Today we got a SanDisk SDCZ450-128GB-A46 USB Type-C Flash Drive in for data recovery. The owner had accidentally broken the connector off.  The USB-C connector was surface mounted to a monolithic chip which was ripped off. Luckily we were able…

Often, we have to reball LGA-152 NAND chips to swap them from one PCB to another. For example, from a bad circuit board to a donor circuit board. This is an example reballing a Micron NW657 NAND Chip with 0.40mm…

While sniffing traffic on a Hynix NAND chip (H27Q1T08EM6R ID: ad 3c 19 a3) we found a hidden command to change the read mode from NON-DDR to DDR which effectively doubles the read throughput of the chip. Cmd 0xEF Addr…

Ever wondered what goes into solving a monolithic data recovery case? Here is a brief explanation of what we do to recover data from monolithic flash drives.

If your SD card is no longer functional you need to send it to a data recovery company. Here are some common faults to look at before trying to fix or repair your damaged SD card. With the exception of…

If your flash drive is no longer functional you need to send it to a data recovery company. Here are some common diagnostic tips for SanDisk Cruzer failures including broken connectors, damaged components, and firmware corruption. SanDisk flash drives are…

Many older SanDisk flash drives have two common faults that account for 90% of failures (aside from broken connectors / PCB damage) including the dreaded “endless blinking light” fault. The 20-99-00092-2 & 20-99-00121-1 controller PCB’s are interchangeable however there are…

We received an unresponsive SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 (CZ80) flash drive that heats up when plugged into a computer. The computer didn’t recognize the flash drive and the LED didn’t blink. After opening the SanDisk flash drive and diagnosing the…

Even if a monolthic flash device isn't visibly cracked there can still be internal damage. In electronics, all connected wires have a path to ground, using a multimeter we can measure voltage drop in diode mode to get a rough idea…