Data recovery for Kingston DataTraveler PST deleted in Brussels
The problem
A 128 GB Kingston DataTraveler USB drive contained an old Outlook PST archive that the user had accidentally deleted. This file contained several years’ worth of work emails and did not exist anywhere else: no backup copy had been kept. The flash drive remained fully functional and was recognized by the system, but the archive was no longer visible. The challenge was to recover a single, large PST file without writing anything to the drive.
Our intervention
A complete image of the drive was first created on a server using Data Extractor in read-only mode, in order to work on a copy and preserve the original. By analyzing the used and free space, we were able to locate and reconstruct the deleted, slightly damaged PST file. Since the raw data was intact, the repair was performed at the logical level: the ScanPST utility built into Microsoft Outlook corrected minor inconsistencies in the file’s structure.
Result
The PST file was fully recovered and verified: the Outlook archive is fully functional, has been opened, and was verified by the client using the recovery log. The process took 3 hours and was completed on Friday evening.
Frequently asked question
Kingston DataTraveler PST deleted: can the data be recovered?
A complete image of the drive was first created on a server using Data Extractor in read-only mode, in order to work on a copy and preserve the original. By analyzing the used and free space, we were able to locate and reconstruct the deleted, slightly damaged PST file. Since the raw data was intact, the repair was performed at the logical level: the ScanPST utility built into Microsoft Outlook corrected minor inconsistencies in the file’s structure. The PST file was fully recovered and verified: the Outlook archive is fully functional, has been opened, and was verified by the client using the recovery log. The process took 3 hours and was completed on Friday evening.
Related service: USB data recovery