Recover Corrupted Files from Flash Drive

One technology that has singlehandedly revolutionized data storage and transfer methods is the 'Universal Serial Bus' interface, which is coupled with flash drive storage technology. It is really hard to imagine a time when USB flash drives weren't available. Data transfer was tedious and slow, before the arrival of USB flash drives and other USB based devices. Every day, millions of gigabytes of data is transferred using USB flash drives. However, when files stored on such a flash drive get corrupted, you can land up in a soup. The aim of this article is to acquaint you with how to recover corrupted files from a flash drive and deal with some of the major flash drive problems.

At the outset, let me make it clear that it is possible to recover corrupted files from flash drive, as long as the problems are related to software. If the USB flash drive is physically damaged, then there is no hope for data recovery. If on inserting the USB flash drive in a port, your computer does not recognize it (you get a 'USB Device Not Recognized' message), then it is indeed physically damaged and the data on it is beyond recovery. If however, your computer is recognizing your USB flash drive, but you are unable to copy files from it or open the drive, then there is hope to recover corrupted files from it.

There are two ways in which corrupted flash drive recovery may be achieved. One method uses diagnostic tools on the computer operating system itself to recover data. The second method is recovering corrupted files through use of special software programs. I will acquaint you with both methods in this article.

How to Recover Corrupted Files From Flash Drive

Recovering corrupted files from flash drive is possible using storage drive diagnostic and repair tools provided on a Windows operating system like Windows 7 or Windows Vista. I assume that your drive is getting recognized, but you are not able to access it. Open the 'My Computer' window and right click on the drive label icon. Of all the options that open up, select the last - 'Properties' option. This will open up a window with many tabs. Select the 'Tools' tab and observe the options presented below it. There will be an 'error checking' option there with a 'Check Now' button. Click on that button and select the 'Automatically Fix the File System Errors' option. If this method works, it will scan the USB flash drive for errors and fix any of the errors, that it detects.

This should enable you to recover corrupted files from flash drive quite easily. If the corruption is due to certain viruses, you may have to scan the whole disk with a regularly updated antivirus software program. This will clean out any worms or viruses, which may be hindering access to your stored files. If the check disk function and virus scan doesn't work, you can always go for some of best USB flash drive recovery software available out there.

Wall St gains in choppy trade ahead of Obama speech

Stocks edged higher in choppy trade on Thursday, led by gains in the technology sector ahead of a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama laying out a major jobs package.

Indexes seesawed between modest gains and losses throughout the morning session. Technology stocks were the day's top gainers, supporting the Nasdaq, which outperformed other indexes. The Philadelphia semiconductor index <.SOX> was up 1.4 percent.

Banks were the biggest decliners after sharp gains in the previous session. The KBW Bank Index <.BKX> was down nearly 1 percent.

"We're seeing a lot of action in the Nasdaq and technology stocks. Those are flush with cash and have the least amount of risk," said Phil Streible, senior market strategist with MF Global in Chicago.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> added 20.51 points, or 0.18 percent, at 11,435.37. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 0.76 points, or 0.06 percent, at 1,199.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> put on 8.16 points, or 0.32 percent, at 2,557.10.

Obama will lay out a $300 billion plan to include tax cuts for the middle class and businesses and new spending to repair deteriorating infrastructure. Obama, scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. EDT, (2300 GMT) is staking his re-election hopes on a call for urgent bipartisan action.

Boosting the Nasdaq, Sandisk Corp jumped 5.6 percent to $39.74.

Among bank shares, Bank of America Corp fell 1 percent to $7.40, the second largest decliner on the Dow. The S&P 500 financial sector index <.GSPF> lost 0.7 percent.

Earlier, data from the Labor Department showed weekly jobless claims rose to 414,000 from an upwardly revised 412,000 in the prior week.

Separately, the trade deficit narrowed considerably in July, a positive signal for growth in the third quarter after a sluggish first half.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak on the U.S. economic outlook to the Economic Club of Minnesota at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

Japan scientists coax sperm from stem cells

Scientists in Japan said Friday they have for the first time succeeded in coaxing sperm cells from mouse embryonic stem cells, a breakthrough that could one day help humans overcome infertility.

The sperm were used to fertilize eggs and were found to produce "healthy offspring that grew into fertile male and female adult mice," said the study in a special online edition of the US journal Cell.

Potential use of the technology in humans is at least a decade away, the Kyoto University team said.

But the experiment is exciting because it tackles one of the biggest obstacles in biology -- making embryonic stem cells into sperm precursors, known as primordial germ cells, which then can become healthy sperm.

"This is the first (study) to report the generation of fully functional germline cells from ES (embryonic stem) cells," lead author of the study, Mitinori Saitou, professor at the department of anatomy and cell biology graduate school of medicine, Kyoto University, told AFP by email.

Researchers took mice that were unable to produce normal sperm and injected them with the stem cell-derived primordial germ cells, or PGCs.

These PGCs "produced normal-looking sperm, which were then used to successfully fertilize eggs," said the study.

The team intends to continue studying the technique and its effects in further generations of male and female mice.

Dangers of Technology Addiction

The subject of technology addiction is relatively new as compared to drug or gambling addictions. This leads to a heated dispute over whether we need to consider the fervent need for technology and the monotony that the lack of technology causes, as an addiction. There are several qualifications that a craving needs to be termed as an addiction.



What Makes an Addiction?

The human state survival works on a simple reward system. Every time you attain a biological requirement like food, sex or lactation, the body releases a neurotransmitter called 'dopamine' (in this case, into the brain) that helps us decide the approach to something to be rewardhed. This means the phase of wanting something and getting it, and the eventual liking of it is controlled by dopamine. It is this that fuels an addiction. Once you start using a piece of technology (like video games) and eventually start to like it, release of dopamine in the brain creates a reward system for it, which creates an addiction for it. The same example works for cigarettes - nicotine induces a dopamine release, creating the craving for more. An important point here is that people who seek more satisfaction from things, actually are seeking more in terms of dopamine release, and therefore require a larger release of the neurotransmitter, which in turn requires you to pursue that thing even more.



Apart from dopamine, there's also 'serotonin', the neurotransmitter that's involved with mood control and sensory perception. Serotonin imbalance is a major cause of depression, suicidal tendencies and aggression. Norepinephrine is another mood control neurotransmitter that also can work as a hormone. It is directly related to stress.



Traditionally, all this was considered to apply to sectors that involve more physical activity (like sex) or actual substance consumption (food and drugs), which later translated to gambling too. We are now at the verge of seriously considering the very gadgets that help in making life easier as the gadgets that mark the very difference between success and failure. There have been many arguments over this issue - one side stating that technology addiction satisfies the scientific qualifications (dopamine release), while others say that overusing technology is only a phase that is a let go of the moment we set on something more challenging. But there lies the downside of calling something an addiction. When you're 'addicted' to something, you forget all other needs and wants, concentrating solely on satisfying your now first priority, craving.



Students of the International Center for Media & the Public Affairs (ICMPA), along with the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change, conducted an online study, asking over a thousand students in ten countries across five continents to refrain from using any form of media for 24 hours. A majority of students considered this an impossibility in this modern age. Most kids today have grown with console and a cellphone in their hands, making them take technology for granted and completely shirk the idea of living without it. Most students failed to complete 24 hours, some described signs of withdrawal and early stages of depression, shocked by their total dependence on cellphones, computers and the TV. Only a small minority actually pulled it off successfully. It may thus be said that even if technology addiction cannot be called as a medical condition, the cravings and the anxiety related to an addiction still exists.

Brazil announces scholarship program

Brazil has announced it will invest $2.02 billion by the end of 2014 in 75,000 science and technology scholarships that will send students abroad.

The commitment is part of the government's Science Without Borders program announced July 26, an article in Nature reported.

Brazil is one of the world's 10 largest economies and has a need for chemists, physicists, computer scientists and engineers, said Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, director of the Sao Paulo state research foundation.

"This will have a major impact in allowing Brazilian kids to take their ideas to the limit," he said.

There aren't enough students studying science and engineering to fill current demand, Aloizio Mercadante, the Brazilian minister of science and technology, said.

The scholarship program is intended to address the shortage by focusing on engineering, health sciences, life sciences and technology, he said.

The idea is to send students to top universities, mostly in the United States and United Kingdom. There are 238 foreign universities participating in the scholarship program, Mercadante said.

White House names new technology chief

Former Microsoft executive Steven VanRoekel has been named U.S. technology chief, the White House announced.

VanRoekel, 41, becomes chief information officer, succeeding Vivek Kundra, 36, who was the first to take on the IT position when it was created in 2009, a White House release said Friday.

VanRoekel said he would work to introduce new technologies to improve government service as well as focus on cutting costs in an age of austerity.

"The productivity gap between where the private sector has gone over the last two decades and where government has gone is ever-widening," he told

The Washington Post.

Government must increase its spending on new technology, which "can be done in a way that actually saves money, saves resources and everything else," he said.

VanRoekel will oversee an annual spending budget of $80 billion for the U.S. government, the world's largest customer for information technology services and products.

VanRoekel spent 15 years at Microsoft before becoming the managing director of the Federal Communications Commission in 2009.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/08/05/White-House-names-new-technology-chief/UPI-24611312563762/#ixzz1UDsreo3T