SOS! I Lost My Flash Drive File! How Do I Recover my Data?

The handy USB thumb drive is a potential lifesaver, whether you are taking important business files back to the office or taking homework to school. But what if you unintentionally erase your files from the drive? Are they now lost to the Internet’s invisible abyss? How will you go about data recovery to bring back what you put so much effort on?

Picture this: you’re finished with your assignment—due today—about a story set in your Minecraft world. You use your thumb drive as a storage where you copy your document, then you head off to school to print it. But before you headed off to school, you triple-checked everything and made sure the file is on your USB drive.

Everything is where it should be, as you’d expect it. However, when you reached your school . . .

. . . suddenly, the file has vanished and is nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, a file that you cannot see doesn’t necessarily mean that the data can no longer be found. Kroll Ontrack EasyRecovery Home is used to recover lost files from your thumb drive, and this guide will show you how to use it.

Like any other tutorial, there are a couple things you’ll need before you proceed.

A Mac or PC you could work on
A copy of Kroll Ontrack EasyRecovery Home data recovery tool (a free trial copy is available on the Kroll Ontrack website which you can download)
A USB drive you can use

Depending on how “big” your thumb drive is, the file recovery process will take about 30 minutes.

1. Open the EasyRecovery software, then plug in your thumb drive. When the welcome splash screen appears, click Continue.

2. Select Memory Device from the Choose media type screen and click Continue.

3. You will see a list of removable drives connected to your computer on the Select Volume to Scan screen. Find the one that matches your thumb drive and select it, then click Continue.

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4. To perform a low-level disk analysis, EasyRecovery needs your permission. Enter your password when prompted and click OK, then Continue.

5. Select Deleted File Recovery on the Choose Recovery Scenario screen and click Continue. You won’t need to adjust any of the other settings on this screen in most scenarios.

6. The Check Your Options will now show up, which allows you to confirm your settings. Just click Back, if you find that you need to change some things. If not, then just click Continue.

7. The process may take some time, so you need to be patient while EasyRecovery scans your USB drive.

Click OK once the scan is complete.

8. The Save Your Files will now be available, which allows you to access the data recovered from your thumb drive. You probably won’t recognize many of the folders and files listed at first.

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By typing part of the file name into the search box on the top-right corner of the screen, you can quickly find what you are looking for. Try searching for the text “minecraft” so you can easily find your lost file called “Minecraft Mischief home work.doc.”

All of the deleted files that have the text “minecraft” in the title will be shown in list by EasyRecovery. You’re now nearly finished, and what you just need to do is get the data back.

9. You need to right-click on the correct file (press and hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard and then click the mouse) and choose Save and open folder.

10. Simply select your Desktop as the location where you’d like to save the file, to keep things simple, then click Save.

11. Once the saving process is successfully finished, EasyRecovery will inform you, and all you need to do is click OK.

A brand-new window will pop up, and it will show you the desktop and a copy of the file that was erased, and that’s pretty much it.

Once the data recovery is finished, you are now free to copy it back onto your USB drive or print out the document and e-mail it to your teacher, before you run out of time.