Flash files restored but with generic names. Partition not found.

OK, your Flash drive was most probably formatted as exFat. GetDataback for NTFS also said it does not find any NTFS. It would be immaterial whether it was formatted as exFAT on the Mac or PC. It is still a PC file system compatible with Mac.

You still did not run the Quickscan with Partition Recovery Wizard. Anyway good. Instead of Quickscan run a Full Scan.Be patient and allow the full scan to complete. A full Scan can take a considerable time. Post the screenshot of Partitions found Window. Then cancel and quit PW. As I said earlier do not APPLY .. This is only expolaratory to find out whether it is able to find the backup of Volume Boot sector and from that it can rewrite the lost partition table. If this attempt does not look to do what we want to do, we shall go to Test Disk with which we will try to find out what exactly is wrong with the file system and try to repair it if possible. If it is NTFS - yes we had done it many times. Since it is exFat, I really do not know if it is going to successful but there is no harm in trying to restore the flash drive. If not successful you still have all the data already.

Good day Jumanji,

No luck on the Partition Wizard scan I'm afraid. For what it's worth, I also ran a surface check which didn't find any errors. Images below:

OK. Download TestDisk for Windows from here TestDisk Download - CGSecurity ( The second in the list.)( Do not download " Windows 64 bit" - that is not for you) Extract the testdisk-7.0.win.zip to the root of your system drive C:. You will run testdisk_win.exe in the extracted testdisk-7.0 folder.
That is a routine message. You shouldn't use the 64bit version.

That complied go to post#6 here WD Elements being read as RAW // Contents readable through app and follow the screenshots upto screen 5. Does screen 5 show your exFAT partition? If it shows up post the screendhot we shall decide what next to do for for exFAT may be different from that for NTFS.

In case no partition is found then

Run check disk from command prompt.

Open Command prompt. Start > All programs > Accessories > Command Prompt

Type
CHKDSK K: /f /v /r /x Press enter. Note: Replace K: with the actual drive letter of the flash drive

Allow check disk to complete. ( Do not lose patience and Do not abort check disk for any reason. Let it complete or abort itself. When checkdisk runs do not use your PC for any other task. No multitasking)

If it completes then reboot your PC and check the staus of your pendrive.

If it aborts itself note the error message. I would give up. Post the error message ( It is only for my further research)

And I have one question: Referring to your first screenshot using TestDisk, Did you run a Deeper Search?

Firstly, two important points. I did not run a deeper scan and... I'm afraid my earlier tests were carried out on the 64 bit version .

I'm installing the correct one now.

TestDisk reports no partition found and chkdsk doesn't work on RAW systems.

OK, be happy with whatever you got with Getdataback Simple and from which you could rebuild your folder structure and file names for the files you recovered with PhotoRec. Or If you can spend USD80/- buy a Getdataback simple license to copy the files complete with the folder structure and filenames.. It is perhaps as you suspected the MAC /PC combination that spoilt your flash drive. Thanks for doing the experiments.

Probably time to give up but I'm running a deeper search now just to see what happens.

Yes, thanks very much for your time and expertise Jumanji. I'll have a little more scrabbling around for my own curiosity then I'll post as solved.

Cheers

Pete

Yes, do experiment and try various recovery methods. You have nothing to lose and that is the best way to learn.

Another idea I picked up from TestDisk forums.

When you ran TestDisk as per the procedure outlined in my post#6 here WD Elements being read as RAW // Contents readable through app you reported that TestDisk did not find any partition.We dropped it at that.

Now repeat the same process , but this time instead of selecting [Intel] Intel/PC partition, select [None] Non partitioned media. If it finds your partition as Unknown , Choose [Type] and tell it is exFAT and then try to
[List] the files.