Thumb Drives Are The Root Of All Evil

A01

posted Oct 22 '11 at 10:35 pm

Hey developers, experts, and beta testers.

Just noticed this; no clue if it's important, but it's at least suspicious.

Looks like the thumb drive was almost full.

I think these are the numbers...

Capacity: 4,033,282,048 Bytes, 3.75 GB (100%)
Used Space: 3,957,342,208 Bytes, 3.68 GB (98.12%)
Free Space: 75,939,840 Bytes, 72.4 MB (01.88%)

Hey developers, experts, and beta testers.Just noticed this; no clue if it's important, but it's at least suspicious.Looks like the thumb drive was almost full.I think these are the numbers... <ul><li>Capacity: &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;4,033,282,048 Bytes, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;3.75 GB &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(100%)</li><li>Used Space: &nbsp;3,957,342,208 Bytes, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 3.68 GB &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(98.12%)</li><li>Free Space: &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 75,939,840 Bytes, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 72.4 MB &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (01.88%) </li></ul> &nbsp;<ul><li> </li></ul>

A01

posted Oct 22 '11 at 5:41 pm

New Thumb drive; old story.

Turned off computer last night.

Turned it on this morning; bad stuff, mucho strange-o, entire subdirectories disappeared.

Last backup was six days ago. Total lost work is about five days.

Here is the symptom list, as best I can re-create it in text.

SYMPTOMS

Plug in thumb drive
Window pops open
I choose "Open", as in windows explorer
I choose "Shortcut to winpm-32" (Details below)
I click it
Message window pops up
The mailbox you are attempting to access appears to be locked by another process If you konw that nobody else is accessing this mailbox... (etc., etc.)
I click the [Continue] button
Windows pops up an error box
"...Pegasus Mail for Windows has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience...."
I choose to not send the error report to MicroSoft.

CURRENT PLANS

Back up what I can while I still have this much data visible
Turn off computer and turn it back on.
Verify that the behavior is repeated and consistent

After that, I welcome advice and suggestions.

My thanks to anyone who has been through this before.

I'm wondering if a daily backup/reformat/restore procedure is the path of smoothest sailing. Whatever, whatever, perhaps that's another suggestion for another community.

The biggy for now is: what's the best chance of getting the past five days of messages back ?

SYSTEM DETAILS

Windows XP
Pegasus, I believe it was version 4.6.something
Command line of shortcut icon..
D:\BLAH\BLAH\BLAH\PEGASUS\HOME\Programs\winpm-32.exe -roam -A

CONTENTS OF ERROR REPORT

EventType : BEX
P1 : winpm-32.exe
P2 : 4.6.2.0
P3 : 4e4341cf
P4 : winpm-32.exe
P5 : 4.6.2.0
P6 : 4e4341cf
P7 : 001f7a86
P8 : c0000409
P9 : 00000000

New Thumb drive; old story. Turned off computer last night. Turned it on this morning; bad stuff, mucho strange-o, entire subdirectories disappeared. Last backup was six days ago. Total lost work is about five days. Here is the symptom list, as best I can re-create it in text. SYMPTOMS <ul><li>Plug in thumb drive</li><li>Window pops open</li><li>I choose "Open", as in windows explorer</li><li>I choose "Shortcut to winpm-32" (Details below)</li><li>I click it</li><li>Message window pops up</li><li>The mailbox you are attempting to access appears to be locked by another process If you konw that nobody else is accessing this mailbox... (etc., etc.)</li><li>I click the [Continue] button</li><li>Windows pops up an error box</li><li>"...Pegasus Mail for Windows has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience...."</li><li>I choose to not send the error report to MicroSoft. </li></ul> CURRENT PLANS <ul><li>Back up what I can while I still have this much data visible </li><li>Turn off computer and turn it back on. </li><li>Verify that the behavior is repeated and consistent </li></ul> After that, I welcome advice and suggestions.My thanks to anyone who has been through this before. I'm wondering if a daily backup/reformat/restore procedure is the path of smoothest sailing. Whatever, whatever, perhaps that's another suggestion for another community. The biggy for now is: what's the best chance of getting the past five days of messages back ? SYSTEM DETAILS <blockquote>Windows XP Pegasus, I believe it was version 4.6.something Command line of shortcut icon.. D:\BLAH\BLAH\BLAH\PEGASUS\HOME\Programs\winpm-32.exe -roam -A</blockquote>&nbsp; CONTENTS OF ERROR REPORT <blockquote>EventType : BEX P1 : winpm-32.exe P2 : 4.6.2.0 P3 : 4e4341cf P4 : winpm-32.exe P5 : 4.6.2.0 P6 : 4e4341cf P7 : 001f7a86 P8 : c0000409 P9 : 00000000 </blockquote>

Michael

posted Oct 22 '11 at 6:16 pm

[quote user="A01"]Turned it on this morning; bad stuff, mucho strange-o, entire subdirectories disappeared.[/quote]

If subdirectories are gone and you tried working with the drive again it's very likely they are permanently lost (= overwritten), you should prevent any write access at all after something like this happened. With luck you might be able to recover some data using a proper tool such as this one (requires admin rights, but don't install it onto the thumb drive before trying to recover the data, choose a different location!).

For future issues, after trying to recover lost data, please install the MiniDump extension on your thumb drive (into a subdirectory of Pegasus Mail's program directory, it's usually suggested by default during setup if Pegasus Mail has been run successfully on this machine at least once), it should create a crash dump whenever another crash occurs so we might be able to figure out what's exactly causing these issues. It might also be a good idea to close Pegasus Mail and safely remove the drive before turning off your machine since one reason for crashes when shutting down Pegasus Mail is an ongoing SMTP or POP3 access.

[quote user="A01"]Turned it on this morning; bad stuff, mucho strange-o, entire subdirectories disappeared.[/quote]If subdirectories are gone and you tried working with the drive again it's very likely they are permanently lost (= overwritten), you should prevent any write access at all after something like this happened. With luck you might be able to recover some data using a proper tool such as <a href="http://www.piriform.com/recuva" mce_href="http://www.piriform.com/recuva" target="_blank">this one</a> (requires admin rights, but don't install it onto the thumb drive before trying to recover the data, choose a different location!).For future issues, after trying to recover lost data, please install the MiniDump extension on your thumb drive (into a subdirectory of Pegasus Mail's program directory, it's usually suggested by default during setup if Pegasus Mail has been run successfully on this machine at least once), it should create a crash dump whenever another crash occurs so we might be able to figure out what's exactly causing these issues. It might also be a good idea to close Pegasus Mail and safely remove the drive before turning off your machine since one reason for crashes when shutting down Pegasus Mail is an ongoing SMTP or POP3 access.

			Michael
--
IERenderer's Homepage
PGP Key ID (RSA 2048): 0xC45D831B
S/MIME Fingerprint: 94C6B471 0C623088 A5B27701 742B8666 3B7E657C

A01

posted Oct 22 '11 at 7:26 pm

[quote user="idw"]If subdirectories are gone and you tried working with the drive again it's very likely they are permanently lost (= overwritten)[/quote]

That appears to be the case. I am rapidly making the decision to just re-do the previous five days' work.

[quote user="idw"]you should prevent any write access at all after something like this happened.[/quote]

I do not know (or remember, if I ever did know) how to do that.

&nbsp; [quote user="idw"]If subdirectories are gone and you tried working with the drive again it's very likely they are permanently lost (= overwritten)[/quote]That appears to be the case. &nbsp;I am rapidly making the decision to just re-do the previous five days' work. [quote user="idw"]you should prevent any write access at all after something like this happened.[/quote] &nbsp; I do not know (or remember, if I ever did know) how to do that.

A01

posted Oct 22 '11 at 7:30 pm

[quote user="idw"]For future issues, after trying to recover lost data, please install the MiniDump extension on your thumb drive (into a subdirectory of Pegasus Mail's program directory, it's usually suggested by default during setup if Pegasus Mail has been run successfully on this machine at least once), it should create a crash dump whenever another crash occurs so we might be able to figure out what's exactly causing these issues.[/quote]

My brain isn't good enough to comprehend those 72 words as they are written.

[quote user="idw"]For future issues, after trying to recover lost data, please install the MiniDump extension on your thumb drive (into a subdirectory of Pegasus Mail's program directory, it's usually suggested by default during setup if Pegasus Mail has been run successfully on this machine at least once), it should create a crash dump whenever another crash occurs so we might be able to figure out what's exactly causing these issues.[/quote] My brain isn't good enough to comprehend those 72 words as they are written.

A01

posted Oct 22 '11 at 8:14 pm

[quote user="idw"]I might also be a good idea to close Pegasus Mail and safely remove the drive before turning off your machine[/quote]

If I don't miss my guess, you have just stated my entire error in that one phrase

That appears to the the complete problem; the whole cause if it all; and the way to prevent this.

If I remember properly, this is exactly the pattern of behavior that I observed before with the silver metal thumb drive (this one is covered in

red plastic).

The events and procedure (from my not too focused observations in human memory) seem to be...

All was well with the world
I Left the thumb drive inserted into USB slot (oops #1)
Turned off computer
(oops #2)
Went to sleep
Awoke
Turned on computer (with drive still inserted, oops #3)
Doctor Strange-O moved in a took control

[quote user="idw"]I might also be a good idea to close Pegasus Mail and safely remove the drive before turning off your machine[/quote]If I don't miss my guess, you have just stated my entire error in that one phraseThat appears to the the complete problem; the whole cause if it all; and the way to prevent this.If I remember properly, this is exactly the pattern of behavior that I observed before with the silver metal thumb drive (this one is covered &nbsp;in red plastic).The events and procedure (from my not too focused observations in human memory) seem to be...<ol><li>All was well with the world</li><li>I Left the thumb drive inserted into USB slot (oops #1)</li><li>Turned off computer &nbsp; (oops #2) &nbsp;</li><li>Went to sleep</li><li>Awoke</li><li>Turned on computer (with drive still inserted, oops #3)</li><li>Doctor Strange-O moved in a took control</li></ol> &nbsp;

Michael

posted Oct 22 '11 at 10:19 pm

[quote user="A01"][quote user="idw"]you should prevent any write access at all after something like this happened.[/quote]

I do not know (or remember, if I ever did know) how to do that.[/quote]

Don't use it with Pegasus Mail (or any other application stored on it or storing its data on it) anymore until you tried to recover data using a proper tool.

[quote user="A01"][quote user="idw"]you should prevent any write access at all after something like this happened.[/quote]I do not know (or remember, if I ever did know) how to do that.[/quote]Don't use it with Pegasus Mail (or any other application stored on it or storing its data on it) anymore until you tried to recover data using a proper tool.

			Michael
--
IERenderer's Homepage
PGP Key ID (RSA 2048): 0xC45D831B
S/MIME Fingerprint: 94C6B471 0C623088 A5B27701 742B8666 3B7E657C

Michael

posted Oct 22 '11 at 10:21 pm

[quote user="A01"][quote user="idw"]For future issues, after trying to recover lost data, please install the MiniDump extension on your thumb drive (into a subdirectory of Pegasus Mail's program directory, it's usually suggested by default during setup if Pegasus Mail has been run successfully on this machine at least once), it should create a crash dump whenever another crash occurs so we might be able to figure out what's exactly causing these issues.[/quote]

My brain isn't good enough to comprehend those 72 words as they are written.[/quote]

Sorry, here's the download link, details included within the extension's ReadMe file.

[quote user="A01"][quote user="idw"]For future issues, after trying to recover lost data, please install the MiniDump extension on your thumb drive (into a subdirectory of Pegasus Mail's program directory, it's usually suggested by default during setup if Pegasus Mail has been run successfully on this machine at least once), it should create a crash dump whenever another crash occurs so we might be able to figure out what's exactly causing these issues.[/quote]My brain isn't good enough to comprehend those 72 words as they are written.[/quote]Sorry, here's the <a href="/files/folders/community_add-ons_for_pegasus_mail/entry12763.aspx" mce_href="/files/folders/community_add-ons_for_pegasus_mail/entry12763.aspx" target="_blank">download link</a>, details included within the extension's ReadMe file.

			Michael
--
IERenderer's Homepage
PGP Key ID (RSA 2048): 0xC45D831B
S/MIME Fingerprint: 94C6B471 0C623088 A5B27701 742B8666 3B7E657C

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