You might not even know that memory stick repair facilities and data recovery facilities exist. Unaware of such a facility you might decide to abandon the valuable pictures that are on your memory stick. This can happen when you repeatedly receive a "Card not found" or Needs Formatting or similar error message when you try to retrieve the pictures from the memory stick.



You check that you have inserted the memory stick correctly, and try again, with the same result. Finally, you give up assuming that the pictures are permanently lost.

They might not actually be lost forever, unless you have made them completely irrecoverable during the repeated attempts. Each attempt sends electrical power into the device, changing the flash memory. And soon, the original image on the memory can become drastically changed, making your pictures unrecoverable.

So the one thing you should do when you begin to receive such error messages is to switch off the camera, phone, ipod,etc and remove the memory stick. Store it in the special static-free plastic case it came in. This single precaution can make memory stick repairs a practical option to recover your thesis pictures music or voice files.

What Causes the Memory Stick Error Messages?

Memory sticks and cards can become corrupted in different ways. They might also suffer physical damage when the sticks circuitry or vital component is damaged. It is when such file corruption or physical damage happens that the flash drive or memory stick becomes unrecognised.

If the problem is physical damage, it is still possible to repair it and recover the pictures but should be done by a data recovery company who have the tools and facilities needed. The repair attempt itself can damage the image further. Be aware that strong magnetic fields (e.g found near speakers) can affect the flash memory .

Mostly memory stick problems arise from software problems or user errors. Examples of user errors include:

• Formatting the memory stick before all pictures have been transferred to the computer



• Accidental deletion of pictures before they are transferred



• Ejecting the card whilst it is still being written to



• Taking pictures or transferring files when your camera, phone, ipod or laptop battery is low in power

Pictures stored on the card / stick can usually be recovered in these kinds of eventualities.

The software controlling the memory stick can become corrupted when you use the same memory stick in more than one camera, or if you do any read/write operations when the stick is in a card reader. Airport scanners can also damage the files and software.

Memory stick repairs can usually remedy such software-related problems, and recover your pictures.

Memory Stick Repairs Procedure

As mentioned earlier, if your storage media begins to display error messages, don't make repeated attempts to access it. Also don't try to carry out any repairs yourself.

The kinds of procedures needed to recover the pictures will differ depending on what caused the problem. A professional analysis can reveal the cause and the present status. With this information, an experienced repairer and data recovery expert might be able to recover the pictures for you.

Repairers usually offer the preliminary analysis free. You might be charged only if they are able to recover the pictures.

Conclusion

Memory stick repair and data recovery facilities do exist. In most cases, you might be able to recover the pictures on the memory sticks, even if you cannot gain access to your files a specialist data recovery expert might be able to.

The camera error messages are caused by corruption of the files on, or physical damage to, the memory stick / card. In the case of physical damage, the pictures might not be recoverable. Corrupted files can usually be recovered by an experienced memory stick repair / data recovery service.