An image was cut and pasted from a colleague's Windows PC onto a USB drive. Both of us initially saw the files on the drive, but I didn't verify them immediately afterward. When I checked later using a MacBook Air, the image was missing. The USB drive also didn't show the file when connected to two Windows PCs, including the original computer. Hidden-file viewing is enabled, but the image still isn't visible. What could have happened, and is there a safe way to recover it?
3 Answers
The transfer may not have finished properly, especially if the drive was unplugged before it was safely ejected. That can leave the file incomplete or cause filesystem problems. A failing USB drive is another possibility, so avoid repeatedly copying files to it and consider checking its health.
You can also check from macOS whether the file is present but not being displayed by Finder. Open Terminal, type `cd ` with a space after it, and drag the USB drive into the Terminal window to add its path. Press Return, then run `ls` to list the visible contents. If the image still isn’t listed, run `ls -la` to include hidden files. If it isn’t shown there either, recovery software or a filesystem check may be necessary.
Stop writing anything else to the USB drive and try a file-recovery utility first. Since the missing data may still be recoverable, minimizing new activity on the drive gives you the best chance of restoring it. Recuva is one relatively straightforward option to try from Windows.
I’ll try checking it in Terminal and see whether the file appears there.