‘Dead’ Memory Stick

The most common failure of any type of flash media appears to be when one minute your device is working perfectly – the next moment the device appears completely dead! The device will be inserted into the USB port or card reader and you will either get:

  • “USB Device Not recognised”
  • “Your Device requires Formatting”
  • The device shows up as completely empty or completely full
  • The Device appears completely dead when inserted into a usb port.

This will normally mean that the internal controller chip on the flash media’s internal PCB board has failed and with it any chances of accessing your data have gone also.

Inside your device there is a green board that contains two chips, the smaller of these (pictured) is the controller, whilst the larger is the chip that contains your data. The controllers acts as a gateway to the NAND chip and also “controls” how and where the data is written to it. Once the controller fails all access and communication with the NAND chip is lost – hence why the stick or card will appear dead.

Under normal circumstances your data is perfectly intact on this data chip. We have exclusive equipment and facilities that allow us to read the data from the chip directly and restore it to you in the format that you lost it in, be it MS Word or MS Exel files or even those precious .jpeg images. Our recovery rates exceed 95% for a standard type controller failure which means it is extremely rare that you won’t get your data back

For more help, information, or to send a device to us, please start by calling 0333 123 3282

Or use our online Contact Form and we will call you right back.