Flash drive now showing "needs to be formatted"

[Great Heron]

I was sent a flash drive that contained files which I opened successfully yesterday. Today when I try to access the files, I get a notice that says the flach drive needs to be formatted. Will the files be removed from the drive if I proceed with formatting? Is there a way to get back to the files? Are they already erased? "Stumpee"

 

[LookinAround]

DON'T format (or write anything to that flash drive) will modify/possibly overwrite anything left

There are a couple freeware data recovery tools you can try. Checkout PC Inspector.

Click the Help tab and note they give the 4 steps for it to attempt to find and recover any lost files still on that drive