USB Flash Device Recovery:

Data recovery services are provided for flash devices hard drives that no longer operate due to electrical or physical damage.

• Read our data recovery process article.
• Read what you need to know when choosing a data recovery service provider.
• Read what you should do if your storage device has failed.

About Flash Memory:

There are 3 main components to any flash storage device, if you were to physically disassemble a USB memory stick you could identify:

1. The NAND (a memory chip) which contains your data.
2. The controller which enables a computer to read and write data to NAND.
3. The PCB which secures the NAND, controller, and interface connector (USB header).

If the NAND or the controller is not working properly the USB device may not be identified, be identified without capacity, or present itself to a computer as only a controller (eg: USB BAR DEVICE).

Some controllers store unique information about the NAND (eg: factory defects) and commonly encrypt data (referred to as XOR). XOR increases access times and storage reliability. In order for a USB flash device to function properly both the NAND and the controller must be in good working order.

Due to the complexity of controllers and the gross amount of manufacturers (compared to hard disk drive manufacturers), iCube Development does not repair USB memory sticks. Instead we recover data from the memory chip and duplicate to a replacement device.

In most cases NAND does not fail completely (only degrades) - and recovery is possible. iCube Development is able to perform recovery services for all USB, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0 based storage devices. We also recover data from xD, Secure Digital (SD) or SDHC (mini and micro) versions, Compact Flash, and Memory Stick (MS) devices.

NAND data recovery is black and white, this is to say the information stored in NAND memory either exists or it does not. iCube Development uses a combination of specialized hardware based memory readers in combination with decoding software to reproduce NAND content.