Flash drive not showing files

Question

Level 1

8 points

Flash drive not showing files

I recently had my computer reimaged (I bought it out from my university) and used a flash drive to temporarily save my files (I've done this every time I've gotten a new computer and never had problems). I have an 8 GB Maxflash thumb drive that when I plug it into my computer, the flash drive shows up but none of the files do. The "get info" tab shows that there is about 5 GB of files stored on the flash drive. How do I recover these files?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 13, 2016 10:10 AM

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Answer 1

clutton

Level 1

4 points

May 13, 2016 11:43 AM in response to breabee

What are the read/write permissions for the external drive?

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

224,760 points

May 13, 2016 11:50 AM in response to breabee

Can you see the files if you plug it into a different computer? Did you verify that it was readable in something other than the computer that you copied the files from? Do you still have your old computer available to try again?

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Answer 3

breabee Author

Level 1

8 points

May 13, 2016 11:52 AM in response to clutton

Not sure what exactly you're asking, but the get info tab says that I can read and write.

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Answer 4

breabee Author

Level 1

8 points

May 13, 2016 11:53 AM in response to KiltedTim

I tried it in a PC as well and that didn't work. I have another flash drive by the same company that is working just fine. I have the same computer that i saved the files on but the memory was wiped.

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Answer 5

KiltedTim

Level 10

224,760 points

May 13, 2016 11:55 AM in response to breabee

Then I'd say you have a problem. The drive appears to be corrupt. it happens. If you don't have another copy of the data, you may be out of luck. There are some data recovery utilities out there that may be able to reconstruct some or all of the data, but those worth trying are not free.

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