Is My Memory Stick Beyond Hope?

[poisondwarf]

When I had finished work on the memory stick, which has back up copies of all my work, I received a message to say that it was inaccessible and that all files were corrupt. Is there anything I can do to recover my files? I am running Windows 7.
Please can anyone help?

[Old_Geezer]

I've rarely had luck getting such drives to work when they go, but try plugging it into other PCs.

Otherwise there are recovery programmes out there. You could try Recuva. It's free.

[bhg481]

At least it's only the backup copies you might have lost, not the originals. The message is always to have 2 (at least) independent sets of backups on different media.

[andy-hughes]

There's a company up the road from me called Datawreck - they are online - and they specialise in data recovery.

Might be worth ringing them to see what they say.

[Buenchico]

I'm rather worried about a message that says an external drive is inaccessible and that all of its files are corrupt. While I've experienced plenty of problems over the years with USB memory devices, I know of no Windows message that can declare files to be corrupt when it's already accepted that they can't be accessed to examine them! So I'm forced to consider the possibility of a virus or malware being involved here.

Start by running a full scan of your computer with your anti-virus software. Then run a scan with the free version of Malwarebytes:
https://www.malwarebytes.com/free/

The next thing to do is to try your memory stick in a different computer. I've encountered USB memory sticks which my laptop would refuse to recognise despite everything I tried. However simply plugging such a stick into a port on my desktop PC was all that was needed for it to appear and, from then onwards, my laptop would once again recognise it.

If you're still having problems, it might be worth trying Recuva:
https://www.piriform.com/recuva

[poisondwarf]

BUENCHICO TO MY RESCUE - AGAIN!!!
Thank you all very much for your suggestions - particularly Old Geezer (I wonder if he's as old as me!) and of course Buenchico, without whom there would be many computer-shaped holes in my windows! I followed Buenchico's instructions to the letter, which improved matters to some extent. For good measure, I ran Recuva and all is well in that I have been able to retrieve a large proportion of my files and photos. Of those that were unrecoverable, I had duplicates!
Strangely enough, Malwarebytes prevented me from opening Firefox!
Once again, thank you all very much.
Best regards
Chick AKA Poison Dwarf