This seems like a lost cause. But I had formatted and reput on Windows XP...in the mean time information on my flash drive that was connected to the computer also lost it's data it's a SanDisk model SDCZ6-2048RB...any way to get the information back. It had pretty important data including tax information on it. smc

Your re-formatting XP probably had absolutey nothing to do with your flash drive problem. The two most common reasons people have problems with flash drives is... - they don't have it plugged into a USB port that it can work properly in. USB devices may not work correctly when they're connected to certain USB ports, e.g. ports in a hub or on the front of a desktop case. See response 3 in this: http://www.computing.net/answers/wi... - they have not been using the Safely Remove Hardware icon whenever they're unplugging the drive while Windows is running, and because of that, the data on the flash drive has been damaged. A thing people frequently forget to do (or are not aware of) is that when you want to unplug an external drive (or a flash drive, or a memory card reader that plugs in) while the operating system is running, you are supposed to click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon in your taskbar lower right, and STOP accessing the drive you want to unplug. In 2000 and XP, it's a gray rectangle with a bright green arrow on it; in Vista it's a mid green circle with a thick white checkmark on it - it may be hidden - you may need to click on the < at the left end of the icons in the taskbar to reveal it. If you were accessing the drive at the time you click on the Safely Remove icon, you may not be allowed to STOP accessing the drive - in that case, access some other drive, then click on the Safely Remove icon. If you haven't been doing that every time you unplug the drive, the data on the drive is usually not damaged, but sometimes it IS damaged, and in that case you need to use a program to repair the damage. e.g. these suggested by aegis1 in a previous post... No harm in trying a file recovery program. Depending on the amount of corruption, they can recover data with both FATs bad. PC Inspector (freeware) http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pcinsp... Zero assumption Recovery http://www.z-a-recovery.com The demo is limited It will only recover 'up to' four folders per run But you can make multiple runs Really good, but you have to pay for it. GetDataBack http://www.runtime.org/ .......

you can rely on the new Glary Undelete. It is free and easy-to-use files undelete solution for FAT and NTFS file systems. The files which are deleted from the connected storage devices such as SmartMedia, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, etc can be easily recovered with this tool. Here I copied the site for you: www.glaryutilities.com That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life

Thanks for your recommendation Emma Lee. It's always nice to have more then one option when attempting to recover files. File recovery programs are not all born equal. :-) TestDisk (free) is also worth a try. http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Test... Tubes, don't bother including my nick when posting those recovery file names. :-)

".don't bother including my nick when posting those recovery file names. :-)" OK. Noted.

Ok...with pc inspector, ZAR and Glary Utilities...it looks like most of my recovered files are jibberish for at least the names...not that I've tried opening them. I'm going to continue working with pc inspector and possibly Glary Utilities to get those files back to working order. Does anybody know how to return them to names that aren't jibberish??? Also, with Glary Undelete I'm able to select files to undelete them but I don't see the option of actually following through and recovering them...like a recovery button or something. Any ideas why and how to do this???? Thanks for the responses so far. smc

netsurfer802 When you get the list of files which could be recovered, tick up the checkin boxes before each file, not only select them as being in blue background. Then, in the right bottom corner there would be a restore button. Or else, the button would be in shadow and you may not notice it. That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life