE stat" data you posted might be useful. thanks

do you have a free hosting web site to suggest? I tried Mozy, but it is taking forever to do the 1st back up....

I bought this 2 GB Kingston USB stick many many years ago, maybe 2001 or so. I am not a serious data end user so I thought its enough for me to back up some data. I don't remember how I format the USB stick to be honest. I got it working when I purchased it from Amazon. My home PC has been running NTFS format all these yrs until recently I had to re-build my PC. I vaguely remember that the Window XP ask my if I want to use NTFS or NTFS (express or something like that). After I got my PC rebuilt, I didn't use my USB stick right away until last week when I needed to do some work related from home. When I put my stick into the USB drive, that's when i notice I can not access the data inside the USB stick. I hope this brief operational history may shade some light what I did wrong.....

Here is the info from ChipGenius: Description: [F:]USB Mass Storage Device(Kingston DataTraveler II+) Device Type: Mass Storage Device Protocal Version: USB 2.00 Current Speed: High Speed Max Current: 200mA USB Device ID: VID = 0951 PID = 1601 Serial Number: 5B6B1A291319 Device Vendor: Kingston Device Name: DataTraveler II+ Device Revision: 0100 Manufacturer: Kingston Product Model: DataTraveler II+ Product Revision: PMAP Chip Vendor: Phison Chip Part-Number: PS2251-54(PS2154) - F/W 03.00.10 [2005-09-06] Flash ID Code: ECD35195 - Samsung [sLC-2K]

pls bear with me.... I think i got it by doing the following dsfo \\.\physicaldrive 0 5120000 c:\dsfok\usb_10000.img I never had a file uploaded to a free host site so i need to create one. will post the link here once i have that set up thanks

Hi Jaclaz, I also included the DMDE run stats here. Secondly, I have to apologize not getting you the information you have been asking.... because I was not sure I understood what you meant in the first first place. Now, I gotta ask this silly question on how to extract part of the file from while image file result in "USB_full.img". My USB stick is 2 GB so I figure i need to get 2 x 4,000 + 2,000 = 10,000 x 512 = 5,120,000 bytes from the "USB_full.img" file. thanks DMDE Stats.doc

hi jaclaz, I used DMDE to seach the USB_Full. img from DSFO running result and was able to see the directory tree of my USB stick. I try to recover one file as example but ran into some situation here. I have attached the screen shot for your review. The Excel file was recovered but didn't seem to be able to open normally. My initial guess is that this file is damaged and can not be recovered. However, I still have some tiny hope deep down to seek expert opinion and hope there is a way to get the file back in tack. Really appreciate your input on this issue.... DMDE recovery sample.doc

Many thanks. I will take some time to look into what you suggested and keep you post on the progress.

I used online free software to recover most of my JPEG and MP3 or M4 music files so that portion of the file is not a big deal. Yeah i lost the file names, and dates but still better than not able to recover them at all. Now, my urgent goal is to find a way to recover my non JPEG and non music files. If you know a way to recover them, would really appreciate your thought on this...