USB flash drive problems

So here is the scenario:

I was transferring data from an external hard drive to my USB flash drive the other day through by Macbook Pro. In the middle of the transfer - it froze. The computer stopped transferring the data. I attempted to stop it, but the computer ended up completely freezing up. I had to shut down the computer. When I restarted it - the external hard drive worked fine, but the flash drive was no longer recognized by the desktop or the finder. When I open disk utility, it also does not appear.

Now, when I plug in the USB drive, it is still not recognized by the finder or the desktop of the computer. Disk Utility only recognizes it when I open Disk Utility first, then plug in the USB drive. I have tried repairing it in the Disk Utility but it has failed. Here is the message I get when trying to repair:

** /dev/disk1
** Phase 1 - Preparing FAT
Unable to read FAR (Input/output error)
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.

Also, when I plug in the drive, it's light flashes constantly like it is being read.

I desperately need some things on this drive back. Can I recover the data anyway?!

Is there a windows machine handy? Try plugging it into one. Run chkdsk on it and it may be able to sort some of it out.

Flash drives and thumb drives (especially the cheap ones) are highly susceptible to failure. More than likely the drive is gone. You can try running chkdsk.exe or even scandisk.exe from a Windows machine on it, but I doubt it will do any good. Probably time to buy another flash drive.

Regards.

There is a windows comp nearby. I will try that right away.

However, I was able to successfully erase the disk using disk utility. I did this in hopes that i could use some data recovery software to get some of my stuff back. This hasn't worked.

The disk now appears on the desktop and in disk utility with no problem. It doesn't, however, eject properly. Each time I attempt ejecting - it blinks repeatedly and the computer says it cannot eject it because it's "in use."

The data recovery software I downloaded - Boomerang - cannot find any lost files.

Is there any way to get this data back do you think?

Also, my computer now seems to have a problem ejecting any USB flash drive that I put in it (I've tried at least 3).

Any more suggestions would be SO helpful!

I had to re format my flash drive a few months ago and now it works fine. I did the re formatting on a windows machine and I haven't had any problems with it on my mac since.

Well it is re-formated now, but does anyone know of the best way to recover those lost files now??

did you format it on the mac and select mac format vice fat? if so pretty much no. You had a better chance at recovering them before you formatted it. It's a pretty safe bet that the files aren't recoverable.