It often happens that a USB stick breaks and people are afraid that the information on the stick is lost. You would be wise not to try to repair the USB stick yourself. It is best to call in an expert or go to a computer store in your area. These may be able to read the data from the flash player with the help of special equipment. Read all about it in this article.
It happens with some regularity that a USB no longer works. In many cases, there is important information on the USB that is very important to the owner of the stick. They therefore often go to great lengths to retrieve the lost information. It is first of all important to see whether it is really true that the USB stick no longer works or whether it is due to the device you are working with.
It may also be the case, for example, that the USB connection of, for example, a computer no longer works. Sometimes it can also be the USB stick itself, but it works on another device, for example. Before you try to repair the stick, it is therefore wise to first see whether it is really the USB.
History of the USB stick
The first USB sticks appeared on the market at the end of 2000. They replaced other information carriers, such as the floppy disk and the CD-ROM. These could often only contain information of a few MB. The first USB also had a size of 8 MB. Capacity expanded rapidly. In July 2009, a stick with 256 GB was even launched. This is as much information as many hard drives can hold.
USB can be purchased for 4 euros. The more expensive versions are 256 GB in size. These cost considerably more, around 250 euros in the store. Reading speed has also increased. With the first sticks, that speed was 100 kilobytes per second. In 2009 that was sometimes already 30 megabytes per second.
Retrieving information from a broken USB stick
Usually, it is an omen that your USB has stopped working if the device gives an error, no notification or offers to format the stick. Sometimes the device recognizes the USB stick, but you cannot access it. If you can then see how much capacity the USB still has, there is a good chance that the information will be retrieved. Even if you have accidentally deleted the information, it is often possible to retrieve it with recovery software.
Fixing a broken USB stick
There is a good chance that physical damage has occurred when the stick is not acknowledged at all. There is a good chance that the control mechanism in the stick itself is damaged. The flash chip is often still intact so that the information on the stick can still be retrieved. For example, you can read the flash chip with a so-called NAND flash reader. Most computer stores have a NAND flash reader, so you can go there to read the information from your USB stick.
Repair a broken USB yourself
If the information cannot be retrieved using a NAND flash reader, there is a good chance that the flash chip is damaged. Some people then try to unscrew the USB stick themselves, but you have to be careful with that. Static electricity can easily damage the flash card. A few seconds of too much heat can permanently damage the data. In this case, it is wise to go to a computer store or hire someone with expertise.
