USB Stick Recovery

USB Stick Data Recovery

No Fix - No Fee!

Our experts have extensive experience recovering data from USB Sticks. With 25 years experience in the data recovery industry, we can help you securely recover your data.
USB Stick Recovery

Software Fault £149

2-3 Days

Mechanical Fault£199

2-3 Days

Critical Service £495

1 Day

Need help recovering your data?

Call us on 01603 512246 or use the form below to make an enquiry.
Chat with us
Monday-Friday: 9am-6pm

Norwich Data Recovery — No.1 USB Stick & USB Flash Drive Recovery Specialists

With 25+ years’ experience, Norwich Data Recovery provides professional recovery for all USB sticks/USB flash drives and related flash-memory devices. We offer free diagnostics and an optional Critical Service (typically 48 hours) for urgent cases.


Top 20 USB Flash Drive Brands (UK) & Popular Ranges

(Examples we frequently see in the UK. If yours isn’t listed, we still recover it.)

  1. SanDisk — Cruzer Blade, Ultra Flair, Extreme Pro

  2. Samsung — BAR Plus, FIT Plus, DUO Plus (USB-C)

  3. Kingston — DataTraveler Kyson/Exodia/Max, MicroDuo (USB-C+micro-USB)

  4. Integral — Courier, UltimaPro, Fusion

  5. PNY — Attaché 4, Elite-X Fit, Turbo

  6. Lexar — JumpDrive S47/S80, Dual Drive (USB-C)

  7. Corsair — Flash Voyager, Survivor, GTX

  8. ADATA — UV128/UV150, S102 Pro

  9. Verbatim — Store ’n’ Go, PinStripe, V3 Max

  10. Patriot — Supersonic Rage, Supersonic Boost

  11. TeamGroup — C175, M211 (USB-C), C188

  12. Silicon Power — Blaze B30, Jewel J80, Mobile C80

  13. Toshiba/KIOXIA — TransMemory U301/U365

  14. Sony — USM-MX, USM-CA2 (dual USB-A/USB-C)

  15. Apacer — AH356, AH357, AH553

  16. Netac — U326, U335, Z7

  17. Intenso — Alu Line, Ultra Line

  18. Emtec — C400/C600, DUO USB-C

  19. HP (licensed) — x796w, x5600c (dual)

  20. Greenliant/Angelbird (pro/industrial) — Industrial MLC/SLC USB, Angelbird SSD2GO


Memory Card Types We Also Recover (if relevant to your case)

SD family: SDSC, SDHC, SDXC, SDUC (full-size) and microSD variants
CompactFlash (CF), CFast 1/2, CFexpress (Type A/B/C), XQD
Memory Stick (PRO/PRO-HG, Micro M2)
MMC/RS-MMC, miniSD, SmartMedia, xD-Picture
UFS Card (industrial/embedded)


Fault Categories We Handle

  • Physical/Connector: bent/broken USB plug, torn pads, monolith package damage, cracked PCB

  • Electronics: ESD/over-voltage, TVS/PMIC failure, controller burnout

  • NAND/Media: wear-out, read-disturb, retention loss, bad-block proliferation

  • Firmware/FTL: corrupted translation tables, stuck in boot/safe mode

  • Logical: deletion/formatting, partition loss, file-system corruption (exFAT/FAT32/NTFS/HFS+/APFS/ext)

  • Security: BitLocker/FileVault/TCG Opal/self-encrypting media (keys/passcodes required)

  • Environmental: liquid ingress, heat damage, physical impact


Top 50 USB Stick / USB Flash Drive Faults — and How We Recover Them (Technical)

Core principle: We never work on your original data. We stabilise the device just enough to acquire a forensic-grade image (controller read or raw NAND dump), then rebuild data on the clone using specialist toolchains (e.g., PC-3000 Flash, Rusolut VNR, Soft-Center, Flash Extractor).

A. Connector, PCB & Power

  1. Bent/broken USB plug → Micro-solder new connector; continuity test VBUS/D+ /D- /GND; image immediately.

  2. Ripped pads/traces → Reconstruct missing nets with micro-wires; underfill reinforcement; verify 90 Ω diff-pair integrity; image.

  3. Shorted VBUS to data/ground → Remove debris/bridge; replace TVS; bench-supply current-limit power-up; image.

  4. Blown TVS diode/ESD arrays → Replace TVS/arrays; validate 5 V rail ripple; image at reduced bus speed to reduce stress.

  5. Failed 3.3 V/1.8 V LDO/PMIC → Replace regulator; confirm controller/NAND rails; image or proceed to chip-off if controller still dead.

  6. Cracked PCB (flex damage) → Micro-jumpers across fractures; x-ray for via damage; image.

  7. Corroded pads (liquid) → Clean (water-based flux + IPA), re-tin; replace connector; image under thermal control.

  8. Reverse polarity/over-voltage → Replace protection + regulators; if controller draws abnormal current → chip-off.

B. Controller-Level Problems

  1. Controller burnout (Phison/SMI/Alcor/Realtek/ChipsBank/Skymedi/SSS) → Chip-off NAND; reconstruct FTL (BCH/LDPC ECC, XOR/scrambler, interleave).

  2. Firmware safe mode / boot loop → Load vendor loader (test pads/UART), export raw; if impossible → chip-off.

  3. Bad FTL metadata → Read via hidden sys-areas; reconstruct mapping tables; build logical image from page merge.

  4. DRAM cache failure (DRAM-based controllers) → Emulate cache tables where supported; otherwise chip-off and offline rebuild.

  5. Read-only mode triggered → Image within controller limits; block reallocation disabled to preserve state.

  6. Wear-levelling journal loss → Heuristic page ordering + ECC validation; align planes/dies; rebuild with temporal analysis.

  7. Controller encryption (TCG Opal / vendor AES)Requires valid credentials/keys. With keys: decrypt post-image; without: data is cryptographically unrecoverable.

C. NAND / Media Faults

  1. Retention loss (long shelf) → Cold-image; voltage-stepping and read-retry matrices; maximise ECC margin.

  2. Read-disturb → Lower read voltages, interleave idle cycles; prioritise weakest blocks first.

  3. Program/erase disturb → Multi-pass reads; discard marginal pages by ECC score; rebuild file system from best copy.

  4. Bad-block proliferation → Identify per-die weak zones; mask unusable blocks; reconstruct using remaining parity/metadata.

  5. Bitline leakage / cell wear → Adjust timing/DQS; invoke alternate read levels; repeat with thermal biasing if needed.

  6. Partially dead die/plane → Single-plane reads with relaxed timings; fill gaps via carving + metadata reconciliation.

  7. Intermittent CE line → Re-wire CE/WE/RE/CLE/ALE to lab reader; stabilise; per-channel dump.

  8. ONFI vs Toggle mismatch → Force correct mode in reader; adjust timings to avoid strobe errors; redump if needed.

  9. Vendor scrambling/XOR unknown → Pattern analysis (FS signatures), dictionary/XOR map discovery; apply and revalidate.

  10. SLC-mode caching on TLC → Separate high-speed cache vs TLC area; merge logically by FTL timestamps.

  11. Pseudo-SLC wear levelling → Detect over-provisioning pools; include hidden LUNs in dump scope.

D. Monolithic USB & Epoxy-Potted Packages

  1. Monolith, no visible pins → Decap under microscope; map pinout via continuity and IR imaging; break out VBUS/GND/D+/D-/CE/RE/WE/RB/D0..D7, CLE, ALE.

  2. Under-epoxy short/open → Carefully mill epoxy; rebuild torn bond wires with conductive paint + micro-wire; connect to reader.

  3. Conformal-coated industrial sticks → Gentle solvent strip; pad re-exposure; direct NAND access via needle probes; dump.

  4. Multi-die monolith interleave → Detect interleave factor, page size, spare area; align channels; reconstruct order.

E. File System / Partition / Logical

  1. Accidental deletion (exFAT/FAT32/NTFS/HFS+/APFS/ext) → Journal-aware recovery; $MFT/B-tree rebuild; carve slack/unallocated with path/metadata salvage.

  2. Quick/Full format → Recreate partition + FS structures on clone; leverage backup FAT/MFT mirr; deep signature carve for large files (PST, MOV, CR3, etc.).

  3. Partition table (MBR/GPT) loss → Infer from volume headers; build synthetic GPT; mount read-only and export.

  4. Corrupt exFAT bitmap/UP-case table → Repair on clone; traverse directory entries; salvage orphan chains.

  5. APFS container/header damage → Use checkpoint superblocks; reconstruct volume object map; mount RO and copy data.

  6. HFS+ catalog/extent tree damage → Rebuild B-trees; carve from allocator pattern where incomplete.

  7. ext4 superblock/inode map corruption → Use backup superblocks; offline fsck-like rebuild; recover orphaned inodes.

  8. Large fragmented files (VMs/DBs) → Range-map reconstruction from allocator; validate via internal checksums.

  9. Photo/video library corruption → SQLite repair for Photos/Lightroom; rebuild sidecars/thumbnails; export originals.

F. Security / Encryption / Malware

  1. BitLocker-To-Go → Full-device image → decrypt with password/recovery key; extract files from decrypted clone.

  2. FileVault-encrypted content on USB → Image → unlock with keybag credentials; copy-out.

  3. Hardware-encrypted sticks (IronKey/Opal, etc.) → Image controller path; requires passcode; without it, data cannot be decrypted.

  4. Malware-altered partitions → Forensic clone; neutralise; export clean data; provide IOCs if requested.

G. Host/Transfer Issues

  1. “USB device not recognised” (enumeration fail) → Rebuild connector/ESD, confirm pull-ups; force-low-speed if needed; image.

  2. I/O freezes / timeouts → Reduce UASP/enable BOT; throttle retries; image in short chunks with power cycles.

  3. Hot-unplug write interruption → Journal reconcile on clone; recover intact files + previous versions from slack.

  4. File copy interruption / CRC errors → Hardware imager with fixed block size + retry budget; verify by hash.

  5. Incompatible/unsupported FS → Sector-level image; rebuild FS metadata; export data via translator.

  6. Overheating thermal throttling → Active cooling; staged imaging with dwell periods; prioritise weak areas.

  7. Mixed-media “combo” USB (dual USB-C/A) → Bypass faulty daughterboard; wire directly to main board or NAND; dump.


Firmware & Electronics Repair

  • ROM/MCU work: controller swaps where feasible, loader modes, SPI/EEPROM dumps

  • Board-level: TVS/PMIC/LDO replacement, signal-integrity fixes, diff-pair reconstruction

  • Chip-off/NAND: BGA removal, per-die dumps, ECC (BCH/LDPC) correction, XOR/scrambler detection, interleave/plane/way reassembly

Logical/Data Recovery

  • File-system reconstruction: exFAT, FAT32, NTFS, ReFS, HFS+, APFS, ext2/3/4, XFS, Btrfs

  • Metadata repair: journals, MFT/B-trees, APFS checkpoints/omap, directory rebuilds

  • Forensic carving: known-good headers/footers, stream reassembly, path/EXIF/UTXO metadata preservation where possible

Verification & Delivery

  • Integrity: per-file hashes (MD5/SHA-256), sample-file previews before completion

  • Secure hand-off: encrypted external drive or secure download per your preference


Why Choose Norwich Data Recovery

  • 25 years in business with thousands of successful flash recoveries

  • Multi-vendor expertise (Phison, Silicon Motion, Alcor, Realtek, ChipsBank, Skymedi, SSS, Maxio, etc.)

  • Advanced tooling & donor inventory for monolith and chip-off cases

  • Free diagnostics with clear options before work begins

  • Critical Service available (typically 48 hours) for time-sensitive cases


Ready for Help?

Contact Norwich Data Recovery today for your free diagnostic.
If time is critical, ask about our 48-hour Critical Service. We’re your trusted partner for USB stick and flash-memory data recovery in Norwich and across the UK.

Contact Us

Tell us about your issue and we'll get back to you.