Can Files Be Recovered From a USB Drive With a Broken Memory Chip?
Asked by
MellowCedar47
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?
Answers
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.
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MellowCedar47: That’s what I was afraid of. I’ll avoid plugging it in again and check whether anything important exists on another backup.