Recovering data from a Fantom Drive 120GB

I'm going to assume you have a Droid. If you don't want to pay for the "Email My Texts" app, I would suggest simply place the phone face down on a photo copier and get them that way.

There are some programs.
https://www.pchelpsoft.com/data-recovery/?t=recover-deleted-files&gclid=CN6-9pHPkrACFcleTAod6HsLKQ

You cant repair USB its to small to resoldure unless you are PRO, you could take it apart and connect it to a computer or another laptop and pull out the data here is a guide. http://www.gearhack.com/Forums/DisplayComments.php?file=Computer/Reusing_the_Maxtor_OneTouch_III_Mini_Edition_Portable_Hard_Drive

The answer is Yes.
You can recover lost data from USB with data recovery program.
CardData Recovery can recover data from all camera flash memory cards includingCompact Flash Card (CF), Smart Media Card, Secure Digital Card (SD),Multi-Media Card (MMC), XD Picture Card (XD), Micro Drive, Sony Memory Stick(Duo, Pro), as well as removable storage including Zip disk, USB drives andHard drives. Recovery of files is also possible even when drive has beenformatted.

Hi Caroline,

First off, 5 years is a normal time for a drive to fail.

From your description either the drive has failed or the circuitry in the external enclosure.

If the drive is simply a backup drive, toss it and buy a new one. If on the other hand you have data on the drive that you need to recover, try taking it to your local PC shop and have the techs there move the hard drive into a new enclosure. If it works you'll have access to your files.

Either way I highly suggest buying a new backup drive as this one either has failed or is likely to soon.

If the drive transplant doesn't work and you need access to the files on the failed drive, comment back with your location(Country, State, City) and I can refer you to an appropriate pro.

Hope this helps FixYa,

Chris

There are no drivers for this unit. It is a plug & play unit that is one of the worst Fantom has ever offered. Very unreliable and many power cord problems.

I tried for several weeks to find the drivers over the net and researched a ton before I called Fantom Tech Support. The number is posted on New Egg under the their Mfg contacts

Hello, Assuming you're running windows 200 or newer, no drivers required. If it is not detecting in device manager the shell is likely damaged and simply needs to be replaced. If it does show up, and the drive does not the the drive is likely damaged and you will most likely require professional help recovering the files. If the latter is the case please state you location(country and city) and I will recommend an appropriate facility to assist you. Chris

Make sure you are using the right power unit, or the power unit is working.

This depends entirely on how the backup program you use works. Usually they will go with whichever file/folder has been edited most recently, so if you edit them on your backup drive, they will not be replaced by the ones on your C drive. It would probably be easier just to edit them on your C drive and let the backup program do all the transferring, though.

Also, if your drive comes with one, you should usually use it, and no, having two would be inadvisable because you would end up with two identical sets of your data on the same drive, which serves no logical purpose. 

Hopefully that is a more exact answer!

When a file is delete, it's still there on the drive, just as before; all that happens is that the file table marks it as free space and changes its name so it's no longer visible. There are a number of "undelete" utilities available, including several good ones, like asoftech data recovery that helped me before:
http://www.asoftech.com/adr/