A 64GB Lexar Professional arrived with us one morning and was diagnosed with a failed micro controller chip.

This sort of problem cannot be repaired so the only option was to remove the flash memory and read the RAW data from it. The two nand flash memory chips this device used are split into two banks so four dumps of data were made.

This is only the start of it, the clever algorithms the micro controller used have to be replicated in software and several attempts made to make the data corruption free. The dumps are sliced back together and then spilt upagain before finally being in a state where the users precious photographs recovered and his reputation saved.

Flash memory is very portable and compact but very vulnerable to failure so regular backup of your solid state devices is necessary.

Data Recovery from a 250GB Samsung SSD

The initial diagnosis for this drive was that the drive is damaged (according to an IT company that this customer sent the drive to before arriving to us at R3), and that it also kept freezing and blue screening.

18/08 at 10:36am Drive Received

The drive arrived with us Friday morning, we booked it in to our database and we informed the customer of the arrival of the drive. It was under assessment as we didnt know the exact fault of the device as of yet.

18/08 at 13:42pm Drive Diagnosed

The drive was diagnosed as logical as it became ready and had no SMART errors present on the drive. The drive was then sent to clone.

18/08 at 14:52pm Drive Cloning

At this point the drive was put for cloning, and since it was a 250GB SSD we managed to get it cloned in no time at all. It finished cloning with 0 errors and 0 unread sectors. This suggested that it was definitely a logical issue rather than media degradation. If the device was degraded it would have finished with unread sectors as when a drive degraded it means that the sectors are unreadable, hence the conclusion of the failure being logical.

18/08 at 15:19 Data Transfer

The data transfer process began. The image drive was scanned for missing files and files system as the engineers knew it was a logical issue. The customer was asked to give us some indication as to what to look for as this makes it easier for the engineers so they know if they are on the right track to recovery or not. After the scan it was clear to see that there was not much in the shape of files that you would normally see on a person’s computer. It looked just like a fresh install of Windows. This unfortunately means it leaves us with one last option which is what we refer to as a RAW scan, where we pick and choose file headers for certain file types for example .jpg, .mov etc and the software searches sector by sector and finds these files headers and will recover them to the designated location. A RAW recovery will fetch back corrupt and non-corrupt files. This is the only problem with this type of recovery.

21/08 at 13:31pm – Job Paid For, Data Sent Back

Fortunately the customer was relaxed about what was being sent back to him, and was informed that there was not a lot we could do regarding the situation of the drive so we decided to send the RAW data (and the folder structure) back to the customer.

In conclusion, if a drive has been formatted or overwritten then there’s always a chance that we can recover the data. If you have accidently formatted your hard drive, or perhaps a computer shop has told you something and you want a second opinion why not call us on 0800 999 3282 or alternatively email us at enquiries@datarecoveryhospital.com.

Presented at the lab was a Samsung Galaxy S3 with the familiar boot loop fault.

Upon closer inspection & attempted flashing of a recovery PIT firmware, the fault was apparent – EMMC NAND failure.

Todays mobile devices rely more and more on high capacity, high speed NAND flash memory with ever increasing strain on the memory itself.

Most mobile devices use the internal memory for several intensive tasks from the moment the device receives power.

This all contributes to premature failure & erratic behaviour as the devvice struggles to read/write failing block of the NAND memory

If you think your mobile phone has this issue, or you think something else is wrong. Get in touch with us at R3, call us on 0800 999 3282 or alternatively email us at enquiries@datarecoveryhospital.com.

An SSD arrived at the lab with a problem serious enough to render it inoperable. After running some diagnostics using software it soon became apparent there was more than just a firmware issue..

The SSD in question, an Intel 530 series mSATA device. Intel have been a little sneaky here, the CPU is branded as ‘Intel’ but it is actually a Sandforce CPU in disguise (Triggering Safe Mode on the SSD displayed the actual CPU revision).

Straight away, the chances of recovery are low, and a NAND analysis would be useless as the Sandforce series CPU’s all use 256-AES hardware encryption – seriously secure storage. Due to this, the only viable recovery method would be to repair the SSD and attempt to extract data.

An inspection using our high-powered microscope showed there was a damaged SMD component located in the power circuit of the SSD. This tiny component is responsible for driving the power MOSFETs (aka Gate Driver). The gate driver controls the switching frequency of the MOSFETs to give a nice smooth voltage output to the NAND IC’s on the SSD. To confirm this, after probing the VCC filter capacitors next to the NAND IC’s, there was ZERO voltage present – the CPU & Cache WERE receiving voltage.

Due to the drive being damaged (partly removed from the PCB) the MOSFETs were in ‘standby’ waiting to be triggered. This in turn caused the SSD to revert to ‘Safe Mode’ – this can also be interpreted as a firmware issue.

After finding an identical SSD donor drive – the damaged gate driver was replaced with some nifty micro-soldering. The SSD powered up normally and was able to be imaged successfully without any errors!

During our initial free assessment, our engineers identified that the NAND chip was covered in resin and cannot be accessed or removed for the recovery process.

What we call a NAND read wasnt an option with this particular job as the NAND chip which is where all the data is stored was covered in a sticky resin, which means removing the NAND chip would be near impossible. The only option we had was to replace the controller to see if this was the problem or not. However, with this USB stick the controller was an incredibly rare one, and one of our engineers said hed never even seen one like it before!

Along with the resin the other main problems with these cheap manufacturers USB sticks is the poor quality of soldering and solder that is used. Using poor solder can lead to loose connections and the device not working at all. The only way to avoid the problems these devices in particular cause is to regularly back up your data.

Customers need to be aware that cheap USB sticks from eBay or Company Freebies are cheap for a reason, manufacturing is often with cheap flash memory and has a higher chance of failure. In most circumstances R3 Data Recovery would have been able to recover the data from the failed USB stick if it wasn’t for the sticky resin that the manufacturer covers it in.

For a free quote call us on 0800 999 3282 or alternatively fill out the online dignostic form on the right and one of our assistants will give you a call and talk you through the process and give you a free assessment over the phone.