On 05/09/13 20:56, Rock wrote: > On Thu, 09 May 2013 16:51:48 -0400, m.roth-x6lchVBUigD1P9xLtpHBDw wrote: > >> Are you sure that the FAT was mangled, and not just the MBR? > > How can I tell? > > All I know is the following: > a) The WinXP PC had a virus or something making it slow > b) So I decided to re-install the WinXP OS > c) I connected the 150GB USB drive to the WinXP PC > d) I backed up all the data files onto the 150GB USB drive <snip> I'm afraid that's where you lost it - I'd strongly suspect that the virus has some kind of self-protection to avoid being studied, and that's when it hit the USB drive. mark