[jaclaz]

Here is a good "base pointer":
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/FAT
(and ALL links in it)
After reading that introductory page (and before perusing the links) go through this site:
http://thestarman.pc.../mbr/index.html
several important bits and pieces of info, starting here:
http://thestarman.pc...ataRecovery.htm

Since - at the moment - you have a FAT16 issue, an exceptionally good resource (if you can still find a copy of it *somewhere* would be the (paper) manual for Norton Utilities (for DOS or the "for Win95" or "for NT") that AFAICR has some very good examples of manual rebuilding of FAT tables, this one (example to make it clear, you want something with Peter Norton depicted on it , NOT any of the later crappy Symantec "wonders"):
http://www.ebay.co.u...=item35be90fb8b

jaclaz

[wfc569]

many thx, jaclaz. I will spend some time browsing through these links and try to see if I can pick up a trick or two... Meanwhile, I will probably have to seek professional assistance and try to get my data recovered. Unfortunately, I just rebuilt my home PC few weeks ago and moved most of my data to that damaged USB stick. Although I did manage to find some back up data in a separate external hard drive, I may still lose some data saved this year if I can not recover data from the damaged USB.