Flash Drive Disaster. Help!!

[rivel]

I take a lot of photos and decided to free up some space on my PC by transferring almost 1700 photos ( 8 months worth) to a flash drive.
After copying them I sent them to the recycle bin which I then emptied.

Everthing was fine until I sent a few back to the PC at the weekend in order to do some work with them.
Things were going fine then everything stopped.
The flash drive has gone completely dead and my PC doesn't even recognise it .

I would appear to have lost all the photos with little chance of retrieving them.
I could kick myself! Usually l leave them on the PC until I am ready to put them on CD.
Guess wht I'll be doing in the future.

I was wondering if there are any decent downloadable restore programs worth trying as a last gasp attempt.
It's probably too late but I thought there was no harm in giving it a try.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation.
Has anyone any suggestions?

[deggers316]

i suppose you tried your flash drive in a few different usb sockets?
there is some free recovery progs on here but ive never found they were much use
maybe a paid version might be better,have you tried it in a friends computer?

[rivel]

Thanks deggers316. I've tried it in another PC but it is totally dead.
I doubt I'll have to put it down to experience.

[deggers316]

cant see how flash drive can die? unless i'm not as bright as i thought
if it doesn't recognize your flash drive that's good really there could be a solution others might know about if it does see it and there's nothing on it well you've had it does it not show up in "my computer" if not don't give up hope

[TTG]

Bit late but don't do any more work. Try freeware tool call recuva.

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

[Wak]

http://www.theanswerb...s/Question913423.html

[AlBags]

You have to ascertain if the usb stick is dead or not first tho.
Is it lifeless?
Recognised in "ANY" way when plugging in?
What is said in it's entry in Device Manager? Funny name against it by any chance?

[rivel]

Thanks everyone for your help.
I tried Recuva and managed to restore some photos but a lot of other files can't be opened.

Deggers316 and AlBags - the flash drive is not recognised at all when I plug it in. Can't see it in Device Manager either.
Is there possibly something else I can do with it?