<p>I have a research paper on an external flash memory drive and when I try to open it, it says "file is corrupted and unreadable" Is there anything I can do to recover it or do I have to start over?</p>
<p>well i'd be interested to hear someone's answer to that because anytime that's happened to me i havent been able to fix it...good luck?</p>
<p>uh oh...</p>
<p>One cause of the problem is that you likely removed the flash drive before it was completely done saving the file.</p>
<p>In that case, the data is corrupt and I doubt you could recover it.</p>
<p>If you have time, you can call a professional. I know they can recover deleted files on hard drives sometimes; maybe, they can help you.</p>
<p>I can relate to having a document deleted after hours of work, good luck.</p>
<p>yeah, the most likely answer is you removed the device too quickly. Or did you drop it on the ground maybe, or did it impact something severely? if the second is the case, as Bender would say, "your boned"</p>