I have a 128 GB Kingston USB stick that contains nearly all my photos from the past few years. It was working perfectly until recently when my MacBook suddenly stopped recognizing it, and now it won't show up on any of my PCs, even those running Windows. I've tried a few data recovery programs like iCare Recovery Free and MiniTool Power Data Recovery, but none of them can detect the stick either. I'm really worried—could it be completely dead? Is there a way I can recover my photos myself without spending a fortune?
4 Answers
Honestly, I can't definitively say if it’s dead, but it sounds likely. Flash memory can be pretty unreliable for crucial, long-term storage. Just make sure to keep backups of everything you can in the future!
That USB stick might be toast. I'd caution against using USB drives for important files because they aren’t as reliable. A hard drive with multiple backups is always a safer bet. You might want to check if the recovery software can read the stick at all, or its capacity—it might be an indicator of what's going on.
Be careful attempting recovery without the right know-how; you might risk permanent data loss. It's usually a good idea to create a backup image of the USB drive before trying any recovery methods. For crucial files, I recommend sending it to a professional data recovery service.
Definitely a harsh lesson learned here! Always avoid relying on just one USB stick or memory card for important files. They’re not meant for long-term storage. If you have any other data on different devices, make sure to back those up ASAP!
I tried iCare Recovery, and it shows the capacity as -0.50 KB, which seems off. Any thoughts?