Today, we thought we would take you behind the scenes of the FlashDrivePros.com data recovery lab. We'll be demonstrating flash drive recovery recovery from a SanDisk Cruzer Micro. SanDisk flash drives are notoriously difficult to recover compared to other brands of flash drives. This is the one exception. If your SanDisk Cruzer Micro stops working, has no obvious physical damage, and has no indication when you plug it in to a USB port, this is how it's done...

Remember the ZIP drive? It was sure nice to finally be able to carry my files around. Though, the large disks were kind of bulky, and never mind the fact that they were anything but universal, i.e. you had to have a ZIP drive to read a ZIP disk. What a pain, actually! (Some of you from the younger generation probably have no idea what I’m even talking about.) In any case, there’s no denying USB flash drives represent a big improvement over all previous data storage technologies. We’re now able store huge amounts of data in our pockets and access it from any computer. We can run software on a flash drive. We can even install an entire operating system!

Hey, why not just store all our files on a flash drive and use it like a portable computer?

Well, sure, why not? But there are a few things you need to know before you launch into mobile digital euphoria. 

The problem: Flash drives break really easily. When using a flash drive, one slight bump of a knee is all it takes to break your flash drive in two and separate you from your important files and programs. Not only that, the technology on which flash drives are based can only withstand so many read/write cycles before it wears out and will no longer work. Finally, USB flash drives are made up of hundreds of tiny electronic components that can (and do) fail, rendering your flash drive useless and your files lost.

The solution: Always, always, always back up your files every day. “Ugh, but what a pain” you say? Not any more! iDrive will back up your flash drive automatically and keep a copy of your files on an encrypted online server…for free! The only catch is if you want to back up more than 2GB, you’ll have to pay $4.95 per month. But as a paying customer, you'll get a whopping 150 GB of automatic online storage! And with that much storage space you might as well back up your entire hard drive. Check it out at www.iDrive.com

Plan B: Hey, stuff happens, right? And if you ever do break a USB flash drive and find yourself tragically separated from your important files, FlashDrivePros.com offers 2-5 day data recover services for a flat rate of just $99. And if you need your files right away, we offer 24 hour service for $299. We can recover all types and brands of flash drives with either physical or logical damage. Send us your flash drive, we’ll recover your files and upload them to our secure files share server for you to download. In the unlikely event that we can’t recover your files, you pay nothing and we’ll even mail your flash drive back to you free of charge. 

Your know, ZIP drives did have one thing going for them...the cool bzzzeeerrr-clunk sound they made when you hit the eject button. : )

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In keeping with the halloween spirit, I thought I would share a few spine chilling tales of lost files we've heard over the last few months.

Case #1: A man, whom we'll call Bill, called us and proceeded to explain his preparations for his wife's 50th birthday. The party was just two days away and there were to be over 200 friends and family in attendance, many of whom had flown in from out of state. He went on to tell us how he had booked a beautiful chateau in upstate New York, hired an expensive caterer, and gone all out in the decorations. But, oh, the real centerpiece of the event was to be a masterfully orchestrated presentation of pictures and videos highlighting the memories he and his wife had made over their 26 years of marriage. He told me how he had spent months gathering photos and video clips and pieced it all together with her favorite music in the background. Then something terrible happened. That morning, as he was reaching for some papers, his laptop computer fell on the ground and snapped his flash drive in two. It didn't take more than a few seconds for the gravity of the situation to hit him. His face pale and his palm beginning to sweat, he picked up the phone...

Case #2 School is certainly a lot of hard work, but no homework I ever had could compare with the time and energy that goes into a doctoral dissertation. Sarah called us about a month ago, and through her sobs, managed to explain how her flash drive just stopped working after she accidentally pulled it out of her computer while some files were still transferring. "Can you help me?" she asked.

Case #3 Tracy's computer had to go to the shop for some repair. Being ever prudent with her files, she decided to back up all her family pictures to he flash drive before sending it off. A week later, she got a phone call saying how her computer had been destroyed in transit and they would be replacing it with a new one. "Well that's good news" she thought! That is, until she plugged in her flash drive and a message appeared saying "USB Device Not Recognized." "Oh please, don't let me lose my daughter's baby pictures." She thought to herself as she searched the internet for a way to recover them.

These three stories have two things in common: First of all, each one is true (except for maybe a little embellishment) Secondly, they all have a happy ending. Each one of these customers got their files back in less than two days for $99. FlashDrivePros.com has a 94% success rate recovering files from broken flash drives, and offers 2-5 day data recovery service for just $99, or next day service for $299.

Why are flash drives so prone to failure? As the storage capacity of flash drives increase and prices fall, quality seems to be the last thing on flash drive producers' minds. Consequentially, flash drives are becoming even more likely to fail. Most of the flash drives our customers send us have become physically damaged by someone bumping into them while they are sticking out of the USB port. But more and more of the drives we get have just stopped working. Sometimes an error is displayed saying "Device Not Recognized" and sometimes there is no indication at all.

In any case, there is hope! FlashDrivePros.com has a 94% success rate recovering data from flash drives that have either become physically broken or logically corrupted. Our experienced data recovery engineers can rebuild broken circuit boards, replace damaged components, and even remove the NAND memory chip and read it externally if need be. All this for a flat rate of only $99 for 2-5 day service or $299 for next day service.

www.FlashDrivePros.com