The parts cost less than the labour. Most modern USB sticks have nothing to disassemble or separate. Your goal should be to get the files off. And how you do that will depend on something that can't be seen from the outside.
A repair tool wants to make a good USB stick again. That often means erasing it first. Recovery tools want to get your files for you. Those goals clash at exactly the wrong moment.
That's what people search for, and being truthful with them will save an afternoon of time.
Parts are mounted on a small circuit board (the size of a postage stamp), often embedded in plastic. Replacing those parts costs a few pounds. The economics of fixing a modern USB stick don't exist and neither does the technology.
What can be done is removing the data, once. This task has different odds than fixing the stick and the way that it will be removed depends on what you can't see when you look at the stick from the outside; whether the stick was made up of discrete elements or if all were combined into a single element.
Although two sticks might look the same externally, their design can result in them having drastically different potential options available.
The controller chip and one or more NAND packages attached to a small circuit board. If the controller fails the flash can be desoldered for direct reading then assembled again by software. A common method used on older devices and/or those with larger capacities.
Most modern sticks have a single fused package containing both the controller chip and flash memory. Since there is no individual component inside that can be removed (i.e. the controller chip), we will need to access internal test points to obtain the data. To make this process successful, we will need to know the specific pin configuration used by the manufacturer of that particular product.
Regardless of how the stick is built, a broken connector has the best odds of any USB fault. If the solder joint broke off from the printed circuit board, chances are good all memory on the opposite end of the solder will remain intact.
This means a stick reports a larger amount of storage space than it actually contains; and the firmware allows writing to non-existent memory locations. Until you fill up the actual storage space with data, it works perfectly. After that point however, anything you write past the actual storage limits of the device will never be saved.
Before you contact someone about what you have found out with your drive, first check exactly what your drive did.
Either the file system header is damaged or the controller is having problems. Your data is likely still intact — just don't format it, and stop using it. The format command writes through the failing part of the device.
It's running a continuous loop that causes it to crash when it hits a part of the flash it can't read from. Retrying achieves nothing and could potentially make things worse.
No signs of life electrically; there is no drive assigned, nothing shows in Disk Management. This either means the controller is dead or the internal connector has broken — and the latter is the lesser of two evils.
Logical fault. The flash is fine and the file system is not, which on healthy hardware is often recoverable using non-destructive software installed on another computer.
Where the fun really begins. And why identical looking sticks take so long to finish and how two identical looking sticks will end up finishing days apart from each other.
Flash dumps do not result in usable files. They need to be de-interleaved into their respective flash planes, have errors corrected via error correction coding (ECC), and rearranged back into order based upon how the specific controller arranged them.
After the above steps are done; then there might be some resemblance to a file system. Files would now be able to be extracted. This extraction process is typically manufacturer-specific. Therefore, a stick that identifies itself as being present but refuses to mount is generally easier than one that is completely silent.
A key fact about flash memory: flash is not archival media. Left in drawers for years, USB sticks and other flash-based cards accumulate read errors due to charge leakage. The insulation around each storage cell holds those electrons well, yet not perfectly. Thusly, if something is important, it should be duplicated onto at least two different devices that will periodically receive power. USB sticks and cards in Manchester are from £250 +VAT after a free 48-hour diagnostic.
This will not be economical and will most likely never put it back into use — all of the components are mounted to a tiny circuit board and replacing them will cost you a few pounds. What can be done is recovering the data from it once, and that is an entirely separate task.
No. This warning normally indicates that either the file system header is damaged or the controller is having trouble accessing information as opposed to you losing your files. Formatting also writes over the portion of the device that failed making the recovery process much tougher.
It's very unlikely. The failure occurs at the point of the solder joint. The memory that sits on the opposite side of the solder connection typically remains unscathed. Snapped connectors have the best odds of any USB fault, so send the broken piece to us too.
Your device is crashing. It can't read some of the flash memory. When this happens, the controller will go into a reset state. This will make it look as if you simply pulled it out of your computer. You could try re-inserting it multiple times, but you'll end up right back where you started.
A monolithic design. One part is both the controller and the flash memory. Most newer USB sticks use a monolithic design. Since there isn't a separate controller chip to pull, we will need to access the controller and flash chips via internal test points using the proper pinout for that specific chip.
No. Stored data on flash resides as electrical charge and is contained behind an insulator. That charge can leak away over time. In addition, charge loss is greater in older flash drives, and also increases with warmer storage temperatures. Data that you plan to store for longer than five years should reside in at least two different devices which get power cycled regularly.