Uh oh, sounds bad! My first thought would be to try using programs designed to remove corrupted files. I can't think of any names off the top of my head, but a Google search should turn up something. At any rate it's something you can try until somebody more knowledgable about situations like this arrives

Maybe the newest release of Partition Magic can solve the problem... It fixes almost everything (trust me), and I suspect that your drive FAT(File Allocation Table) got screwed somehow... The program that I suggested reads raw data from start to the EOF (end-of-file) marker, and exctracts files (almost) intact... Usually doesn't work with compressed volume drives, or "zipped" files, tho...


Careful what you wish... You might just get it.

Edited by - Chetnik on 27-06-2003 01:24:00

This is crap I tell all my users almost everyday. Never trust stiffys or any type of removable media. Always store a copy on the drive as well incase something happens. Do you think they listen.... nooo.

Anyway, the only way you will ever be able to get the data of is by going to ppl that specialize in getting data of ei: crashed HD's, corrupted drives...

That still won't solve your friends problem when he has the file since you say the file is also corrupted.

--------------------------------
Michael"TRAPPER"Needham
The Weak Shall Perish

...Yes sir thats right... just drop your cargo or I can open your hull with my twin plasma blasters, and take the cargo for myself.......Thank you, have a nice flight.

Think you better buy your mate some coffee and tell him to start the report again.
Not as good as getting the data back but 15hrs is long enough to get a relatively decent report out.
He must have some notes somewhere other than that file.
Hope he gets it done and sorry I don't have any better suggestions.

Skymouse

Ok, he gets weekend-long stay of execution. We'll try that Partition Magic suggestion, Chetnik. Thanks. If that does not work, we'll get it to the PC retailer where he got that thrice-accursed USB Storage and beat them with sticks to get them try and fix it.

In either case, it was written in 3 days, and he got 2 days to rewrite. Not too bad. Thx to everyone.

with my own comp.. i've been able to extract most of the important stuff under conditions which have the blue screen of death pop up every click i make. just stay calm. but if the file itself is corrupted.. i think you don't got too much choice other than beat the retailer up with sticks.

Science is knowledge.
Knowledge is power.
Time is money.
power = work/time
therefore, knowledge= work/money
therefore, money = work/knowledge
therefore, money is inversely proportional to knowledge.

therefore,

The more knowledge you have, the less money you have.

Prepare for the worst, for you have read the worst.

This may be a tad late but sometimes those 'format drive' messages are PC specific. You can occasionally recover the file by using the media on a different pc, most usually the pc it was last saved on. Don't ask me how or why but i've managed to salvage a number of reports that way, only with 3 1/2" floppies though.