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So I have a 64 GB SanDisk USB drive whose contents are a complete mystery. When I try to insert it into my computer (Windows 8), it does not appear in My Computer. Diskpart tells me that there are no volumes on the drive either. Does this imply that the drive has no data? Is there any other way to check? Or should I just create a new volume and enjoy my newfound USB drive?
VGP
Posted 2014-08-24T04:48:20.510
Reputation: 13
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Strictly speaking, when diskpart tells you there are no volumes on a disk, it only means that the
MBR Partition Table or GUID Partition Table on the disk do not have any partitions listed in them.
If the disk was used with Windows previously and had data on it, and the partitions were deleted using something like Disk Management or diskpart without deleting the contents of the partitions first, the partition table entries are gone but the disk blocks with the contents are still untouched.
There are tools that might be able to figure out the details of these partitions and recreate the partition table entries. See: How to recover deleted NTFS partitions?
rakslice
Posted 2014-08-24T04:48:20.510
Reputation: 2 276
Is it also possible that the volume might have been created using a different filesystem, leading to Windows not recognizing the existence of the volume? – VGP – 2014-08-24T05:34:36.170
It could also be that it was written to as just a huge file or archive w/o any filesystem being on it. Without knowing the source or history of this USB I cannot answer this definitively. – mdpc – 2014-08-24T05:52:57.820
I figured that'd be the case. I'll leave the question open for a bit longer in case someone has a good idea, but thanks for the help. – VGP – 2014-08-24T15:50:23.793
Are you sure this USB stick is not broken? I recently had one that used to work ... started working funny and it had good information on it! – mdpc – 2014-08-24T05:51:34.203
I honestly have no idea - I just found it one day in a house I recently moved into! – VGP – 2014-08-24T15:49:16.990