# Did it again - ruined my flashdrive



## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

A few months back I somehow ruined my flash drive even though I always make sure to disconnect it properly. I had a nagging suspicion that *I* did it rather than it being a freak accident thing ... but I don't know enough to have known that for sure. Well, I've gone and done it again. Now I *know* what I did! Of course, now I need to know if I can fix it without having to spend hundreds of dollars on files that aren't life or death but took me a lot of time to create - and then didn't save copies of ... I know, I know, but my laptop was never 'stable' enough to rely on it and my PC is with my niece at college.

Sooo...now for the fun part! On my laptop I have Office 2007 and of course, NOTHING ever stays the same so now instead of the doc extension we have some worthless POS docx extension. :grit: I'm sure some multi-billionaire has a very good reason for this, personally I'm driven to the brink of violence just thinking about it. Anyway, I was working on stuff for work & trying to transfer files from a 2007 Office-havin' computer to one with an earlier version so that I could print it out (didn't have a printer attached to my laptop at work) and forgot to change the file type to the compatible with earlier versions 'doc' when saving it on my laptop. So, being a dumb blonde I just tried to change it right there on the older-version-havin' computer. Didn't work. Did kill my flash drive, though. :stars:

I've read that you can send the flash drive in to the 'experts' for very important information retrieval that might cost a fair chunk of change, but I'm hoping that it's not nearly as complicated or expensive. Does anyone have any ideas? (Other than not leaving me alone and unsupervised around flash drives?!?)


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Nothing you said should have "killed your flash drive" What makes you think its dead?
The way to make a docx file a doc file is to have it open in Office 2007 and use the 'Save As' function and choose "Word 97-2003 document". (or if it was Excel same thim except it would be 'Excel 97-2003" and go from xlsx to xls

What did you do? I'm guessing you changed the file extension, if that is the case, change it back and open it in Office 2007 and then for each document do a "Save As" a "Word (or Excel, etc) 97-2003 document".


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

What makes me think it's dead is the fact that I can plug it in to every computer I have access to and not a single one recognizes it. They will recognize 'something' (can't recall exactly what) but it doesn't lead to anything & won't open the flash drive. For example, before, when I'd insert the 'good' flash drive (I had two ... an older, smaller one for stuff for work & a newer larger one for personal) it'd recognize the flash drive as 'Kingston' and go on about it's business. Once I killed it something popped up, I guess it says 'removable disk' but I cannot open it.

Yeah, I know that I *should* have saved it as a compatible version before taking it to the pre-2007 Office computer but I didn't. Of course, I *should* have just taken it back to the laptop & fixed it but that would have been the logical thing to do. 

I did change the file extension, which is what apparently caused the flash drive to go code blue on me. I cannot open it to change it back because I cannot access the flash drive. That is the only thing that I did that was out of the ordinary and the one thing I did right before the flash drive went belly up.


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## lharvey (Jul 1, 2003)

Microsoft has a File Converter for older versions of office to convert from .doc to .docx file extension.

You can download the free patch from Micro$oft here> http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx

Takes a second to install and all will be good as far as running office.

Your thumbnail is another story.

Lee


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

> Sooo...now for the fun part! On my laptop I have Office 2007 and of course, NOTHING ever stays the same so now instead of the doc extension we have some worthless POS docx extension. I'm sure some multi-billionaire has a very good reason for this, personally I'm driven to the brink of violence just thinking about it.


There was a name change because there was a significant change in the file format. If you need the old format then save the old format.



> Anyway, I was working on stuff for work & trying to transfer files from a 2007 Office-havin' computer to one with an earlier version so that I could print it out (didn't have a printer attached to my laptop at work) and forgot to change the file type to the compatible with earlier versions 'doc' when saving it on my laptop. So, being a dumb blonde I just tried to change it right there on the older-version-havin' computer. Didn't work. Did kill my flash drive, though.


What did you do? Try to change the .docx to .doc? with a rename, thats NOT going to kill a flash drive. I am not sure what you really did here. please explain. There is little you can really do to "KILL" a flash drive. You can courpt the filesystem making files unreadable but to physically damage the device is difficult, even unplugging it will not do that. What does the drive now way when you connect it? Go into "my computer" properties and look at the hardware, is it seen? If your physcially damaging your device then I would look at the laptop as having a defective usb port and providing more voltage than is spec. If its a old laptop it might be pre-usb spec system and be providing more voltage than spec devices will take.



> I've read that you can send the flash drive in to the 'experts' for very important information retrieval that might cost a fair chunk of change, but I'm hoping that it's not nearly as complicated or expensive. Does anyone have any ideas? (Other than not leaving me alone and unsupervised around flash drives?!?)


There are people that do drive recovery, figure $50-100/per Gb of the device, not Gb recovered.


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## Kari (Mar 24, 2008)

Cat said:


> What makes me think it's dead is the fact that I can plug it in to every computer I have access to and not a single one recognizes it. They will recognize 'something' (can't recall exactly what) but it doesn't lead to anything & won't open the flash drive. For example, before, when I'd insert the 'good' flash drive (I had two ... an older, smaller one for stuff for work & a newer larger one for personal) it'd recognize the flash drive as 'Kingston' and go on about it's business. Once I killed it something popped up, I guess it says 'removable disk' but I cannot open it.
> 
> Yeah, I know that I *should* have saved it as a compatible version before taking it to the pre-2007 Office computer but I didn't. Of course, I *should* have just taken it back to the laptop & fixed it but that would have been the logical thing to do.
> 
> I did change the file extension, which is what apparently caused the flash drive to go code blue on me. I cannot open it to change it back because I cannot access the flash drive. That is the only thing that I did that was out of the ordinary and the one thing I did right before the flash drive went belly up.


The pc is probably recognizing the USB device (hardware) but I would venture to say that the file system is at fault here. If you wish to send the drive into a professional recovery center...ensure you have deep pockets.

In my line of work (computer security) we see file systems destroyed for any number of reasons and the cost to recover data if the client so wishes can start at 1500.00 and exceed $10,000.00. You need to evaluate how important the data is compared to your willingness to pay for the recovery. 

BTW...changing a file extension was/is not the cause of the issue.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

I agree, renaming a file extension will not kill a flash drive. You've got something else happening, if you've 'killed' 2 flashdrives on this laptop, its probably a problem with the laptop (like a bad USB port or a voltage spike).
As part of my job in tech support, I change file extensions all the time for various reasons, usually to get a anti-virus or anti-malware program past a 'smart virus' or to get an email attachment past a filter -- doesn't hurt a thing and is always easily changed back.

Try this, plug it into a computer and double click on the 'My Computer' icon, tell us what it detects it as, then try double clicking on that and tell us what it says (if anything)

You could probably buy a really nice computer (and probably go on a nice vacation also) for what it would cost to recover data if it is in fact 'fried'


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