Hello,

my experience with USB sticks are that if you buy a new one and it has problems, immediately return it and do not use it. There were also a lot of fakes on the markets, which had a real size  of only 512MB, but made Windows think successfully that the size was several GB. It also allowed Windows to copy data in that amount (built the Fat with the filenames, but all the data went into the toilet WITHOUT ANY ERROR MESSAGE WHILE COPYING).

There is one free utility specially for USB sticks which a big German Software magazine developed after they sent out a few hundred of those fake sticks to their users as gifts for subscribing to their magazine (and subsequently had to replace them all!).

 I run this tool on all my USB sticks when first purchasing them. It bypasses the wear leveling and caching of the USB stick and allows you to test every single sector on the USB stick. I would recommend to format the stick as Fat/Fat32 for testing, and only after first testing format to NTFS if so desired.

The program itself can be switched from German to English when started, but the web site is German only.

Here is the link to the website translated by google:

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=de&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2Fsoftware%2Fdownload%2Fh2testw%2F50539&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0=&swap=1

Here is the original German link:

http://www.heise.de/software/download/h2testw/50539

Here is the link for directly  downloading the utility (which is a bit difficult to find):

http://www.heise.de/ct/Redaktion/bo/downloads/h2testw_1.4.zip

Definitely a must have in my tool kit.

Regards,

Pais

Good morning,

After several more or less corrected problems including loss of mails and numerous messages from "unknown" with subject "none" I finally decided not to use my 'mailstick' any longer.

Hopefully this decision is not too late and my latest problem can be resolved:

- My largest folder (received messages) has been replaced by a blank line in the folder selector. The blank line can be 'opened' as a folder, but contains no messages.

- The PMM that probably belongs to it (375 MB), cannot be copied to my harddrive (corrupted and unreadable).

- The accompanying PMI file is 0 bytes in size.

- Around the same time Pegasus started with all settings cleared. I solved that by replacing the corrupted PMAIL.INI with a back-up version.

I THINK this or similar porblem(s) may have occurred before. Twice before I have recovered errors on the stick bij having a Vista machine automatically do it. Now there are 2 maps called FOUND.000 and FOUND.001 that consist of a bunch of FILE????.CHK files. The former being of 296 kB size and the latter 108 MB ;(

I am reluctant to have Vista 'correct' the current problem, as this concerns my main mail folder.

Is there anyway I can get my folder back without any data loss?

Thanks in advance,

Casa

I am reluctant to have Vista 'correct' the current problem, as this concerns my main mail folder.

Is there anyway I can get my folder back without any data loss?

The stick is failing and has a lot of  sector errors.  Obviously some are in the area where the main folder lies.  I'd let Vista give it a shot and try and recover the data otherwise it is gone.  Personally though I'd try and copy as much as I can from the stick to the hard drive so that the correction does not break anything more before I try the correction.

[quote]

The stick is failing and has a lot of  sector errors.  Obviously some are in the area where the main folder lies.  I'd let Vista give it a shot and try and recover the data otherwise it is gone.  Personally though I'd try and copy as much as I can from the stick to the hard drive so that the correction does not break anything more before I try the correction.

[/quote]

Unfortunately the damaged file can't be copied. Any other suggestions before I have Vista recover the data?

I do have a backup, but will lose 2 months. If necessary, can I just paste the 2 files FOL06E9D.PMM and FOL06E9D.PMI from my backup to my workdir?

 -Casa 

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]

The stick is failing and has a lot of  sector errors.  Obviously some are in the area where the main folder lies.  I'd let Vista give it a shot and try and recover the data otherwise it is gone.  Personally though I'd try and copy as much as I can from the stick to the hard drive so that the correction does not break anything more before I try the correction

[/quote]

Been waiting a while, but I decided to correct the data using Vista. The files have been recovered now.

Unfortunately, still a blank line instead of "received items". Deleting HIERARCH.PM did not solve the problem. Is the fact that the accompanying .PMI is 0 bytes in size significant?

Thanks,

Casa 

Been waiting a while, but I decided to correct the data using Vista. The files have been recovered now.

Unfortunately,

still a blank line instead of "received items". Deleting HIERARCH.PM

did not solve the problem.

I suspect that the recovery did not really recover the files due to bad sectors on the stick.

Is the fact that the accompanying .PMI is 0

bytes in size significant?

A zero byte PMI files says there is nothing in the PMM file.  I would try to re-index the folder to see what happens.  If there is anything at all in the PMM file then the re-index may give you access to at least some of the files.

If you are using PMail v4.5x then you can also try using the program MBXMAINT.exe to try and fix the folders as well.

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]

I suspect that the recovery did not really recover the files due to bad sectors on the stick.

[/quote]

It did. And I had already transferred the files to my harddrive. Including the formerly corrupt file (which could not be moved at all while corrupt).

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]

A zero byte PMI files says there is nothing in the PMM file.  I would try to re-index the folder to see what happens.  If there is anything at all in the PMM file then the re-index may give you access to at least some of the files.

If you are using PMail v4.5x then you can also try using the program MBXMAINT.exe to try and fix the folders as well.

[/quote]

Re-indexing did the trick. The messages have reappeared. The name was initially still blank, but renaming was easy. The PMI file has grown back as well ;)

Right now I only have the same problem as a few months ago: the folder is corrupt and contains 2.675 "Unknown" empty messages of 19,738. But I will check back in the forum for how to solve that. I'm not planning to use an USB stick again, so it won't happen again in the future (I hope). It was nice to have access to all my email at work, but not worth all the crap and risk. (And yes, I am quite precise in always removing USB sticks with the icon in the notification area. After a long trial period I can safely recommend people not to use the USB stick feature.)

Thanks again! 

It sounds as though the USB stick just went bad. Did you try using a new USB memory stick? To be honest, if you see errors on a USB stick it is best to replace it rather than try to fix it.

[quote user="Greenman"]It sounds as though the USB stick just went bad. Did you try using a new USB memory stick? To be honest, if you see errors on a USB stick it is best to replace it rather than try to fix it.[/quote]

You're right ofcourse. Thanks for letting me remember. Anyway, reformatting should help as well right? I remember from floppies that that made the bad sectors inaccessible? Still, I don't consider going back to USB. In the end, the crap will happen again... 

[quote user="Casa"]

... In the end, the crap will happen again... 

[/quote]

Only if you are unlucky enough to use another stick that has problems.

I use two USB sticks that I have had for several years and I have not had any problems with them.

They are so cheap it is not worth trying to fix them, especially if you need them to be reliable. If I was in your position I would throw the old USB stick away and buy a replacement.

[quote user="Casa"]After a long trial period I can safely recommend people not to use the USB stick feature.[/quote]

Like Greenman, I have had no problems at all running from a stick and using it every day.