Video Recovery From a Corrupted SanDisk Pendrive for Chennai-Based Customer | Success Story

A wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, and the moments recorded on camera are priceless. Last month, a client approached us with a 64 GB pen drive that had become inaccessible. The drive contained his wedding videos, and when he suddenly found that he could no longer access the videos on his SanDisk Cruzer Blade pendrive, it naturally drove him to desperation—he took it to a local mobile/laptop repair shop.

So How Did Stellar Data Recovery Come Into the Picture?

Unaware of the risks associated with local vendors, our client approached one such vendor in search of a quick fix. The vendor attempted to recover the MP4 files using a third-party software, but that didn’t work. Instead, some of the data got overwritten.

Moreover, during recovery attempts, the vendor didn’t use write-blockers and ran multiple repair functions without realizing that he was corrupting more and more blocks with each attempt.

After a few days of counterproductive attempts, the vendor returned the supposedly dead flash drive. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the client decided to seek help of a professional data recovery service nearby and went on to contact Stellar Data Recovery. Read on to learn how our experts successfully recovered and restored his wedding videos.

Device Specifications

• Drive: SanDisk Cruzer Blade Pendrive
• Capacity: 64 GB
• File System: exFAT
• Issue: File system corruption, partial overwriting
• Data at Stake: Wedding videos

The Challenge

The client sent the media (64 GB SanDisk pendrive) to Stellar Data Recovery – Chennai, and we sent it for initial inspection right away. The drive was too unstable to be accessed using just software tools. It was clear that standard recovery attempts would be ineffective. Upon deeper inspection, we also observed that the exFAT file system was badly damaged and much of the data was corrupted.

The challenge was complex because video recovery from SanDisk Pendrive with severe exFAT corruption and overwritten MP4 files requires advanced techniques beyond standard software tools.

Video Recovery From SanDisk Pendrive: Stellar’s Approach

Once it was confirmed that the file system was damaged and the operating system had no way to understand where the files began or how they were organized, Stellar’s Pendrive Data Recovery team created a sector-by-sector clone of the pen drive. Because of excessive corruption, they ran multiple iterations to effectively clone the drive.

After that, they got on with file structure repair and analyzed file headers to identify the files. In cases where the headers were corrupted, they repaired them using Stellar’s proprietary tools. Non-repairable headers were isolated, helping the technicians determine which files needed to be reconstructed manually.

The pen drive recovery experts then manually retrieved the raw data fragments from the cloned copy in our ISO-certified lab. Since the directory structure was incomplete due to severe corruption, some of the filenames could not be retrieved. Also, the client had accidentally overwritten some of the data during DIY recovery attempts, and it couldn’t be recovered. The client was therefore requested to visit the service center to verify recovered raw data in person.

Once the verification was completed, the recovered data was delivered on a separate USB drive.

Final Thoughts

Stellar Data Recovery handles hundreds of similar cases every month. In this article we shared the details of a pen drive recovery process to help the users understand what to do when they lose access to storage devices containing irreplaceable memories.

The case also demonstrates how an initial attempt by a local vendor worsened the damage, turning it into a highly complex recovery. Thanks to our technical expertise and powerful, proprietary tools, we were able to recover the data successfully despite the constant risk of permanent data loss.

If this case helped you understand the recovery process, explore more real-world data recovery cases handled by our experts across different storage devices:

• Pen Drive Data Recovery: Small Design Studio Back in Business
• Deleted Video Footage Recovered From Corrupted SSD at Stellar – Nehru Place
• How a Hospitality Company Recovered 5 Years of Overwritten Tally Data
• Data Recovery From an Outdated 80 GB PATA Hard Drive | Stellar – Chennai
• Video Repair and Recovery From HIKVISION 1TB External SSD

About The Author

Urvika Tuteja

Urvika Tuteja is an SEO Executive at Stellar® with a good understanding of online marketing. She is known for her quick and enthusiastic learning abilities. Urvika contributes her skills to managing operational activities and driving the growth of organic traffic.