Many missing files after files moved from portable memory to flash-drive

I think you probably got all the good files you got out of the fake drive. At this point, it is probably best to move to DMDE on the original drive.

It would seem so. I'll start working with the DMDE tool tomorrow, see how that goes and give you an update. Have a great evening!

Try using Irfanview to open the problematic photos, it will often be able to open photos that the Windows viewer (and other viewers) can't.

It's particularly good at that with photos that have been recovered using software.

If/when Irfanview has opened them sucessfuly then saving them from Irfanview 'fixes' them and other viewers will be able to open them too.

Irfanview is free, and in my opinion is better than many paid for viewers.
It's easy to use straight off, and has lots of useful tools and options once you start looking through the menus.
https://www.irfanview.com/

EDIT- Sorry, I just realised you are talking about photo files on the dodgy USB stick so there may not actually be anything there to open.

However it may still be worth a try (you may get half ot three quarters of a photo with the rest grey) and the above advice still stands for any other problematic photo files.

Edited by Nukecad, 17 April 2024 - 04:39 AM.

Irfanview has been around a long time. I used to have it as my default photo viewer for years back in the early 00's. Yes, likely any photos that can be opened with Irf will be severely truncated. Hopefully I can recover most of it in good copy from the original drive using DMDE. We shall see. Thanks for the suggestion! Cheers, Willis.

Update: Started with DMDE a couple hours ago. after a bit of trial and error I got it figured out and have been waiting as it moves a 1000 or more recovered files to another drive. Apparently you can't recover to the same drive. About 36% done ATM. Will update again when all are moved and I can make an integrity check. Cheers!

Update: Started with DMDE a couple hours ago. after a bit of trial and error I got it figured out and have been waiting as it moves a 1000 or more recovered files to another drive. Apparently you can't recover to the same drive. About 36% done ATM. Will update again when all are moved and I can make an integrity check. Cheers!

Yeah it doesn't let you recover on the same drive as it could overwrite deleted data and it can push a failing disk to fail by doing that.

Good luck with the recovery and have a great evening!

You too!

Ps Tomorrow I'll update - hopefully a final update! Cheers and thanks so very much!

Ok, update time. So after some 6 hours or more of file transfer I believe the bulk of the archive has been saved, over 600 files. There are a few, perhaps several videos too damaged to play and several dozen or more photos that Windows Photo Viewer can't open. Hopefully IrfanView will open them. Of the data taken off the bogus flash drive, 30 GB worth were intact. After that point all files are damaged/unreadable. So these scammers are selling 30GB flash drives as 2TB drives.

My sincere thanks to all who stepped up here with helpful suggestions, information and guidance, especially Sir Chiragroop! 

Live long and prosper!

Glad to hear you got most of the data!

Don't know if I could have gotten it done w/o your help and DMDE! Thanks again!

In my opinion once you get above 128 GB then forget thumb drives and get a SSD.

A decent brand 2.5" SATA SSD and a USB enclosure to put it in will cost about the same as (often less than) a large capacity stick, and will usually be more reliable.

OK it's bigger, if you want to carry a few around you'll want a bag/case not your pockets.
But because it's bigger you are more likely not to 'bounce' it about as much as a thumb drive often gets.

Edited by Nukecad, 19 April 2024 - 02:48 AM.

Yeah I don't have any of that capacity, too easy to lose as well. In this case I fell for a deal too good to be true scam.

Even for SSDs, be sure to test the drive using ValiDrive as suggested by garioch7. Also thanks for the mention of the tool garioch7!

Spot on, my days of blindly trusting the drive capacity to be what it's claimed to be are over..!

Fake M.2 external drives out there too.