Enema content on flash drive

We have a 2 TB flash drive on which there is quite a bit of enema activity that is not to be publicly shared. Suddenly it is telling me the drive must be “formatted” before it can be used, and I can't get into it to read or add files. I know that if I format it I will lose all content. Can anyone recommend a secure place where I can send the drive and at a minimum recover the content, and not have the content show up all over the internet?

Diane

In similar cases, I have recovered the content using specialized recovery software. Newer was able to recover 100% but usually almost all.

It's advised not to try to do any operations on that drive until you have a real tool to fix the directory structure to get the lost parts back. Doing other operations might mess the directory more and make the recovery harder or unsuccessful.

@azdiane It would be best if you have a tech savvy friend try and recover the data. Aside from the privacy issue, the cost could be astronomical. Most places that do data recovery charge by the Mb and many will charge for files “recovered” but still not readable. In some cases simply using a Linux Live CD to boot from will get you the data. Its been a while since I had to do any data recovery, but if you have a tech savvy friend they can check out Rescatux and SystemRescue.

If you want to attempt it yourself, look at PhotoRec https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec and Disk Drill https://www.cleverfiles.com/data-recovery-software.html you can install the programs on your computer, PhotoRec also has a Live CD.

I've had problems with flash drives doing similar problem things and losing what I had on them, and worse having them become unrecoverable.. Generally, Windows was pretty good at correcting flash drive problems - but Linux, which I now exclusively use, is not.

You are going to have to go back to the source and copy it onto another flash drive.

You are going to have to go back to the source and copy it onto another flash drive.

Most likely, the source isn't available any more - that's why it was put on a flash drive in the first place!

Have you tried RescuePro Delux? I have managed to recover some stuff on drives.

This is why you make more than one backup of anything you care about

@azdiane - I strongly recommend seeking help from a seasoned techie before trying to run any rescue software. Most rescue software will boot into your computer as a root user. Wandering around in your system as a root user gives you privileges that can really screw up your system. Best find someone who knows what is what with system software, or risk making your system unusable.

It seems like the “get a pro” suggestion is the best idea. So now I'm up against the problem of where can I find someone with the computer-savvy who can be trusted to recover hundreds of images of pretty girls enjoying enema equipment? I'd rather give out my SSN or bank account info than have pics of me with a hose and a swollen tummy start showing up all over the 'net. Any suggestions?

Well let me be the first to offer my services 😄

Seriously though, while I would be happy to help, I understand you don't know me from Adam and fully understand if you respectfully decline.

Do you have any friends in the “lifestyle” that you trust? Maybe here on Zity? You might find one that is tech-savvy.

Wow, bad news! The higher capacity flash drives have elaborate schemes to move data around to prevent one section from wearing out (wear leveling) and if the remapping table gets corrupted, it is quite a mess. There may be tools you can download that will allow you to get past the remapping and pull out the raw data and try to unscramble it. But, in many cases the on-board controller will prevent recovery. I always try to have several backups on various media CDs, DVDs, hard drives, etc.

Ugh 2 TB flash drive? Do you mean a USB thumb drive or an SSD? Generally, there is no such thing as a 2 TB thumb drive, they are all fake! When you fill up the actual capacity of the drive, it writes over the beginning, which contains the file directory, and kaboom! it all get scrambled. That may be recoverable. If the remapping table is corrupted, it might not.

Jon

That sucks. Maybe someone on FetLife? Surely you can't be the first person to have this issue. If the work is done in-person you could at least ensure no copies were made and perhaps even view the potentially recovered material in private?

@azdiane : Some time ago I had to recover a corrupted flash drive. FWIW, I can recommend Recoverit:

[Official] Data Recovery for Windows & Mac,Specialized in Photo, Video Recovery (wondershare.net)

The download is free, but IIRC they maneuver you into a subscription or a premium to use the really useful parts of their software. I used the sortware and then canceled the “extras.” It was fairly easy and intuitive to use but, as others have said you may want someone with experience looking over your shoulder, at least at the start.

Finally, flash drives are not the best medium for long term (or even mid-term) storage. As you have discovered, they can be fragile, especially if large files are cycled on or off the drive. That generates heat and heat will kill a flash drive (as San Disk discovered on some of its drives a few years ago). Buy yourself an external SSD from a reliable brand…

There's a free download called Recuva. I've had some success with that one.

Ugh 2 TB flash drive? Do you mean a USB thumb drive or an SSD? Generally, there is no such thing as a 2 TB thumb drive, they are all fake! When you fill up the actual capacity of the drive, it writes over the beginning, which contains the file directory, and kaboom! it all get scrambled. That may be recoverable. If the remapping table is corrupted, it might not.

Yes, I think from context that OP has been had. I hope that USB drive didn't come from Wish dot com…

A 2 TB USB drive is built like a brick and costs anywhere from 300 USD to 1200. 128G drives are beginning to be affordable and 512G and 1TB are not unheard of, but understand that two terabytes is a lot even for full-sized hard drives. We're not living in the future we thought we'd be in the nineties. We're encountering hard walls in advancing our technology, so the rate of advancement, which used to be quadratic, has declined sharply.

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is, and that goes double when you're buying from faceless sellers in an international online marketplace. Right now, a lot depends on the actual size of the flash drive and how much you tried to put on it. If it was a fairly large drive before they “dolled it up”, say 64 gigabytes, and you tried to put maybe 100 gigabytes on it, there may be a decent amount that was not overwritten. But if it was 16 gigabytes, your data is largely gone. That's just how it is.

And recovery is difficult. Computer file systems are a miracle of technology and when they go wrong, when the computer can't tell what's what in a mess of data that used to be some files… it's a problem neither humans nor computers are terribly good at solving.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

@vermouthenemakatie - Actually, I just purchased a 1 TB USB drive about a month ago for $99.97 but to get 2 TB would require $199.99. These are 1 or 2 TB SSD's in a portable USB enclosure. The price of SSD's has come way down recently. So, I have been replacing my old spinners with SSD's. WOW! talk about speeding up my machines! I do a lot of video work, editing and such, and the portable USB SSD Drives make quick transfer of huge video files from machine to machine a breeeze.

@vermouthenemakatie - Actually, I just purchased a 1 TB USB drive about a month ago for $99.97 but to get 2 TB would require $199.99. These are 1 or 2 TB SSD's in a portable USB enclosure.

Yes, I'm sorry, I did mean flash sticks and not external USB SSD's.

I have replaced the HDD in my laptop with a 1 TB SSD (79 dollars at Walmart), which enables me to boot Linux from cold in under a minute, but I do worry about it going corrupt. I do two backups a week.

This may be too little, too late…. But we use a cloud storage called Sync.com. It encrypts the video with an algorithm that even the administrators of the website can't crack. @sirensong and I store all of our enema videos (of eachother) there…. And if anything ever happened to us, poof! the account goes away when we fail to pay next year's $99 subscription fee. Well worth it.

I was in a similar situation a year ago when my mom accidentally deleted half of all the data on my PC. that was a disaster since I did not have a backup copy. I was really afraid that I would lose everything I had there. Thankfully I have found a repair shop in my town and the guys from there managed to help me make the data recovery (https://www.salvagedata.com). They were really professional and guaranteed that none of the data would leak from the HDD. If something like this happens, I can hold them liable in court. I was completely satisfied with their job and was really happy that I managed to get most of the data back since there were so many files from my work. From that day on, I make a backup copy of all the data on my PC.

Before doing anything else run a filesystem check (do a search for chkdisk if you're on Windows or “Disk Utility” repair on Mac).