How to recover corrupted text file / lost clusters- USB driv

[Sylvander]

1. "I found the /usr and /sbin directories but not /usr/sbin"
I have /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin
Both /usr/bin and /usr/sbin are full of program files.
/usr/sbin/gtkdialog is present on my system.

2. "**error**; gtkdialog: Error in line44, near token '</default>': syntax error
aborting.."
This is beyond my ken.
When I open the gtkdialog file on my system using leafpad, there are no lines of code displayed, so how is there an error in line 44?

3. "I do notice however, that in a directory called found.000, there are two files - file0000.chk"
Oh dear!
Did you have the flash drive plugged in when you booted Windows?
Looks like you did, and Windows auto-scanned the contents of the drive during boot, and "repaired" what it [correctly?] thought was errors.
This often produces "lost" file [or folder] fragments that windows auto-names in the form file0000.chk
I know of no way to re-attach these lost fragments.
The problem is often made worse by fragmentation = files not being "contiguous", and some non-contiguous portion of the file being "lost".
I do remember once looking directly at the contents of such a .chk file using a program in windows that looks at the 1's and 0's on the storage medium.

[Sylvander]

Forgot to mention...
(a) If you have some idea of the original file type of the .chk file...
[e.g. .txt or .jpg]
And if it is a complete [contiguous] file [that has been "lost" from the file system]...
You could try renaming with a suitable 3-letter extension...
Hoping that when it is "Opened..." with the appropriate program...
You will then see the content.
You can then give the file a suitable name, and you will have a recovered file.

[canbyte]

Hi Sylvander, I got waylaid by some problems lately so haven't been pursuing this but I did try to change the extension. Sadly, no luck.

Here is another strange thing. One files that was recovered seems to have grown- an abiword file (.rtf) was orignally 13k and on the recovery disk is 32k even though the smaller file is actually longer (some was added). Weird. Just an anomaly?

EDIT: Note - When Geany and Abiword will not open a file, try using the browser or it's associated composer window.

[Sylvander]

1.

Here is another strange thing. One files that was recovered seems to have grown- an abiword file (.rtf) was orignally 13k and on the recovery disk is 32k even though the smaller file is actually longer (some was added). Weird. Just an anomaly?

Perhaps ddrescue copies everything in the file...
i.e. Occupied+empty space...
So the copy is larger than the original.
Just guessing!

2. Where ddrescue provides a great service...
Is when the hardware of the source drive is faulty.
e.g. A HDD with faulty clusters.
And you copy to a fault-free storage device, so you're no longer attempting to read from faulty hardware.

(a) But it seems to me that your source Flash Drive hardware isn't faulty...
It's just that the file system on it got corrupted...
[You could (now that you have a good copy) scan&fix its filesystem, using a suitable terminal command, or else Gparted->"check" the partition]
This can cause "lost" fragments or files.
However...
I think Windows has already scanned and fixed and caused "lost" items.
So no harm in now scanning and fixing the source with a Puppy program methinks.
Or else you could make a 2nd copy and play around with the 2nd copy.

[canbyte]

Been awhile but i found something that may point to the cause of the problem. I was able to see some strange code using a crazy little notebook i got in a garage sale - a CEF 7" with Windows CE. Wordpad was the app. At the beginning of the corrupted part was the word Autorun. Don't know where it came from but at one point was fooling around with some automatic stuff and maybe it jumped into this file. Anyway, if anyone wants to try looking at the file and figuring out what is going on, I'd be interested in any thoughts, suggestions.

Well, i thought I'd upload the file but it seems that I can't do that. Says extension .... not allowed, regardless of whether the file is .txt or .pwd or extension removed. Well, the only way is to take a picture on the little machine - maybe it's safer that way too. I just did the first of about 4 screens. The last is just a screen full of squares.

[Sylvander]

Looks like you've managed to [attempt to] read the contents of a [Puppy?] program file
[it cannot read the program code, but can read the text]...
That includes some text...
That makes reference to:
autorun.inf
and...
Slacko-1
and...
Found [Like when Slacko-1 has found its slackosave file]

[canbyte]

Hi Sylvander
That autorun thing activated again on the flash drive i had transferred the files to and in a different file - it must have been when i was composing the previous message and trying to copy stuff from the corrupted file. Kinda freaked me out so I deleted the autorun file which was something to do with the original Sandisk flash drive - it came with that file and a whole directory for some kind of club so I deleted everything.

Contents of the autorun.inf file (according to windows notebook)

[autorun]
action=Get special offers from SanDisk partners
open=RunClubSanDisk.exe
icon=RunClubSandisk.exe

Will post again if the problem crops up again.
Thanks for all your help on this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------new problem

I opened, edited and tried to save a file on the same flashdrive. Gave an error message
Cannot open read-only filename. File may be truncated. or something similar

I couldn't figure out how files became read-only but after unmounting and remounting the drive, found that the files were now writable as usual. Weird or what? Will monitor to see if this becomes a recurring thing.