My dual USB/USB-C flash drive suddenly stopped working. None of my computer, TV, or phone could detect it, and the connectors felt unusually loose. After removing the casing, I found that the main chip inside the drive appears to be physically cracked or split in two. The drive was handled carefully and mostly stayed in storage or plugged into a device, so I'm not sure how the damage happened. Is there any realistic way to recover the files from the flash memory, or would the physical break make the data unrecoverable?
1 Answer
If the actual NAND memory package is cracked through the silicon or its internal connections, recovery is generally not possible. Flash drives also use a controller that translates and manages the data, so even a chip that looks mostly intact may require specialized equipment and knowledge to read. A professional data-recovery lab might be worth contacting, but software tools or repeatedly trying different USB ports are unlikely to help. Hopefully you have another copy of the important files.
That’s what I was afraid of. I’ll avoid plugging it in again and check whether anything important exists on another backup.