dead USB drive anyone?

[frank]

Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?
Thanks

Frank

 

[Ian Field]

"frank" <frank@invalid.net> wrote in message
newsiganu$kjc$1@dont-email.me...

Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb
stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?
Thanks

The only USB HDD I have any experience with is a USB external - it came with
a special Y cable with 2 plugs so it could pick up enough current. Only 1
plug has signal lines.

Not tried it myself - but someone on a forum was complaining they had to
clonk the drive on the desk to get it to spin up. They were using a normal
single plug lead.

 

[rickman]

frank wrote on 6/22/2017 7:47 AM:

Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?

Just to be sure, you are talking about a USB Flash drive, right? I've yet
to find one I couldn't open. It would cost them extra money to make them
hard to open, solid plastic.

Not sure what you might be able to fix inside other than a failed solder
joint though. Mostly they are a single Flash chip with a built in
controller, nothing to replace without losing the data in the chip.

The lesson here is that Flash chips are not terribly reliable for long term
storage. Anything on a Flash drive should be backed up on another Flash
drive or your computer hard drive or both. Backup, backup, backup.

--

Rick C

 

[John-Del]

On Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 3:48:13 PM UTC-4, rickman wrote:

frank wrote on 6/22/2017 7:47 AM:
Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?

Just to be sure, you are talking about a USB Flash drive, right? I've yet
to find one I couldn't open. It would cost them extra money to make them
hard to open, solid plastic.

A good buddy of mine had some data and pictures on a flash drive that he could no longer read on his computer or any recovery software. So I opened it up looking for bad solder on the chip or a problem with the USB connector.. Sure, the plastic outer case opened up easily enough but there was nothing inside. That's right, nothing.. Other than a two piece outer plastic case, the drive was a USB connector soldered to a multi-layer board with no external components on it. Whatever it used for a chip was embedded inside the PC layer.

The lesson here is that Flash chips are not terribly reliable for long term
storage. Anything on a Flash drive should be backed up on another Flash
drive or your computer hard drive or both. Backup, backup, backup.

I have a library of .bin files for TV mainboards on 4 thumb drives as well as three PCs I own and several PC from others in the business. Too many years removing soldered-in eeproms and reading them to lose them to a balky flash drive.

 

[rickman]

John-Del wrote on 6/22/2017 4:15 PM:

On Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 3:48:13 PM UTC-4, rickman wrote:
frank wrote on 6/22/2017 7:47 AM:
Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?

Just to be sure, you are talking about a USB Flash drive, right? I've yet
to find one I couldn't open. It would cost them extra money to make them
hard to open, solid plastic.


A good buddy of mine had some data and pictures on a flash drive that he could no longer read on his computer or any recovery software. So I opened it up looking for bad solder on the chip or a problem with the USB connector. Sure, the plastic outer case opened up easily enough but there was nothing inside. That's right, nothing.. Other than a two piece outer plastic case, the drive was a USB connector soldered to a multi-layer board with no external components on it. Whatever it used for a chip was embedded inside the PC layer.

Was there a black blob on the board? That would be epoxy covering the die
mounted to the board. I see that on high volume, low cost products which
only need one or two chips. Actually mounting chips inside the PCB is not
something I've ever seen or heard of before. Not saying it's impossible,
but it would be done for low cost and I don't think it would be any cheaper
than the epoxy blob and in fact may be slightly more expensive.

The lesson here is that Flash chips are not terribly reliable for long term
storage. Anything on a Flash drive should be backed up on another Flash
drive or your computer hard drive or both. Backup, backup, backup.

I have a library of .bin files for TV mainboards on 4 thumb drives as well as three PCs I own and several PC from others in the business. Too many years removing soldered-in eeproms and reading them to lose them to a balky flash drive.

Flash memory inherently wears out. It also has issues being made. To deal
with both problems the chips are made with extra capacity and error
correcting codes are used to find and correct errors. When a sector is
found to have errors, the data is copied over to a spare block and the old
one is marked as bad. The problem comes when there are too many errors to
read the data on a failing block or when all the spare blocks are used.
This makes SSD storage susceptible to sudden failure.

--

Rick C

 

[Michael Black]

On Thu, 22 Jun 2017, rickman wrote:

frank wrote on 6/22/2017 7:47 AM:
Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb
stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?

Just to be sure, you are talking about a USB Flash drive, right? I've yet to
find one I couldn't open. It would cost them extra money to make them hard
to open, solid plastic.

Yes, they may not go back together afterwards, but they are always easy to
open. And they may not be so pocketable once opened, but they don't
really need the case to use, just to protect the circuits when sitting
around. And if there is a failure, it's not like the thing will be
trusted again, the best that opening can do is show a bad connection that
can be resoldered, and then you rescue the data and abandon the device.

Michael

 

[John-Del]

On Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 6:49:36 PM UTC-4, rickman wrote:

John-Del wrote on 6/22/2017 4:15 PM:
On Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 3:48:13 PM UTC-4, rickman wrote:
frank wrote on 6/22/2017 7:47 AM:
Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?

Just to be sure, you are talking about a USB Flash drive, right? I've yet
to find one I couldn't open. It would cost them extra money to make them
hard to open, solid plastic.


A good buddy of mine had some data and pictures on a flash drive that he could no longer read on his computer or any recovery software. So I opened it up looking for bad solder on the chip or a problem with the USB connector. Sure, the plastic outer case opened up easily enough but there was nothing inside. That's right, nothing.. Other than a two piece outer plastic case, the drive was a USB connector soldered to a multi-layer board with no external components on it. Whatever it used for a chip was embedded inside the PC layer.

Was there a black blob on the board? That would be epoxy covering the die
mounted to the board.

Absolutely not. I know what an IC printed on a PC and covered with epoxy looks like (most modern consumer electronics remotes have them).

This was a multi layer board with no exposed lands save for the USB connections. The rest of the board was green mask with no place for any parts to be soldered to. If he still has it I'll take a pic and upload it.

 

On Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 4:50:57 AM UTC-7, frank wrote:

Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?
Thanks

Frank

A couple of years ago a coworker had a flash drive from his daughter that had research material for her doctoral work and she was very upset. I plugged it into my machine and it was indeed dead. I flexed it a little and got the Windows beep for USB. She had flexed it in the side of the laptop while using it in bed and cracked the solder connection(s) in the drive. I just stressed it while it copied off the data to the hard drive and copied on to a new flash drive. I never found out if there was any damage to the laptop but she was very happy to get her data back. I think she learned a lesson about backups.

If it's a 'portable' drive particularly with those wide USB 3.0 cables, I've seen those break too often but are easily available.

G²

 

[rickman]

stratus46@yahoo.com wrote on 6/22/2017 11:53 PM:

On Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 4:50:57 AM UTC-7, frank wrote:
Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?
Thanks

Frank

A couple of years ago a coworker had a flash drive from his daughter that had research material for her doctoral work and she was very upset. I plugged it into my machine and it was indeed dead. I flexed it a little and got the Windows beep for USB. She had flexed it in the side of the laptop while using it in bed and cracked the solder connection(s) in the drive. I just stressed it while it copied off the data to the hard drive and copied on to a new flash drive. I never found out if there was any damage to the laptop but she was very happy to get her data back. I think she learned a lesson about backups.

If it's a 'portable' drive particularly with those wide USB 3.0 cables, I've seen those break too often but are easily available.

I'm no fan of the typical USB connection for flash drives in laptops. It is
far too easy to damage both the drive and the PC. I often use a short USB
extension cable for plugging in a flash stick. But that still leaves the
laptop connector vulnerable as the typical USB connector still creates are
pretty big lever arm. I don't even like the "micro" size mouse dongles. I
had a laptop bag ripped from putting the laptop in it with the dongle
installed. The tear ended up running and destroyed the whole bag.

--

Rick C

 

On Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 3:48:13 PM UTC-4, rickman wrote:

frank wrote on 6/22/2017 7:47 AM:
Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?

Just to be sure, you are talking about a USB Flash drive, right? I've yet
to find one I couldn't open. It would cost them extra money to make them
hard to open, solid plastic.

The lesson here is that Flash chips are not terribly reliable for long term
storage. Anything on a Flash drive should be backed up on another Flash
drive or your computer hard drive or both. Backup, backup, backup.

And now, they're even talking about after saving something on a device, open it back up and save it to the cloud for extra backup, too.