Recover files from a memory stick?

October 7, 2006 5:18 AM

"Could not read boot block". Trying to get my photos from a (Sony) Memory Stick, and apparently my Mac cannot read the disk. Disk utility reports that it can't read the boot block (input/output error), so I can neither verify or repair. What can I do?
posted by djgh to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

If you have or have access to a linux machine, this might be of use: http://jbj.rapanden.dk/magicrescue/
posted by duckstab at 10:47 AM on October 7, 2006

try this link for your mac - it comes from an earlier thread about memory sticks here.
posted by ptm at 1:37 PM on October 7, 2006

Best answer: I don't know if it will help with your particular problem, but this page seems useful:

Flash memory data recovery and protection | Tech Hints
posted by Boobus Tuber at 5:47 AM on October 8, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks Boobus - there was a link in there that sorted me out. For future reference, I found it helped to format the disk so that it could be mounted.
posted by djgh at 7:12 AM on October 8, 2006

Sure. So did you get your photos back after formatting it? And just for others, which was the link that sorted you out?
posted by Boobus Tuber at 8:53 AM on October 8, 2006

i recently had a lot of success with photorec from cgsecurity.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

might help a few people out
posted by moochoo at 1:31 PM on October 8, 2006

Response by poster: Yes, got all the photos back. The link was to PhotoRec/TestDisk.
posted by djgh at 5:27 AM on October 12, 2006