Remove the plastic shell and you'll find there is little to nothing more than a connector, a small controller, and one black NAND memory chip (where all your data resides). This is essentially the entire recovery story, since connectors break and controllers fail often, while the memory chip itself rarely fails. If the memory chip remains intact (and it most likely will), then regardless of how damaged everything else may appear, all your files are a bench job away.
The classic Glasgow casualty: you leave a USB stick plugged into a laptop, and some sort of bag, knee or weight catches the end of the stick and tears the connector off or breaks the circuit board. In either case, the physical connection is broken, but the memory chip a centimetre (or so) inside the tear or crack remains undamaged. To recover the data from this damaged USB stick, we use micro soldering techniques to connect to whatever usable areas remain on the circuit board, or, where none remain, read out the memory directly from the memory chip. Be sure to keep all fragments of the circuit board. A circuit board that's cracked open is generally much easier to work with than one that's missing entirely.
Using a household iron for repairs on a damaged USB stick also won't help. Since a person using a household iron has no experience with micro soldering techniques, he/she will inadvertently lift the pads needed for recovery.
The other family has no damage that is immediately apparent: the USB stick just starts drawing power, but refuses to appear as a named device, or Windows offers options to erase it. That indicates that the controller has failed or that the flash is experiencing failures beyond the controller's ability to hide them. As long as the controller is dead, there's absolutely no way software will ever access anything stored behind it. Therefore, we need to first read the NAND directly, and then rebuild all of your files based upon the raw dump of data obtained from it. We unscramble the wear-levelling done by the controller in software.
You may have one of those monolithic style sticks, which means the connector, controller and flash memory live together in a single moulded unit. Those are harder to recover than other styles; we will need to read out the data using test points rather than probing the chip legs. They can be slow and difficult to work with but they are still recoverable.
You don't recover a broken USB stick for its hardware. This is your dissertation and there's no backup; this is all of your site photos from the completed project; this is your "temporary" file folder that has been there for four years. Your choice will be based purely on the relative value of the recovered data versus the cost of recovery, which is a fixed £250. We provide a complimentary diagnostic service so that you may determine what is actually recoverable before you decide, rather than guessing. If you decide it is not worth it, then our service has cost you nothing but the postage to send the memory stick back to you.
Prices of USB drives and memory cards are set at a £250 + VAT price point (for both connector damage & chip-level reads). Only in very rare cases (monolith devices) will this be written up as an exception before we attempt anything. Each job begins with a free online diagnostic and each job ends the same as it was quoted: the price will go in writing prior to reading any sectors; on most jobs you won't have to pay anything unless your data returns. There is no hourly rate, no surprise "evaluation fee" and no percentage of what the files are worth.
Most of the time. You'll find a break in the connector (or where the connector meets the board) but all your data will still reside safely under it on the NAND chip. Collect every piece; don't use anything with tape or solder and ship them as they are. At the chip level we can recover most broken USBs (even those broken into multiple pieces).
The answer to this is no: cancel that dialog every time. If Windows tells you that the drive needs to be formatted, it is telling you that it can't read the file system on your device, which most of the time means the file system has been damaged due to the stick being removed in the middle of a write operation, or early controller faults. Most likely all data under this file system is still good. Formatting writes a fresh, empty structure over the clues we use. Unplug it and leave it alone until it has been diagnosed.
The good news is yes: generally, sticks don't use TRIM (like an SSD does), so deleted files remain recoverable until they are overwritten with new data. All you need to remember is to discontinue use as soon as you become aware of a problem. Get a quote and bring it in prior to anyone testing the drive by writing files onto it.
The free diagnostic will tell you what can be recovered before you spend any money, and if the truthful answer is "there isn't anything worth paying for", then we'll tell you that too. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data; there's never a charge for nothing.
Before posting or dropping off your item please obtain a quote using either the form on this site or by calling us. There are then two genuine options. No vans will be used. To hand over your item, go to Tay House, 300 Bath Street (only two minutes from the M8) at Charing Cross, Monday to Friday, 9am–5:30pm. We do not require appointments. Or wrap your item securely and send it to us by insured, tracked post from Paisley, Ayrshire, the Highlands or anywhere else in the UK. Either way, the work is done in-house by our own engineers, with a documented chain of custody, and your data never leaves the UK.
A thesis on a USB stick that broke in the port, and how we were able to read directly off the chip. Read it →
Bag every fragment, avoid attempting to solder yourself, and let our diagnostic tell you what is truly recoverable, for free. USB stick data recovery in Glasgow: after obtaining a quote, either visit us in person at Tay House or send it via first-class insured post from wherever you may be.