Team flash drive recovery. Recovering files from a damaged flash drive

Almost everyone uses USB flash drives now. This is a simple and reliable way to transfer and store information. But the malfunction of these devices has become a common problem for many users. Below are all possible causes of problems and options for resolving them.

First, simpler and more effective ways to solve the problem will be described, so you should follow the recommendations in order. But do not forget that some problems, such as severe physical damage, cannot be eliminated.

Reasons why the system does not recognize the device

To operate a USB device, it has a built-in special controller. If there is a certain failure, it may become blocked, which will prevent the computer from recognizing the flash drive.

The reason for the failure may be a power surge, sudden removal of the flash drive, incorrect formatting, etc. Violations of this type can still be corrected, but in case of mechanical or thermal damage, it is impossible to restore the operation of the flash drive.

You can understand that the flash drive is not detected by the computer by the following factors:

• The USB device is connected, but the computer says “insert disk”;
• The message “Device connected, not detected” pops up;
• issues a request to format the flash drive;
• a data reading error message appears;
• The indicator on the drive is on, but it is not displayed on the computer, etc.

The cause of the failure may also be:

• non-working computer USB ports;
• outdated drivers;
• viruses on the device;
• settings failures in BIOS;
• different file systems of the USB device and computer;
• assigning the letter of the connected hard drive to the flash drive, etc.

Driver check

First of all, you need to check whether the driver is installed correctly on your computer.

To do this, go to “Disk Management”:

Now try removing and inserting the USB device and see if it appears in this window. If the flash drive is visible and the status is indicated as “Good”, right-click on it and select “Make partition active”.

If there is a problem, the status will show "Not allocated", "Not initialized" or "Unknown", which means that the device is damaged.

The system may assign the wrong letter to the flash drive, which will also prevent it from being recognized. Right-click on the device and select "Change Drive Letter" and assign a different value:

The flash drive driver itself needs to be checked in Device Manager:

• start;
• control Panel;
• device Manager.

If the driver for the flash drive is not installed, yellow question marks will appear next to one or more USB devices.

Computer hardware errors

When the PC does not detect a new flash drive, insert it into different USB ports. If all ports are operating normally except one, the cause of the problem is a problem in that port.

The same problem can arise when connecting a flash drive not directly, but through a USB hub or extension cable. Try connecting the device directly to the USB port. If everything works, then the adapter is the cause.

It happens that many devices are connected to the computer via USB, then the ports may not have enough power to operate the flash drive. Disconnect other devices from the ports one at a time, leaving only the mouse and keyboard. If the USB drive now works, then the problem is due to lack of power.

Photo: USB hub transformer Apacer PH150

In this case, it is better to install a more powerful power supply or USB hub with a separate power source. But if the size of the flash device is very large, older laptop models simply will not handle its power. With this option, it is almost impossible to solve the problem.

Another problem is the heating of the connected USB device. The malfunction may be a short on the device board.

You can check this on another computer - if it continues to heat up, then the USB drive is faulty. And if everything is fine in other places, then the computer port itself may short out.

If the flash drive and USB port are working properly, the indicator on the device will light up. Then the cause of the problem is systemic, not hardware.

Video: Recovering a flash drive that is not recognized by the computer

Virus check

Then why is the flash card seen by the computer, but not read? One reason could be a virus that infects the boot file of the USB drive. Because of this, the device either does not boot at all or is immediately blocked by the antivirus. And if it is displayed, it displays a warning “Access denied” when you try to open it.

First of all, you should destroy the infected boot file “autorun.inf”. To do this, enter the address of the flash drive in Explorer (for example, G:/):

• "Service";
• "Folder properties";
• "View";
• “Hidden files and folders”;
• "Show hidden files and folders."

The download file will now be displayed. It must be removed and data from the entire device scanned with an antivirus.

If the flash drive does not open through Explorer, use the command line:

Setting up USB in BIOS

The flash drive may not be recognized due to USB ports being disabled in the BIOS. This happens very rarely, but it's best to check your settings just in case. Please note that no device will be recognized in a disabled USB port, so if others work fine, then skip this step.

To enter the BIOS, restart the computer and press the Del or F2 button while turning it on. Different PCs may have different keys, so look at what is written on the screen (approximately “Press F2 to enter Setup”). If a blue table with settings opens, then everything is correct - you have entered the BIOS.

Now you should find the menu item in which the inclusion of USB is regulated. Its name may vary, but most often it is the Advanced (Peripherals, Integrated Peripherals) tab:

In it, look for the item USB Configuration/Controller, etc. There are a lot of BIOS menu options, so it’s quite difficult to specify the exact item. But the word USB must be present. Now make sure that USB support is “Enabled”, if not, then switch them:

Some BIOS versions not only regulate how the controller turns on, but also indicate its operating mode - V1.1 or V1.1+V2.0 (there is already 3.0). Choose the option that supports all directions (V1.1+V2.0). Save the settings and exit the BIOS (most often the F10 key).

USB drive is not detected by the system due to errors

After formatting, which may not have been entirely successful, the operating system may not see the flash drive due to errors. This can be checked in the “Disk Management” item, the entrance to which was described above. If the flash drive says “Good”, but it is still not visible in Explorer, the cause may be a formatting error.

This can be eliminated by new formatting. Right-click on the device and select “Format”. The flash drive should now display and work without errors.

Different file systems of flash cards and computers

To restore the operation of a usb flash that is not detected on the PC, you need to change the file system, which may cause a conflict on the computer. The file system of the latter is most often NTFS, while the flash device is FAT32. In the Disk Management window, you can see the file system types of different PC media.

Correct formatting solves the problem. For this:

In the window that opens, check the compliance of the specified capacity and the parameters of the flash drive. Specify the file system NTFS and check the box next to “Fast (cleaning table of contents)”. Now click “Start”:

Confirm your actions:

After the process is completed, the system will notify you:

Photo: formatting completion message

Required OS updates for operation

When Windows XP is installed, the flash drive may not be recognized due to outdated updates required for its operation. However, some flash drives can work in PC USB ports, while others cannot.

The main updates required for normal operation of USB devices:

• KB925196 – incorrect recognition;
• KB817900 – port operation stops after the device is removed and reloaded;
• KB968132 – errors when connecting several flash drives;
• KB88740 – Rundll32.exe error;
• KB895962 – stops the USB device after turning off the printer;
• KB871233 – the flash card does not work after the PC wakes from sleep or hibernation;
• KB314634 – support only older USB devices;
• KB312370 (2007) – USB 2.0 support.

Recovery methods

When no problems are found with the system, you can use special recovery programs:

• ChipGenius – determines the manufacturer and other information about the device;

• AlcorMP – reflashes usb flash controllers from most manufacturers;
• JetFlash Recovery Tool – flashes flash drives from Transcend.

If your computer says "Insert disk" when booting, the problem may be outdated drivers that should be removed.

For this:

• When the computer is turned off, disconnect all USB devices (except the mouse and keyboard);
• turn on the PC;
• download the DriveCleanup program;
• Depending on the OS version, copy the 32-bit or 64-bit “drivecleunup.exe” to the C:\Windows\System32 folder;
• go to the command line and write “drivecleunup.exe”;
• drivers will begin to be uninstalled:

After this, restart your computer. Insert the flash drive and the system will find new drivers for it.

A flash drive may not be detected for many reasons, the main of which are a malfunction of the device or USB port, as well as system errors, most of which can be eliminated by correct formatting and installing drivers. Some programs can also help restore USB flash, so you should follow the instructions in order.

There are a lot of long materials on my site and it will be difficult for a person who is faced with a problem for the first time to tie up the loose ends and understand how to start taking action. Here I have focused on the first stages, this is the definition controller And FID memory, since people often get confused at the very beginning, which creates the main difficulties.
For the hundredth time, for the especially gifted, a few words about the method VID-PID, in short - this method is not a method. Type and PID are most often identifiers of the flash drive manufacturer and have nothing to do with the filling. For smaller companies, they often remain original and in most cases indicate the chip manufacturer, but the model is extremely rare and, as a rule, not very accurate. Well, what kind of memory is there, whether the flash drive froze or even burned out, the device will never tell you. I think it will be unpleasant to sit for two days to select vidpid, and then find out that the flash drive was faulty all this time.

If you need more comprehensive information, I recommend that after reading this manual, go to the section with articles () and read some of them.

You can also write to me on the forum (), registration is extremely simple - click register, enter your login, username, password and answers to security questions. I urge you, when contacting the forum, carefully select the appropriate section for your question and, if possible, follow the template (). So, for example, if you know the manufacturer of the controller installed in your flash drive, then write in its section.

SHORT PROCEDURE

Let's look step by step at what needs to be done to achieve success in our business. I ask you to pay special attention to the first point, because many users underestimate it, but in vain!

LOOKING LOOKING AROUND

If the flash drive cannot be detected by the computer, we try to perform the following methods in the exact sequence presented until it is correctly recognized as a device.
- to restart a computer;
– connect through the rear USB- motherboard port or, at worst, change the port;
– clean the registry using the program USB Oblivion, do not forget to disable everything before starting the process USB devices and set the bird ‘ Do real clean (simulation otherwise)‘;
– transfer the flash drive to , try several different combinations (5-6 minimum), both on the controller and on the flash memory;
– in case of unstable operation of the operating system, check the flash drive on another computer, simultaneously putting it in test mode;
– if none of the above helps, then 99.9% of your flash drive has hardware problems. You can try, before connecting it to the port, to press the memory and controller chips with your fingers so that they stick more tightly to the surface of the printed circuit board and connect and keep in this state until the effectiveness of the attempt is determined. If this does not help, then you cannot do without a soldering iron and special knowledge; as a rule, it is easier to throw out such a device.

Don’t forget to juggle the flash drive in the port between attempts, they really love it.

DETERMINING WHAT'S INSIDE

Let's say your flash drive is visible as a device, but this does not guarantee its hardware serviceability. Its incorrect display in production utilities is a serious reason to consider the flash drive half-dead. In this case, it is recommended to switch it to test mode, and if there are problems with correct identification, then the firmware will not help you for 98% of the current.

A little theory:
Most flash drives are recognized by three free programs distributed on the Internet: ChipGenius, And ChipEasy.

ChipGenius– knows the largest number of controllers, the main advantage is that it sometimes processes frozen flash drives. By the way, at the same time this is its drawback, since a person may think that the device is working properly and will not think of transferring it to test mode.

Flash Drive Information Extractor (usbflashinfo)– a domestic development, which is why it is focused mainly on controllers that are installed in flash drives sold in our country. For fakes (fake flash drives and flash drives as gifts), chipgenium is of course better suited. But for those controllers that it knows, it provides the most complete information. So in case of correct testing with a flash drive, the report from this utility is most preferable.
It is familiar with the following pieces of hardware: Phison, Alcor, USBest, iTE, SkyMedi (not all), SMI, SSS, YS8231 and similar Appotech, Innostor, and also recognizes ChipsBank (not all), SanDisk (a company, but not a model and others), U3 different, some iCreate (but they don’t have memory).

ChipEasy– in recent years it has hardly been updated, therefore it is ineffective, I don’t see much point in using it.

You can download all these three utilities here -. You should use only the latest versions, and not the one that is closer to you.
You can get detailed background information on this issue from the article -

So, let's conduct a quick program examination of the patient. We connect the flash drive to USB port and scan it one by one using the program Flash Drive Information Extractor And ChipGenius.

; usbflashinfo790548:
Volume: K:
Controller: Phison PS2306
Possible Memory Chip(s): Not available
Flash ID: 2C847863 A9
Chip F/W: 02/01/10
Firmware Date: 2014-05-22
ID_BLK Ver.: 1.2.74.0
MP Ver.: MPALL v3.80.00
VID: 13FE
PID: 5400
Manufacturer: UFD 3.0
Product: Silicon Power32G
Query Vendor ID: UFD 3.0
Query Product ID: Silicon Power32G
Query Product Revision: PMAP
Physical Disk Capacity: 31633440768 Bytes
Windows Disk Capacity: 31624626176 Bytes
Internal Tags: 2Q6P-S74A
File System: FAT32
Relative Offset: 1024 KB
USB Version: 3.00 in 2.00 port
Declared Power: 300 mA
ContMeas ID: 3DDA-11-00
Microsoft Windows XP SP3
Program Version: 7.9.0.548

; ChipGenius_v4_00_0030.exe:
Description: USB storage device(UFD 3.0 Silicon-Power32G)
Device Type: Mass Storage Device

Protocal Version: USB 2.10 – Hint: This device can run faster when plugged to a USB3.0 port
Current Speed: High Speed
Max Current: 300mA

USB Device ID: VID = 13FE PID = 5400
Serial Number: P1401468070B556EA15C9623

Device Vendor: UFD 3.0
Device Name: Silicon-Power32G
Device Revision: 0100

Manufacturer: UFD 3.0
Product Model: Silicon-Power32G
Product Revision: PMAP

Controller Vendor: Phison
Controller Part-Number: PS2251-06(PS2306) – F/W 01.02.10
Flash ID code: 2C847863 – Micron

This is exactly what the report of any flash drive whose controllers are known to by the utility should look like.

As an example, I will show how other companies are identified usb-controllers, in short form (up to values VIDPID).

Controller: Alcor AU6985/AU6992/SC508(FC8508) Possible Memory Chip(s): Hynix H27UBG8T2MYR Hynix H27UBG8T2M Memory Type: MLC Flash ID: ADD79425 4441 Flash CE: 1 Flash Channels: Single Chip Code: 0xD004 Chip F/W: E402 Group: 92

Controller: Silicon Motion SM3260 ADS Possible Memory Chip(s): Samsung K9PFGY8U5A Samsung K9PFGY8U7A Samsung K9HDGY8U5A Memory Type: MLC Flash ID: ECD7947A 54C3 Flash CE Summary: 8 Chip F/W: ISP 120801-AD- MP: L0828V1 MPTOOL Ver.: 2.03.90 PTEST Date: 2009-12-03

Controller: Innostor IS903 A5 Possible Memory Chip(s): Micron MT29F512G08CKCAB *2 Memory Type: MLC Flash ID: 2CA4E53C A5 Flash CE: 2+2 Flash Channels: Dual Chip F/W: 1.08.41.00

Controller: Appotech DM8261 Possible Memory Chip(s): SanDisk SDTNPMAHEM-008G Memory Type: MLC Flash ID: 45DEA482 7656 Flash CE: 1 Chip F/W: V1.0.00 Firmware Date: MAR 11 2013 19:55:25

Here we are primarily interested in the controller model and flash memory identifier ( FlashID = FID). For Alcors, I have also highlighted its code, which will be useful to you when working with chips 98th group (AU6989SN, AU6989AN and others). If the value FID`and has a value that does not exist in nature, then the drive is not working properly and at least a test mode is needed.

SELECTION OF UTILITIES

An experienced user, as a rule, will simply go to the page with utilities for a particular controller company and there, based on experience, will select the desired utility. As a last resort, he will sort through a couple that fit certain templates.

For example, let's take one of the flash drives shown in the table above, namely the one on the chip from Alcor.

On the menu FILES We find the manufacturer and there we already search by controller model. If you don’t know which page to look for, you can enter the controller model into the site search, the search bar located in the upper right corner. We drive in one by one, for example - AU6985 or AU6992 or SC508 or FC8508. So, for example, I went to the utility AlcorMP_UFD 13.02.05.MD (AU6990,92,96,98), numbers in brackets 92 , which point to the controller AU6992. From different versions AlcorMP, I chose the last one, which has a number in its description 92 . If for some reason it does not work, you can check several earlier versions or switch to another utility, for example FC MpTool 04.03.40 (AU6990,92,96,98).

If manual selection is difficult for you or it simply did not give an effect, then you can move on to the Google method.
You can Google your hardware in the following formats:

AU6985 ADD79425
AU6992 ADD79425
SC508 ADD79425
FC8508 ADD79425

AU6985 H27UBG8T2M
AU6992 H27UBG8T2M
SC508 H27UBG8T2M
FC8508 H27UBG8T2M

If the hardware is less common and the search ends in failure, then we move on to more general cases:

AU6985 MLC-4K
AU6992 MLC-4K
SC508 MLC-4K
FC8508 MLC-4K

AU6985 Hynix 41nm
AU6992 Hynix 41nm
SC508 Hynix 41nm
FC8508 Hynix 41nm

The Internet is large and therefore I would advise you to first check if there is information on the portal itself USBDev, for this we will add additional search parameters.

AU6992 ADD79425 site:site

Search engines (google, yandex, ...) will search only on my site and the search will be more complete, since in this case the filters that the search engine may have imposed on some of my pages do not apply.

FIRMWARE PROCESS

I won’t go into much detail here; the procedures for all utilities are usually similar. Just a few words:
– If possible, use exclusively the rear USB2.0 ports of your computer.
– Recommended to use Windows XP 32bit. In most cases it is quite suitable 32-bit Windows7. Using other OS versions, as well as 64-bit, is not as effective and can end up with unnecessary errors. Although many software released in recent years, one way or another, already support Windows 7 64bit.
– Using utilities that do not support your controller is, as a rule, absolutely safe, since they simply won’t see the flash drive. But those that seem to support, but are not fully debugged, can lead to the flash program freezing.

NOTES

If you are not confident in your capabilities and do not want to trip over your own rake, you should not change the original values ​​of identification information ( VID, PID, Vendor, Product and so on) stuffed into it. In most distributions located on the site, the originals are jammed, but what you have jammed in yours, for example, Kingston, is a leftist!
Controllers Sandisk cannot be restored and is not worth the wait.
For ITE IT1181A1BA, it is not yet possible to determine FID using surveys.
With controllers SiliconGO–Appotech a complete mess, both with identification and in general.
During treatment Alcor-chips with L74-memory operating in dual-channel mode, restoration to full capacity is possible only with the help of online utilities from Transcend.
For USB2.0 SMI-controllers ( SM3257ENAA, SM3257ENLT, SM3257ENBA), installed with cheap modern memory from 2012-2014, which comes in many flash drives like Transcend and Silicon-Power, you need to sew it with a sorting utility Dyna Mass Storage Production Tool.
Company Kingston, has never produced flash drives on controllers Alcor, Micov, Chipsbank, Appotech, SMI. If you find exactly these in your possession, then be sure that they are fakes.

Hi all! It’s not for nothing that I decided to write an article on how to flash a flash drive – I have experience. Yesterday I restored my flash drive Kingston DT Elite 3.0 16GB. Everything worked out, and I thought, why not write similar instructions, and tell me what to do and how to do it, in order to give the flash drive a new life :).

Nowadays, probably every house has a flash drive and very rarely just one. It’s convenient to transfer information onto them, they’re beautiful, and besides, they’re not expensive these days. But very often USB drives fail. If we talk about why this happens, then we ourselves are in first place. Do you always do a safe removal of your flash drive? So I rarely do. There may, of course, be other reasons why flash drives simply “die”.

One point needs to be clarified here. It happens that the flash drive really “dies”. In this case, it is impossible to restore it. At least at home. But if the USB drive shows at least some signs of life when connected to the computer, then you can try to restore its operation using the controller firmware.

What signs of life might there be for a USB drive?

• When you connect the flash drive to the computer, the computer signals that the device is connected - that’s good.
• When connecting Windows, it asks you to format the removable drive (but during the formatting process there are problems and errors such as “Windows cannot complete formatting”).
• The flash drive is detected and visible in Explorer, but when you try to open it, the message “Insert disk...” appears.
• Errors occur when copying information.
• Very slow speed of writing/reading information.

If there is valuable information on the flash drive, then you can try to restore it before and after the firmware. This can be done using different programs. I advice Recuva, here is the article but there are many other good programs.

If the information is very valuable, then it is better not to do anything yourself so as not to make it worse. Contact special service centers that specialize in data recovery.

Let's now look at the entire process of flashing the controller using a real example, using my Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB flash drive as an example. My flash drive broke down. It’s interesting. I needed to upload files to it and delete those that had already been recorded. I connected it to the computer and started deleting the folder. But the folder was deleted very slowly. I unplugged and plugged this flash drive back in, a message appeared that the disk needs to be formatted “Before using the disk...”.

Since there were no Important files on the flash drive, I started formatting without hesitation.

But the process itself lasted a very long time and never ended, I forcibly stopped it. The message “Windows could not complete formatting” may also appear.

But still, I formatted it, the tenth time, and only in FAT 32. After which the USB drive was detected normally and I was even happy. But it was not there. I started copying files onto it, and the recording speed was approximately 100 kb/s. I decided to flash it, which I did.

Determining the VID and PID of the USB controller

First we need determine VID and PID. This is data about the model and manufacturer of the controller, which is located in our drive. Using this data, we will look for a utility for the firmware. There are many different programs that can be used to determine VID and PID. I recommend the utility Flash Drive Information Extractor You can download it from the link.

Connect the USB flash drive to your computer and run the Flash Drive Information Extractor program (extract the program folder from the archive and run the GetFlashInfo.exe file).

Click the button at the top of the program “Get data about the flash drive”.

The program will give us the result. We look at the information that is located opposite VID and PID.

You can copy these numbers, or leave the utility window open, we will now need the received data.

We are looking for a utility for flashing a flash drive

Based on the VID and PID data, we need to find the utility with which we will flash the controller. There is a good website flashboot.ru, which contains a database of flash drives and utilities for their recovery.

In the search results we look for a flash drive similar to ours. The list may include devices from other manufacturers. They just have the same controller, it was identified by VID and PID. You may have noticed that I have a 16 GB flash drive, but in the list I highlighted 32 GB. I think there's nothing wrong with that (just where the name of the utility is not indicated on 16 GB). You try to choose a more similar device from the list.

We are interested in the field UTILS(utility), copy its name in full.

Unfortunately, the utility that I need was not found on this site. Perhaps you will have better luck and you will see something in the search results. Download the utility to your computer.

But I didn’t stop there and started Googling. I just asked “SK6221 MPTool 2013-04-25” and found this utility on some other site. If you have the same flash drive, then this utility is . True, the name of the archive is different, but this did not stop me from successfully curing my flash drive.

USB drive recovery process

Disconnect the flash drive. Extract the folder with the utility from the archive and run .exe file. In my case it is the MPTool.exe file. Also look at the text file readme.txt. Perhaps there are instructions there, or a link to a site with instructions. If the instructions are in English, then translate it using the same translate.google.ru.

I'll tell you how I did it (you just may have a different utility and everything may be different there, but it shouldn’t be very different).

The utility is running. We connect the flash drive. I have information about the flash drive in two lines in the program. Press the button Start

A Windows message should immediately appear asking you to format the disk. But most likely nothing will work out the first time. Unplug the flash drive and plug it back in. The driver should be installed and the removable drive should appear in Explorer. You can format it.

I checked the recording speed, everything is as it should be for USB 3.0, everything is fine!

You need to be prepared for the fact that the actions may differ from those I described. And not everything can work out the first time. The main thing is not to give up and everything will work out!

In this article I want to tell you how to restore a flash drive: about all the available methods for “revitalizing” damaged, non-working, faulty, faulty USB drives.

On the Internet, you could come across many guides for restoring and repairing so-called flash drives, but I offer the most complete instructions, which include all available methods, as well as tools.

It's no secret that the popularity of flash drives is simply enormous. Nowadays it is not just a device for storing information, but also an accessory that is always with you. If 10 years ago only a wealthy person could afford a flash drive, today it has become as much consumer goods as, say, a lighter.

However, let's not forget that the main purpose of a flash drive is convenient storage of data on a compact device that can be used for various purposes - copying information, transferring user data, storing backup copies of important data and everyday copying.

Advantages and disadvantages of a flash drive

It is important to note why this device has become so popular. The main advantages of flash memory:

• Compactness and small size, dimensions
• No noise during operation
• Great overwriting potential, high stability
• Reliability, storage life of data on a flash drive
• Versatility and accessibility, work with a USB port
• Endurance, high degree of protection from external damage
• Large amount of information storage
• Low price

Unfortunately, not everything is so rosy, despite all the advantages of a USB flash drive as a storage device. Very often the drive breaks down and becomes unusable. The user, as a rule, does not think about restoring the flash drive - unless, of course, he lost any valuable files when the flash drive broke down. Basically, people don’t “bother” when buying a new storage medium, especially since the cheapness allows them to not repair the flash drive, but simply find a more capacious and reliable replacement.

Reasons for flash drive failure

Let's look at the reasons why a flash drive can easily fail, regardless of its model, workmanship, and price.

• The flash drive was not removed correctly from the USB slot.
• Potential exhausted (memory has expired)
• Voltage and power surges

Generally speaking, there are many other reasons that lead to recovery. As a result, as a rule, the flash drive controller is the first to fail. What are the main symptoms that occur in these situations? You insert the flash drive into the usb connector, and instead of displaying a separate drive to which you can copy files, the system reports that the drive needs to be formatted, the device is unavailable, or you observe that the media is formatted in raw format.

Note: raw, in this case, is not a file system markup format at all, but evidence that the OS cannot determine its structure. This happens due to the fact that when a flash drive breaks down, the file table is broken, and service information can be destroyed, including the file system format.

It often happens that a flash drive is not writable and operates in read-only mode. What is causing this problem? The flash drive, knowing that it does not have long to live, goes into memory self-protection mode and instructs the controller not to allow recording to preserve the physical structure of the device. However, sometimes blocking occurs for a more trivial reason: the controller on the flash drive has failed, so it is not possible to write data to it. However, there are several ways to restore access to a flash drive if it is write-protected.

This, of course, is not very good news for those who are going to repair a flash drive: such repairs will require special equipment and skills. In a more optimistic scenario, you can restore using flash drive recovery programs.

What to do if the flash drive is broken

• a) restore data on it;
• b) repair the flash drive.

Exchange of device under warranty

When you bought a flash drive, you were probably given a warranty card, which indicated the conditions and terms for the distribution of warranty service. So? So. If the flash drive fails just during this time interval, you can safely contact the seller with a request for a replacement. Please note, however, that no one will restore data on a flash drive for you. You will simply be given a new flash drive, since it is completely impractical to carry out repairs, much less restore deleted files.

Repairing physical damage to a flash drive

Assuming that the hardware is not damaged, you roughly know the reasons for the failure, and you don’t mind sacrificing all the files, you can take a chance and format the flash drive. Make an informed decision: do you really need to recover files from a flash drive? Are you ready, say, to sacrifice them for a higher goal - “healing” the drive itself? If you do decide that the files are very valuable, you will have to contact the company to solve your problems on a paid basis.

These companies use special equipment and tools designed for the restoration of printed circuit boards. Cooler companies remove the NAND memory chip from the board to extract raw data.

Prices for recovering deleted files from a flash drive can range from $20 to $850, depending on the degree of damage to the device and the type of “healing” used.

Flash drive recovery tools

If you think that the files can be risked, then you will need the following tools:

• Soldering iron with solder, flux
• Old USB cable
• Wire cutters/pliers
• Small flathead screwdriver
• Magnifier or magnifying glass

All this will help us effectively restore the flash drive. However, it should be noted here that further steps will make sense if the cause of the breakdown is a broken flash drive connector.

So, taking a screwdriver in your hands, free the drive from the protective case by unscrewing the top cover.

Now take a magnifying glass and look through it at the printed circuit board. If the contact pads are damaged, then you will need professional help.

Please note: The pads contain 4 bits of solder that connect the connector pins to the copper traces in the PCB. If the connector breaks off without causing damage to the circuit board or pads, proceed to the next step when working with the flash drive.

Place the flash drive you are rebuilding on a hard surface with the end of the connector facing you, with the contact pads facing up.

Use wire cutters to cut one end of the USB cable. Bite off the female end if it is not male-to-male.

Using a stripper, strip about 0.6 cm of each of the four wires inside the cable. If you don't have a spare USB cable to use, you can solder pieces of electrical wire to each of the prongs for the broken connector; This will create your own mini USB cable.

Solder each of the four wires to the four pads. Colors from left to right: black, green, white, red. They must join the sites in this order.

If you used your own wires instead of a cable, simply solder each wire to the corresponding pads regardless of the wire color.

Plug the other end of the USB cable into your computer and cross your fingers. If it identifies the flash drive as a device, great! Just save the files on your computer.

If the key fob is still not recognized, then most likely there is another problem that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Either think about going to a company where they know how to restore a flash drive, that is, repair it, or hang it on the wall - it will be a cool decoration for the New Year instead of a garland.

Scan for errors (Windows)

USB port testing

Sometimes the reason is not the flash drive, but the connector it connects to.

Remove the flash drive, restart the computer, and connect again.

Test usb on another computer. If the flash drive works there, then the reason is clear.

Sometimes it happens that one port on a computer works, but the other does not. Therefore, I advise you to check each of the ports, then try to use the ports on other computers.

USB drives are inexpensive and widely available. Consider replacing when installing operating systems - it will cost you much less time and headache.

If you decide to seek professional recovery services to recover your flash drive, be sure to explain the problem to the best of your ability to ensure that they have the right tools and experience in the field.

If all else fails and you don't particularly care about flash file recovery, contact the flash drive manufacturer via email or forum. They may have a utility available to reset the firmware and perform a low-level format on the damaged drive.

If your USB flash drive really does not contain important data and you would like to get it, do not format it! While there may be no visible damage, one or more internal components may have gone bad. You can try to check for blown fuses. To do this, remove the outer casing/shell of the device and look under a magnifying glass for one of the tiny clear cube-shaped components on the circuit board. If one of these fuses is black instead of clear/clear, then it is burnt out and requires professional restoration.

How to use a flash drive correctly

To prevent the flash drive from breaking, I want to give you some simple tips on how to “take care” of it.

• Remove memory from the USB socket correctly, in safe mode. This option is available on almost any operating system, on any computer. This is necessary so that file copying and reading operations to the flash drive are not interrupted during extraction. If you remove memory incorrectly, there is a possibility of data loss and even drive failure.
• Don't drop the flash drive, don't kick it, don't throw bricks at it. She is afraid of damage, physical and mechanical influences, and is sensitive to temperature changes and weather conditions. Do not drown the flash drive, do not throw it in the toilet, do not put it in your mouth. There is a chance that the flash drive will not be restored later. Do you need it?.. Generally speaking, when you buy a product, make sure that it is well protected by a one-piece case. It should be aluminum at a minimum, not plastic.
• Always make a backup - that is, a backup copy of all data. This is the coolest protection against information deletion. If you suddenly lose valuable data, you can safely replace the flash drive under warranty (or buy a new one), and then copy the files from the backup to the flash drive. Backup is a very simple procedure, it is performed quickly, and can be set up according to a schedule.

That's all. I hope some of the tips in this guide on how to recover a flash drive will help you get your data back. Thank you for your attention.

For business - a flash drive, for fun - a hard drive!
Folk wisdom

⇡ Fix it immediately!

Repairing current gadgets is a thankless and often unprofitable task. There are fewer and fewer replaceable parts in them, the layout is ever denser, and meanwhile the prices (with equal functionality) are ever lower. A handicraftsman cannot compete with industrial technologies. Nevertheless, repairers of mobile phones and laptops do not particularly complain about their lives (see articles from 2011 - and). The reason, as they themselves explain, is the fragility of the components - screens, cases, power circuits, a number of microcircuits, as well as unreliable connections. Flash drives—“USB sticks” and, to a lesser extent, memory cards—are confidently following the same path.

Almost every user has already experienced at least one flash drive failure, and many have probably wondered: is it possible to fix it yourself? In the old days, when a fashionable gadget cost a third of your salary, this was suggested by a well-known toad, and later by simple curiosity. Indeed, as for faulty key fobs, at least 50-60% of cases are treated with simple methods that do not require special training or equipment. Why not try it?

Today, repairs are once again becoming relevant as the capacity (and therefore cost) of flash drives increases, and most importantly, with their reliability declining. The flash drive market is fiercely competitive with regular price wars. Manufacturers save every cent of cost and do not care too much about the quality of their products (expensive flagship models are some exceptions). It’s easier for them to include a certain percentage of defects in the price and replace failed devices under warranty. “The sheriff doesn’t care what happens to the flash drive later.”

Unfortunately, warranty services are often unavailable to the user: either the documents are lost (how many people remember them, or at least keep the receipt?), or the place of purchase is far away, or the flash drive has external damage - this is clearly a non-warranty case. What can we say about gray imports and outright fakes (Internet flea markets are full of them - unscrupulous business, alas, is thriving). In such cases, self-repair can fix the problem and bring the broken key fob back to life.

All flash drives, with the exception of monolithic designs, are arranged in the same way and quite simply: a USB connector, a printed circuit board, on it are a dozen or two wiring elements, a controller and from one to eight memory chips (on high-capacity models they are often soldered in pairs, like “ sandwiches"). Repair technologies are simple and accessible to anyone who has a soldering iron and a multimeter. Minimal skills in handling electronics will also not be superfluous.

Successful repairs bring not only legitimate moral satisfaction, but also material benefits. The “extra” drive that appears allows you to manage your data more flexibly (for example, duplicate) and generally feel calmer. According to observations, reanimated devices live even longer than new ones - weak points have already been eliminated, and the owner handles them more carefully.

Very often, the owner of a broken flash drive is not interested in the flash drive itself, but in the data recorded on it. Data recovery (DR) technologies are fundamentally different from repairs as such, since there is no need to worry about the functionality of the entire device. Flash memory chips, on which information is stored, fail very rarely (1-2% of emergency cases). They are protected from the vicissitudes of fate both mechanically - by the case and the design of the flash drive itself (the chips are usually removed from the USB connector, the most stressful part), and electrically - by the controller and harness. The latter take on all the risks of interaction via the interface, including polarity reversal, voltage surges or static discharges. The same is true for memory cards.

Therefore, “raw” data on chips, as a rule, is saved, and the most reliable way is to unsolder all the chips, read them at the physical level using a special device (programmer, or reader) and assemble a file system image from the resulting dumps. The last stage is the most difficult, since it is necessary to reproduce the algorithm of the controller. Manufacturers are not at all eager to disclose such things, so they have to carry out reverse engineering - the notorious reverse engineering.

The results of labor-intensive excavations end up in a database, sometimes called a decision system. Through collective efforts, we have accumulated more than 3,000 solutions that allow us to emulate almost any controller. For assembly, specialized software is used, which is very expensive (about 1,000 euros) and difficult to master. In the territory of the former USSR, as well as in many other countries, two hardware and software systems have gained the greatest popularity: Flash Extractor from the Moscow company Soft-Center and PC-3000 Flash SSD Edition from ACE Lab (this Rostov developer is also known for its repair tools hard drives).

Reader from the Flash Extractor complex. Replaceable sockets allow you to connect microcircuits of all major types

It is clear that such technologies are the prerogative of specialists. But this is the only option in cases where the controller burns out or the service information on the chips is damaged. The flash drive is then not recognized at all or does not provide access to data, and even replacing the controller with a known good one does not help (the efficiency of this outdated technology is only 15-20%).

If hardware problems do not affect the controller and firmware, then after repair the data becomes available again - you can kill two birds with one stone. True, such a profitable “doublet” is possible only in the simplest cases, such as a blown fuse or other wiring element. A bent USB connector or a broken board (typical failures with which flash drives are brought in for repair), alas, do not apply to them. Often in such situations the firmware crashes, and even after fixing the board, you won’t be able to get to the files.

The reason is the users themselves: they try to work with a damaged flash drive by pressing the connector with their hand. And it’s in vain - you still can’t achieve stable contact, but the controller is blocked by chattering (which is equivalent to multiple connections and disconnections). The flash drive is no longer detected, after which simple solutions no longer work.

You have to choose whether you need “info” or the drive itself. In the first case, the user can expect professional data recovery (if it’s worth it...), and in the second - repair, most likely independently. It brings the flash drive to a “like new” state, destroying everything previously recorded. So repair and DR technologies are generally incompatible.

How do flash drives and memory cards break? Let's look at the main types of faults, their causes and methods of elimination.

⇡ Popular mechanics

Mechanical problems are hard to miss. In relation to flash drives, these are defects in the case, breakage of the cap and other moving parts, damage to the USB connector (the most common case), cracks and chips of the printed circuit board and radio elements on it. Flash drives do not like moisture, and if they are drowned or flooded, they will not work.

The exception is expensive and rarer protected models, where the internal volume is filled with silicone (they often bear the marketing names Extreme, Voyager, etc.). By the way, this same silicone makes it quite difficult to unsolder chips during hardware repair or data recovery—every pin has to be cleaned with a scalpel. Monolithic structures stand out separately: they are relatively resistant to water and (minor) impacts, but serious damage is definitely fatal.

This Corsair flash drive, which arrived “on date,” had to be literally torn out of the silicone

A broken case, a missing cap, or jammed moving parts may not affect the performance of the flash drive, but it becomes inconvenient and even difficult to use, and its service life is sharply reduced. If the USB connector is bent, wrinkled, or broken (as with other contact problems), the flash drive is either completely inoperable or is recognized only once and will not last long. A damaged board definitely requires repair, but it does not always lead to success - it is difficult to restore the internal tracks of a multilayer structure.

A cracked flash drive cap is one of the most common breakdowns. In cheap models this happens after a month or two of use.

Unlike flash drives, mechanical damage to memory cards is usually fatal: repairs may not be necessary. A paper-thin printed circuit board suffers from any serious impact - its conductive paths are torn and contact with memory chips is broken. And the chips themselves can crack with the loss of all “information”. So only minor faults can be eliminated.

Thus, SD cards experience delamination of the housing halves and (most often) loss of the write-blocking slider. In the latter case, the card becomes read-only, nothing can be written to it (the slider itself is not a switch, it simply mechanically opens the write prohibition circuit in the card reader, so that writing is possible on some devices). An SD with a peeled or bent casing can be difficult to insert into and, more importantly, remove from the slot. Using force (tweezers, pliers, etc.) only worsens the situation. There is also a possibility that the entire contents of the card will sooner or later fall out of the case - this will most likely destroy the device.

In the hands of an impatient user, the SD card did not last long

Mechanical damage is most often caused by user negligence. Flash drives are inserted crookedly and abruptly into the USB port of a computer or laptop; those already inserted are touched by a hand, foot, bag or mop. Outside the computer, key fobs are dropped on the floor, stepped on, sat down, run over by the wheel of a chair, and so on. Flash drives end up in the washing machine, in street dirt and under spilled coffee, they are bathed in seas and baths. I've seen storage devices that have been in dog teeth.

Models with folding and sliding parts suffer from unnecessary effort during transformation. The moving parts themselves are not very durable and wear out quickly if they are made of cheap soft plastic. This is especially true for various latches - inserting such a “self-folding” flash drive into the port can be difficult. Wear is greatly accelerated in a dirty and aggressive environment (for example, in a pocket near your keys). Dust and moisture easily penetrate into a USB connector that is not protected by a cap, causing contamination and corrosion of the contacts (they are not always gold-plated, as required by the standard).

The Kingston flash drive tends to fold when connected - the working position lock has worn out. The slider has to be held by hand

Manufacturers' policies also play a role in this. They treat cheap flash drives as a disposable product and save on everything. Hence the flimsy case, the cap that cracks after a week, the thin PCB board, and sloppy, skimpy soldering. More expensive models are usually made better and are mechanically more durable. When purchasing, you should choose them. True, if the money was spent on an elaborate design, then it is better to be careful - the glamorous body may contain weak and slow filling. By the way, these are mostly gift corporate flash drives - it is unwise to use them for business, problems will begin very quickly.

More about choice. In life, the strongest flash drives are egg-shaped, not too compact. Long and thin models break first. The more metal in the case, the better - metal provides not only strength, but also good heat dissipation. The more reliable cap is the one that is held in place by friction over the entire area of ​​the USB connector - it will not crack in the area of ​​the retaining protrusions. It’s good when the cap is secured against loss with a cord or cord. Sometimes the removed cap can be put on the back of the flash drive - this is not so convenient, but better than nothing.

The recently fashionable open connector (without a metal band, four contact plates are in plain sight) is unsuccessful in terms of reliability: it easily breaks and scratches, and most importantly, it is subject to destructive static. In addition, it is often combined with a monolithic design - elegant and compact, but not repairable. If, for example, a laptop falls off a table, then the connector of the inserted regular flash drive simply breaks off, but the monolith cracks in half, upsetting both the user and the repairman.

Broken connector on regular and monolithic flash drives. In the latter case, there is no need to talk about repairs and even getting data is a big problem. The circled contacts will not help here

Mechanical repair has the goal of restoring the functioning and reliability of a flash drive, its content is quite obvious. At the “do-it-yourself” level, this means gluing or replacing the case, selecting a suitable cap, and the like. In many cases, cyanoacrylate superglue comes to the rescue, especially with an activator (hexane), which allows you to glue any plastic, including “resistant” polyethylene and polypropylene. For a loose or bent USB connector, the fasteners should be soldered, especially the ears on the sides (they take the bending load and come off first), and then the contacts themselves. Roughly straightening the connector in the opposite direction is not the best method: it often breaks nearby traces on the board, and repairs become very difficult, if possible at all.

On SD, instead of a lost slider, a piece of a match is easily glued in - although without the possibility of blocking, but few people use it. Contacts are cleaned with a cotton swab with a special product “Kontaktol” or, at worst, an alcohol-gasoline mixture. It is advisable to observe antistatic hygiene (grounding bracelet on your hand, conductive covering of the table and floor, etc.) or at least touch a grounded object before work. Remember that cards are static sensitive.

It’s a good idea to check the contact pads under a magnifying glass - their gilding can be very conditional or absent altogether. Worn, corroded, or discolored contacts (not uncommon on cheap cards stored in a humid environment) are a signal for decommissioning; such a card will not work reliably. This also applies to microSD→SD adapters.

⇡ Burnt out at work

Electrical malfunctions of flash drives are primarily the failure of the controller (“burnout”), as well as various defects of SMD wiring elements: filters, fuses, resistors, capacitors, stabilizer, quartz. These parts experience a break, breakdown, or deterioration of parameters (for example, a decrease in the output voltage of the stabilizer from 3.3 to 2.5-2.6 V, at which the controller no longer starts). This also includes problems with the board, including damage to current-carrying paths and poor contact of parts. Often during operation defects in factory assembly appear (incompletely soldered connections, cold soldering, corrosion from unwashed flux).

This filter (circled in white) burned out due to a voltage surge. Treatment is standard - replacement with a similar one or simply soldering a jumper

Contact problems have become noticeably more numerous after the introduction of the European Union RoHS directive (it is aimed at eliminating lead, mercury and other harmful substances from circulation). Eco-friendly lead-free solders have proven to be difficult to use: they spread worse and wet the contact pads, have a higher melting point, and are less durable. High-quality soldering with them requires a high production culture, and small Chinese factories are no different in this...

In such cases, the flash drive most often shows no signs of life, but is sometimes detected in the computer as "Unknown USB device." In particular, this happens when the flash memory chips are in unreliable contact with the board (a frequent case lately is that the flash drive bends slightly in clumsy hands and one of the legs comes off). If the soldering is poor, the device can only work in a certain position, and only if you press the case with your hand (usually in the area of ​​the USB connector). It happens that defects appear only after warming up, but a cold flash drive works fine. Over time, the intervals of performance become increasingly narrower and eventually it comes to complete failure.

Electrical damage to flash drives and memory cards can also include water getting inside - problems are most often caused not by water itself, but by insufficient drying of the device before use. Once you supply power to a damp flash drive, the controller easily fails, the reason being leakage currents between the pins. Of course, prolonged exposure to water, especially sea water, can also cause banal corrosion, but this is not fatal: it was reported that the memory card from a “drowned” camera started working after a year on the seabed.

The causes of electrical damage are unstable power supply, discharges of static electricity from the user’s body or PC case, as well as overheating of drive parts, primarily the controller (memory chips can withstand up to 100-120 °C and rarely “burn”). Overheating is caused by poor cooling in a cramped plastic case, prolonged active operation, or even just idling. Advice: remove the unused flash drive from the USB port, and the memory card from the card reader slot - depending on the OS driver, they can get quite hot, and this is hardly predictable.

A combination of several risk factors is especially dangerous. For example, with an increased voltage of 5 V, the flash drive heats up much more, and an intense data flow, especially for recording, can easily finish it off. The more productive (and more expensive) the model, the greater the risk of overheating under these conditions. This also applies to memory cards - there have been reports of damage to high-speed SD cards during serial photography or dumping movies.

Cheap desktop cases also shorten the life of flash drives: in them, the USB ports on the front panel are connected to the motherboard with an unshielded cable that collects all noise. This puts extra load on the connected device, which affects its operation - failures, slowdowns and increased heating. Failure under such conditions is quite likely, especially with ungrounded electrical wiring.

Increased mechanical loads, especially alternating loads (bent and straightened), as well as falls and impacts, contribute to the appearance of soldering defects. Although flash drives are considered shock-resistant drives, their circuitry usually contains a quartz resonator. And this (in standard SMD packaging) is a rather fragile part that cannot even withstand a fall from a meter height. If the quartz is cracked or detached from the contacts, the flash drive is recognized as "Unknown USB device" with zero VID/PID codes and is unusable. Bad controller contacts manifest themselves in the same way; Pure software glitches are also common (see below for details).

Hardware repair is already required here. You can’t do without a multimeter, a 25-30 W soldering iron with a thin tip and a technical hair dryer: you need to ring connections, strengthen the soldering (warming the board with hot air often helps), restore damaged contacts or current-carrying paths - primarily those adjacent to the USB connector. Failed parts are replaced. We are talking about strapping elements - most often resistors (including zero values ​​that act as jumpers), quartz and a 3.3 V stabilizer.

Previously, flash drives often had power fuses and inductive noise filters in signal circuits broken. This was treated by selecting analogues or even banal shunts, and a broken discrete stabilizer was changed without problems (issue price 20 rubles). True, sometimes the board smoked when turned on, which means that the controller was the first to fail, and the replaced part worked as a fuse.

Modern models no longer have such elements - manufacturers have “optimized” them. The controller takes all the hits. The stabilizer is also integrated there, so its breakdown (identified by the instantaneous and unbearable heating of the chip) requires replacing the controller, and with exactly the same model with the same firmware version (second or third rows of chip markings). Non-working quartz is identified by the absence of 12 MHz generation; For this you need at least a simple oscilloscope like the C1-94 commemorative for radio amateurs.

A pleasant exception is new models of flash drives with a USB 3.0 interface. The high-speed device consumes significant current (up to 900 mA according to the standard, in reality 150-250 mA at idle and 300-600 mA under load), so the designers returned to a discrete stabilizer, this time of the pulse type, as well as choke filters. With such an elemental base, flash drives have become more repairable.

In most cases, it is not practical to replace flash memory chips - they are relatively expensive, and after soldering, the flash drive requires a full software repair, which may not be possible if you do not have enough experience or the necessary software. The controller is also a peculiar thing: such microcircuits are not sold at retail (you won’t order a batch of 1000 pieces), so you can only get serviceable copies from donors. It is quite stupid to disassemble a working drive, so you are left with flash drives that died for another reason. Considering the current variety of controllers (each model is available in several modifications, which are often incompatible with firmware), a lot of donors will be required - at least several dozen. It is unlikely that a non-professional repairman will have such deposits.

A burned controller is physically damaged, but this is a rare case. Hardware faults are usually invisible from the outside.

Let’s not forget about the technological difficulties - for an amateur they can be significant. Carefully, without distortion, “snot” and miscontacts, soldering 64 or 48 pins with a pitch of 0.4-0.5 mm (typical packaging of controllers and memory chips, respectively) on the fly is not so easy, especially if the tools are not the best. This is also why hardware repairs in most cases are limited to replacing piping elements.

As for wet flash drives, including “drowned” ones, a three-stage technology developed for mobile phones is applicable to them. The board is first washed from salts and dirt in clean, preferably distilled water, then immersed in isopropyl alcohol (it has a concentration of 99.7% and actively displaces water from capillary slits, such as those found under microcircuits) and finally dried with warm air. Do the same with the body parts. Final drying before assembly should take several hours.

By the way, the first to use absolute alcohol as a desiccator was D.I. Mendeleev. In 1890, he proposed replacing the drying of pyroxylin (the base of smokeless gunpowder) by dehydrating it with alcohol, which is completely safe. Since then, throughout the world this stage of gunpowder production has been carried out only according to the Mendeleev method.

Naturally, all such work is preceded by disassembling the flash drive, which in some cases requires subsequent mechanical repairs (there are structures assembled with glue or fragile disposable latches). The variety of models makes their classification difficult. In most cases, the body consists of two halves or has the form of a sleeve into which the filling is inserted. Parts are held in place by a screw (better), friction, or hidden latches (worse). In any case, if you are unable to gain access to the board, then further repairs are contraindicated.

Elaborate, unusual models are more difficult to understand than their ordinary counterparts

In the second part of this material, we will introduce you to software problems with flash drives and methods for solving them, and also give you some tips on how to avoid flash drive failure. Coming soon to your screens!