[tlug] Files copied to USB thumb drive completely gone

[Dave M G <dave@example.com>]

TLUG,

Do USB thumb drives wear out and just die?

I have a laptop that I don't like to keep any data on. But during the
last week while my main desktop computer was out of commission, I was
using my laptop to continue some work.

Today I decided to take all the files I have been working on with my
laptop, copy them to my 2GB USB thumb drive, and then transfer them to
my  desktop computer.

I copied and pasted them, and everything seemed normal.

Later, when I got home, I connected the USB drive to my home computer
and... nothing. It's completely blank. Wiped clean of any files. There's
one hidden directory called "Trash-1000", and it's empty.

Did I accidentally copy my files to another directory? I opened up the
laptop, and the files are nowhere to be found there either, despite
extensive searching.

I didn't run any delete commands or anything, so is there any way these
files might just be hidden?

Or is that being optimistic?

-- 
Dave M G