It's official. I am an idiot.
I first noticed that the problem with the USB stick this morning when I went to sort through some photos which I had been meaning to burn to DVD. The laptop found it and all looked good but there was nothing on it and panic began to set it.

Once I got my internet fixed, I spent all evening downloading and trying different file recovery programs and none of them recovered my files.

Other sticks worked so I figured the problem was with the stick and not the computer.
I have an old XP desktop which I rarely use but keep as it's got a DVD burner. I decided to perhaps try the stick in it.
There was another identical Sandisk USB pendrive already in the USB port of the desktop which conveniently contained all my missing photos.


I obviously must have bought a spare at some point and had forgot I had two of the same

