I have never been so angry in my life!

[Matthew_T]

I am absolutely fuming!

Just plugged my pen stick into my computer to do some work and everything has been deleted! I have no idea what has happened. All of my college work and some personal data has been lost.

My neck is buldging with the surge of bloody which is almost at boiling point! I feel like killing something!!!!!!!

 

[lozcs]

Take it out asap and leave it out - I'm sure there are some undelete type programs that people can recommend to try...

 

[Matthew_T]

I have even lost my only copy of my CV and covering letter.

If there was ever a greater moment to use swear words then this is it.

 

[kedab]

where was the stick last used before your computer?

 

[TheLondonCyclist]

Sometimes when files are deleted, they would have bee moved to the bin instead of permanently deleted. A good software to retrieve files is http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/software/3408171/raxco-software-perfectfilerecovery-review/

I've used it to get back huge file sin the past.

 

[Norm]

Don't get angry, get your files back. I've used this stuff in the past and it seems to work well at rebuilding the index for deleted files.

 

[Oldspice]

What Norm said, as long as the files were saved to the disk and it's not damaged.

 

[gavintc]

Time to learn how to make backups.

 

[vernon]

Matthew, you have committed the cardinal sin of using your memory stick as your primary storage device. They are not even reliable enough to be used as back up devices. You primary storage shopuld be either at home on your lap top/PC or at college on the network.

You could use Google Drive or Drop Box as your back up.

There's no point in getting furious. It isn't healthy.

 

[endoman]

Lesson learned, data kept in as many place as possible. Dropbox as suggested. My lad has done exactly the same thing, he now knows, until you make the mistake yourself it doesn't hit home. I'm sure data recovery will get it back though.

 

[Davidc]

Use anything you can (good software recommended above) to get your files back.

Then start backing everything up. I use a program called MirrorFolder by Techsoft which has allowed me to survive all sorts of events for the past 16 years with no loss of data. I always keep 3 copies of everything, with copy number 2 being stored within a maximum of 2 seconds by that program. Once set up it works completely automatically whenever the backup drive is there.

Flash memory has its uses but never keeping primary copies of files. They tend to do exactly what yours has after enough use. I use flash (SD) for immediate backup to my laptop when I'm away from my main backup drive and now date the cards and throw them out when a year old.

 

[EltonFrog]

Your angry now, wait a few years you'll get even more angry beleive me!

 

[ASC1951]

Dropbox for me too. Everything mission-critical just opens from a link on my desktop, so I can't even forget to do it. My problem is not accidental deletion, but I have had my PC pinched and I've twice had hard drives fail catastrophically.
And I even remembered to have all my passwords on a hidden USB stick, so that if I do need to re-load everything from Dropbox I can still access them.

 

[HovR]

Data is rarely just deleted forever. Most of the time the data is just marked for overwriting, and then hidden - So it's still there, you just can't see it. Chances are as long as the data isn't corrupt, and it hasn't been over-written it should be fairly easy to recover.

Secondly, you have to back things up if you don't want this to happen. Invest in a good quality external hard drive (by the likes of Western Digital or Seagate). This will be big enough to keep a backup of all the important things on your computer (photos, CV, college work etc). Keep a second copy of this stuff on your computer - Just because you've now put it on the external hard drive, don't remove it from the computer.

Now get Dropbox. With this you have a 2GB storage limit and any data you put on there is remotely stored "in the cloud", so even in the event of something catastrophic happening, such as a fire causing you to lose your two hard drives, you'd still have the items stored in your Dropbox account. Storage space is limited here, so only use it for your most important documents/assignments.

 

[EltonFrog]

I'm slightly envious of you folk. I do not have anything on my PC that is even the slightest bit important. If my PC crashed, or the hard drive went, there would be no disasterous consequence, other than having to buy a new computer. Having had this realisation I now feel inadequate, in fact, I wonder now why I even need a PC. Oh alas and alack what am I to do?