How to recover data from defective flash drives

[Roy]

Hello Group
I had one flash drive that is not recognized anymore if inserted in
any PC USB Slot,...meaning that is malfunctioning.
Is there a way to recover the data from it?
TIA
Roy

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Hello Group
I had one flash drive that is not recognized anymore if inserted in
any PC USB Slot,...meaning that is malfunctioning.
Is there a way to recover the data from it?
TIA
Roy

If it was mine, I would open it up, and check it
with a magnifying glass.
Often it is a bad connection from the usb connector
to the printed circuit.
Bend the pins back into shape, and/or resolder them,
might restore it to temporary health.

 

[Roy]

Agreed, that is a weak point in many of them, though before
tearing it open it might be good to try it on another system
just in case it's the system not the drive that's to blame.

As for last resorts, a good data recovery service should be
able to get the data off, if it's still held in the flash
chip but of course that could cost quite a bit though I
couldn't even guess a ballpark figure beyond hundreds of
dollars or more.

Thanks for the tips Sjouke Burry and Kony, but would like some
clarification what doyou mean by another system...do you mean another
PC run by a different OS ?

 

[Jabka Atu]

Thanks for the tips Sjouke Burry and Kony, but would like some
clarification what doyou mean by another system...do you mean another
PC run by a different OS ?

The first question is on what OS did you check it ?

If you run some flavor of Linux distribution please provide the output
of lsusb.
If it is recognized then your usb chip works (the problem is
software) :
you can copy the stick using dd comand.

My guess is that your filesystem (on the stick) is malfunctioning
that can be fixed .