Files disappeared from Sandisk 4gb flashdrive

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1

I have a sandisk flashdrive 4gb that I use to bring work files home from the office to work on at home and then transfer any new data to the hard drive at the office.  Last night — all my files were nowhere to be found on my flash drive but when I use properties it says 1.62 gb of a total of 3.73 memory has been used which makes me think the files are still there.  Can anyone help me — I am not very computer literate.

Dave

2

Well Dave, I suspect the flash drive3 was not Safely Removed and as such the Fale Allocation Table is screwed up.  From a Command prompt window try running CHKDSK on the drive.  Hopefully that will resolve the problem for you.

3

I am sorry to be so stupid ---- how do I do that.  I went to RUN and did chkdsk - thinking it would ask if I wanted the C drive or the F drive (where the scandisk is showing) but it just checked my C drive

Thank you again

Dave

4

If a drive is not specified CHKDSK runs for the drive that the command is executed from.  The default drive for the Command Prompt is Windows’ C: drive.

To run for the flashdrive either 1. switch the Command Prompt to the flashdrive’s drive letter or 2. enter the flashdrive’s drive letter to the CHKDSK command.

Assuming the flashdrive has drive letter F:

1. 

C:\Users\Ed>F:

F:\>CHKDSK

C:\Users\Ed>CHKDSK F:

OK?

Also to find help for any Command Prompt command enter the command’s name followed by /?.

For example:

C:\Users\Ed>CHKDSK /?

C:\Users\Ed>DIR /?

etc

5

I typed exactly what you said and it says it refers to a location that cannot be found

I am doing this in the run command

Dave

6

And what is the drive letter of your flash drive?  Obviously it’s not F:.

7

yes, it really is F

question - why in your previous answer does it say Ed after user — should I be typing your name ?

8

The examples previously given were what the Command Prompt window looks like on my pc when I do the commands.