Data recovery from a broken memory stick
January 7, 2012
A customer asked me to attempt to recover some important data from a failed memory stick. The USB plug was bent at a slight angle to the body of the stick and when it was plugged into a computer there was no response at all.
I broke open the casing of the memory stick and found that 3 of the 4 connections between the USB plug and the circuit board had broken. Look at the photos below where the damaged area has been indicated.
So I soldered thin strands of wire from the plug terminals to the circuit board and then inserted the remains of the plug into the socket of a USB extension lead. When the other end of the lead was plugged into a computer I was able to recover all of the data and burn it to disk for my happy and relieved customer.
