Recovering Data from a USB Thumb Drive
 

So I've got this 16GB USB thumb drive. It has served me well over the past couple years. Recently, it started acting up where I had to nudge it to reestablish the connection to the USB port. At first it was infrequent, but yesterday I noticed it was a serious issue. Then, today, it stopped connecting no matter how much I try to maneuver it. The problem? The data on the USB drive isn't backed up. I know, I know, and I was going to do that today too! Unfortunately, it stopped working while I was using it at work, before I had a chance to back it up and buy a new drive.

Basically, it seems to me like the connection is possibly bent and no longer in contact with the flash memory. Is there any way to recover this data?

Sure there is, you'll have to send it off to some place that can do it though.

Have you taken the casing off of it? I've seen a few that seemed broken but if you take the case off, you can squeeze the pins together to make a temporary connection.

I haven't. It's a rubber casing and I kind of don't want to risk screwing it up and making it worse.

Do you have any suggestions regarding places I can send it to? I don't really trust the random computer people I'd find on a "broken usb data recovery" google search. I want to make sure I'm sending it somewhere that they know what they're doing more than I would if I tried on my own.

See if Gillware has usb drive recovery. I have had great experiences with them in the past, in a professional setting.

You can allways try recuva, but for serious problems (like usb harddrive failure - not even visible in explorer and full of bad sectors) i use GetDataBack. The trial version let you do evertything but save the recovered files. Keys can easily be bought online to unlock the save functions.

freeload: Unfortunately this is a hardware problem with my USB drive, BUT I'll have to try GetDataBack on an SD card I've had sitting around with some pictures from England. Thanks!

Vigilante: I don't see USB data recovery on their site, but I'll give them a call later today.

The good news is I was able to restore a previous version of the folder where the files on the drive originated from. Problem is, I don't know for sure whether that's all of them or not. I suspect there is a handful of other files that were on there that I'm not thinking of. I wish I knew for sure.

Sorry for the late reply, but I come with good news at least -- your data is almost definitely recoverable.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._internals.jpg

You can see in the bottom image that there are four solder points immediately behind the USB connector where it's connected to the board. Anyone who's handy with a soldering iron ought to be able to clear and re-solder those connectors. Alternatively, if you push the PCB forward and down you may be able to push the pins back into contact. Be advised however, that any such contact will likely be unstable and won't last.

If you're completely uncomfortable with this, data recovery should be straightforward for just about any company worth it's salt.

Generic Lesson Text:

Never, EVER use a USB key as a primary storage solution. They're not sufficiently reliable and they take too much abuse; a 2-3 year lifespan is entirely typical for these devices. Keys should be used only for data transport. They're just not suitable for anything else.

I repaired one stick by re-soldering the connector pins.
Two other sticks had an IC that failed after awhile.

In the future, I'd suggest at the first time you notice a read or write problem, back up the device and watch it carefully from then on.

I hope you also read the story and not just the title.

@Sectretmethod...take the casing off, maybe you can "manually" connect the loose connection and slowly put it in your PC hoping the connection will stay. Or put it in your PC and play with it hopefully you can make it work and then back up right away.

Cut the drive open an re-solder the USB connector. It's almost certainly a bad solder joint that's worked itself loose. If you don't know how to solder or don't have an iron, you can probably find someone via craigslist to do it for $20-30 or so, especially if you live near a college. If it's not just the USB connector, the next step would be to buy an identical flash drive and swap the memory chip onto it. This will require surface mount soldering and you should pay someone experienced to do it for you ($50 would be a generous offer to do that).

solder is like $7 at radio shack, I think you can do it!

Is it a Corsair flash drive? Check this out:

Corsair Flash Voyager: The Unbreakable Broke | Hardware Secrets

The same should apply to any flash drive though.

Well shit, that's the one I bought as a replacement!

Its okay I just bought one too! I've never broken any flash drive though...*knocks on wood*