Counterfeit PNY Elite-X 128GB SD Card
Today we got a counterfeited PNY Elite-X 128GB SD in for data recovery. When we read the card it showed as 128GB filled with 0xFF’s. At first we thought maybe the FTL (Flash Translation Layer) was corrupted and that by…
Silicon Motion (SM) Controller Off-Chip Data Structures
Most silicon motion controllers use the same spare area data structure. I ran into a 32GB Lexar Professional 1000x using a different data structure. The value in block function ranged from 0x90 to 0x9F. Unknown contained 0xEF. LBN (Logical Block…
Verbatim Store ‘N Go 8GB (Phison PS2251-68-5) – Off-Chip Recovery, Custom Tooling
Verbatim Store 'N Go 8GB with a Phison PS2251-68-5 controller. Off-chip recovery with 15 pages per sector and bad byte columns — wrote our own tooling to strip the columns, correct bit errors, and reassemble from spare area markers.
Industrial 16GB CompactFlash (Phison PS3006-T) – Dead Controller, Full Recovery
Industrial 16GB Extreme CompactFlash card with a dead Phison PS3006-T controller. Read the NAND directly and used debug markers in the spare area to reassemble the image — 100% recovered.
SanDisk Ultra Flair 1TB (SDCZ75-1T00-G46) – Our First 1TB Flash Drive Recovery
A SanDisk Ultra Flair 1TB became the first 1-terabyte flash drive to come through our lab, and we recovered every byte using advanced read-retry algorithms.
Samsung MUF-256DA Broken Connector
Samsung 256GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive (MUF-256DA/AM) came in with a bent connector and pads torn from the circuit board. We rebuilt the damaged solder pads, ran jumper wires, and recovered every personal file.
Patriot 8GB Monolithic Flash Drive Recovery — Reverse Engineered Pinout, Recovered Business Files
Patriot 8GB monolithic USB flash drive came in RAW and unreadable with critical business documents on it. We reverse engineered the pinout from scratch using a logic analyzer and recovered every file.
SanDisk Cruzer Glide 16GB (SDCZ60-016G) – Broken Connector Repair, 32GB NAND Surprise
SanDisk Cruzer Glide 16GB (SDCZ60-016G) with a broken USB connector — circuit board repaired, all data recovered. Notably, SanDisk used a refurbished 32GB NAND chip with 2:1 overprovisioning to sell the drive as 16GB.
SanDisk Cruzer Glide 128GB (SDCZ60-128G) – Weak NAND Cells Recovered
SanDisk Cruzer Glide 128GB (SDCZ60-128G) with severe NAND Vt drift causing uncorrectable ECC failures. Recovered 100% via Vref calibration and multi-read soft-decision combining.