I am trying to retrieve files that I have on a PNY 4G memory stick. When I insert the stick into a USB port the files are scanned for viruses. I can SEE the files being scanned. However, when the scan is complete, and I click on the stick's desktop icon, it is empty. No files! There is 1.8G of space left on the stick, so SOMETHING is taking up space on it. I am operating OS X 10.8.4. Any help would be appreciated.
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)
Because files on a drive are not erased unless overwritten by new data or by scrubbing in Disk Utliity > Secure Erase.
You can take the memory stick to a Windows machine and it may be able to copy the files and then you return them to the stick to take back to the Mac.
Or you can use software like this
The stick's desktop may be empty, but have you tried looking in the Trash?
Unmount all external drives other than the one in question.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
ls -@Oaen /V*/* | open -f -a TextEdit
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.
Cute.
I gotta learn me all the alphabet soup of command line command options in OS X..... 😉
Where are the files on my memory stick??
