I copied the contents of my father's old computer to a USB flash drive before formatting the computer. The drive was unreliable during the copy, sometimes appearing and disappearing, and later began asking for a password. I tried setting and then removing a password, but I entered something very long and random that I cannot remember. After formatting the computer, I discovered that the USB drive still requires the password, and I never saved a recovery key. The files include extremely important family documents and records that may date back to around the 1890s. Is there any legitimate way to regain access without the password, or recover the files another way? I am not very technical and would appreciate safe, step-by-step guidance.
4 Answers
Stop using the computer and USB drive for now. Repeated attempts, formatting, or writing new data could make recovery harder. Since these may be the only copies, the safest option is a reputable data-recovery company. A good provider can usually inspect the device and explain what is recoverable before doing extensive work.
If you also formatted the old computer's internal drive, a quick format may leave some data recoverable, but you should not boot from it or install recovery software onto it. It would need to be removed and read as a separate drive, ideally by a professional. Recovery software cannot bypass encryption on the USB drive, though—it only helps when files were deleted or a drive was formatted without encryption.
Once the files are recovered, keep several copies in different places. USB flash drives are not reliable as a sole backup, especially for important historical documents. Use a dependable external SSD or hard drive and another separate backup.
If the USB drive is actually encrypted, there generally is no simple way around the password without a recovery key. Password-cracking tools only have a chance if the protection is weak and the password can be guessed; a random, long password may be practically impossible to recover. Do not keep trying random passwords on the original device.
When the data is irreplaceable, I would not experiment with recovery tools or password-cracking software. Professional handling is worth the cost if this is the last copy.