USB Stick Recovery

USB Stick Data Recovery

No Fix - No Fee!

With 25 years of experience in the field of data recovery, our highly trained experts can easily recover your valuable data from USB Sticks. We can also guide you through the data recovery process and recover your data that might be considered lost.
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 0151 3050365 or use the form below to make an enquiry.
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Monday-Friday: 9am-6pm

Liverpool Data Recovery — USB Flash Drive & USB Stick Data Recovery

Liverpool’s No.1 specialist • 25+ years of flash forensics & recovery

We recover data from all USB flash media (USB-A/C, 2.0/3.x/4, UASP/BOT) used with PCs/Macs, TVs, cameras, car stereos, routers, CNC/medical instruments and CCTV/NVRs. Our process is forensically safe: we acquire a read-only image first (never operate on your original) and then reconstruct data offline using PC-3000 Flash, VNR, Flash Extractor and in-house tooling.

USB Flash Types & Tech We Handle

  • Form factors: Standard PCB sticks, monolithic (single black epoxy package), nano-USB, dual USB-A/C, OTG micro-USB/Lightning.

  • NAND types: SLC/MLC/TLC/QLC; ONFI/Toggle interfaces; BGA (132/152/100/110), TSOP48, WLCSP monoliths.

  • Controllers (typical): Phison, Silicon Motion (SMI), Alcor, Skymedi, Realtek, Maxio, Innostor, ChipsBank, ESMT, IT1167 and others.

  • Buses/Protocols: USB BOT and UASP, bulk-only endpoints, vendor test modes, controller ISP/JTAG pads.

20 USB Flash Brands We Commonly See (with representative product lines)

(Representative of what reaches our lab in the UK; not a sales ranking.)

  1. SanDisk — Cruzer Glide/Blade, Ultra/Ultra Fit, Extreme/Extreme PRO

  2. Samsung — Bar Plus, Fit Plus, DUO Plus

  3. Kingston — DataTraveler (G4/Exodia/Max), IronKey (secure series)

  4. Lexar — JumpDrive S80/S75/M45, Fingerprint

  5. Transcend — JetFlash 790/810/920

  6. PNY — Turbo/Elite, Pro Elite, Attaché

  7. Corsair — Flash Voyager, Survivor, Voyager GTX

  8. ADATA — UV128/UV150, S102 Pro, OTG dual

  9. Integral — Courier, UltimaPro, Secure FIPS

  10. Patriot — Supersonic (Rage/Boost), Rage Pro

  11. Verbatim — Store ’n’ Go, PinStripe

  12. TeamGroup — C175/C186, T-Force PD

  13. Silicon Power — Blaze, Touch series

  14. Kioxia (Toshiba) — TransMemory U202/U365

  15. LaCie (Seagate) — Rugged Key, Porsche USB

  16. OWC — Envoy Pro mini (USB-C/A)

  17. Netac — U Series, ZX Pro

  18. Emtec — C/S series, Click

  19. Hama / Verico / Polaroid — common rebrands we see

  20. Apacer — AH series (AH353/AH360)

How We Recover USB Flash Data (Lab Workflow)

  1. Triage & safe imaging — Write-block the device; capture descriptors/S.M.A.R.T.-like logs if present; attempt logical image.

  2. Electrical & connector remediation — If unstable, repair 5 V/3.3 V rails, ESD arrays, connector pads/traces; retest enumeration.

  3. Controller-level access — Invoke vendor/test mode to dump raw NAND via controller when possible; otherwise proceed to chip-off or monolith wire-out.

  4. Raw acquisition — Dump all dies/planes with tuned voltage/temperature, read-retry curves, soft-ECC passes; map bad/retired blocks.

  5. ECC/XOR/Scramble decode — Rebuild spare areas, remove XOR/scrambling, de-interleave across CE/planes, correct bit-order/endian.

  6. FTL reconstruction — Recreate flash translation layer (wear-levelling, WL; garbage collection, GC) from sequence counters and metadata; rebuild L2P (logical-to-physical) map to a coherent image.

  7. Filesystem & container repair — Fix FAT32/exFAT/NTFS boot/bitmaps; re-index MP4/MOV/JPEG/RAW, Office docs, PST/OST, SQLite, etc.

  8. Verification & delivery — Hash manifests, playable validation for media, sample-open priority files; secure hand-off.

50 USB Flash Drive Faults — and How We Resolve Them

A) Physical / Connector / PCB (1–10)

  1. Bent/broken USB plug → Micro-solder new connector; rebuild torn D+/D-/VBUS/GND pads with micro-jumpers; continuity & impedance check; re-enumerate to image.

  2. Ripped pads/traces → Microscope re-trace to controller pins; enamel-wire reconstruction; conformal coat; image.

  3. Cracked PCB from impact → Bridge fractured power/data rails; replace fractured crystal/EMI beads; stabilise and image.

  4. Detached crystal oscillator → Replace 12/24/48 MHz crystal; verify start-up and USB SOF; image.

  5. Cold joints/BGA voids (controller/NAND) → Reflow or reball; if intermittent persists, chip-off.

  6. Monolithic stick physically snapped → Expose internal test pads; map pinout (VCC/VCCQ/DAT0-3/CMD/CLK/GND) with SEM/ref; wire-out and dump.

  7. Connector shield short to VBUS → Remove short; replace ESD array; verify 5 V rail ripple; re-image.

  8. Corroded contacts (liquid) → DI rinse/IPA displacement; low-temp bake; replace corroded parts; image or chip-off.

  9. Heat-deformed casing (car stereo/dash) → Thermal stabilise; reduce read currents; if resets persist, chip-off.

  10. Mechanical wear (plug looseness) → Reinforce shell; stabilise electrically; proceed to imaging.

B) Power / Electronics (11–18)

  1. ESD protector shorted → Replace ESD TVS array; check for latent controller damage; image.

  2. LDO/buck regulator failure (3.3 V) → Replace regulator; verify under load; image immediately.

  3. VBUS over-voltage (bad hub) → Replace damaged front-end and controller if required; if controller dead → chip-off.

  4. 5 V to data rail leak → Remove burnt parts; inspect controller/NAND for EOS; chip-off if controller bricked.

  5. Clock instability → New crystal, proper load caps; verify USB frames; image.

  6. Shorted USB D+/D- lines → Rework ESD array; rebuild trace; confirm eye diagram; image.

  7. Over-current protection trips → Substitute bench PSU; isolate shorted stage; once stable, image.

  8. Read-only fallback (firmware wearout flag) → If accessible, image logical LBA space; if not, dump raw via vendor or chip-off.

C) Controller / Firmware (19–27)

  1. No enumeration / Code 43 → Try vendor test-mode (e.g., Phison MPALL/SMI MPTool-equivalent) to read NAND; else chip-off.

  2. Controller ROM corruption → Boot ROM handshake; reload minimal firmware; if fails → chip-off.

  3. Translator (FTL) corruption → Acquire raw; rebuild L2P from sequence markers and mapping tables in spare; reconstruct logical image.

  4. Wear-levelling map loss → Use per-page counters; reconstruct chronological program order across dies/planes.

  5. Garbage-collection torn writes → Identify half-programmed pages via spare metadata; prefer earlier valid gens.

  6. Vendor XOR/scramble unknown → Infer from filesystem anchors (FAT boot/exFAT upcase/NTFS signatures); brute/heuristic seed search; validate with directory coherence.

  7. Controller resets mid-read → Lower clock, increase inter-read delays; if still unstable → chip-off.

  8. UASP quirk → Force BOT mode with fallback reader; or use a native USB 2.0 reader for stability; image.

  9. Legacy U3 CD-ROM partition → Disable emulation logically; if not accessible, image raw and reconstruct partitioning.

D) NAND / Signal / ECC (28–34)

  1. High bit error rate (BER) → Temperature/voltage tuning; LDPC/BCH soft decoding; multi-read majority voting; merge best bits.

  2. Program disturb → Detect inconsistent program states; rely on earlier valid generations; exclude “toxic” pages.

  3. Retention loss (aged cells) → Warm read strategy; slow clock; reduced read current; prioritise metadata blocks.

  4. Bad block table (BBT) corruption → Re-derive BBT from ECC failure map; rebuild logical span without poisoned blocks.

  5. Plane/CE mis-assignment → Correct interleave/plane order; re-stripe according to die layout; verify with FS anchors.

  6. Endianness/bit-order anomalies → Auto-detect by scanning for known signatures; re-serialise; re-test FS.

  7. Multi-die XOR drift → Per-die XOR unmixing; align through entropy edges at cluster/chunk boundaries.

E) Filesystem / Partition / User Actions (35–42)

  1. “Please format disk” / RAW → Rebuild VBR/boot sectors; piece together FAT/exFAT allocation bitmap; mount RO.

  2. Accidental deletion → Metadata-first (directory entries + exFAT bitmap); minimal carving to preserve names/timestamps.

  3. Quick format → Restore previous FS from secondary headers; deep scan old anchors; targeted carving for gaps.

  4. Full format / zero-fill → Carve remaining non-overwritten space; note irreversibility of actually overwritten regions.

  5. Partition table overwritten (MBR→GPT or vice-versa) → Signature scan; reconstruct original map/offsets; validate mount.

  6. Corrupt exFAT upcase/bitmap → Regenerate upcase table; reconstruct allocation from directory cluster chains.

  7. NTFS $MFT damage → Use $MFTMirr and $LogFile to rebuild MFT; recover orphaned records.

  8. Power loss during copy → Repair torn file entries and FAT chains; rebuild directory indices.

F) OS / Host / Malware (43–46)

  1. Antivirus/malware damaged filesystem → Image first; clean on clone; rebuild FS; restore healthy files.

  2. Incompatible TV/router formatting → Translate proprietary layout; export content to standard FS.

  3. Driver issues (Windows/Mac) → Use hardware blocker + neutral reader; bypass OS caching; image stable path.

  4. Write-caching unsafe removal → Journal-aware repair; restore last consistent checkpoint.

G) Security / Encryption / Special Cases (47–50)

  1. SanDisk SecureAccess / Kingston IronKey containers → Requires user credentials; after imaging, mount container and export decrypted files.

  2. BitLocker-To-Go on USB → Image; decrypt with recovery key/password; repair inner FS.

  3. Controller-level AES (rare) → Recovery depends on intact controller/keys; chip-off yields ciphertext; we attempt vendor key export when supported.

  4. CCTV/NVR media staged on USB → H.264/H.265 GOP-aware carving; rebuild playable clips; overwritten segments are unrecoverable.

Packaging & Send-In

Place the USB stick in an anti-static pouch, then a small padded box or envelope with your contact details and a brief description (device used, symptoms, highest-priority files). You can post it to us or drop it off in person.

Why Liverpool Data Recovery

  • 25+ years specialising in removable flash & NAND forensics

  • Advanced platforms: PC-3000 Flash, VNR, Flash Extractor, in-house decoders

  • Monolith pinout discovery, chip-off BGA/TSOP, ECC/XOR/FTL reconstruction expertise

  • Free diagnostics with clear recovery options before work begins

Need help now? Tell us the brand/capacity, what it was plugged into, and the most important folders/files—we’ll prioritise those during verification.

Contact Us

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

Richard Chester, Preston

Liverpool Data Recovery saved me from a huge bill and from a sleepless night! My External Hard Drive packed up with all my backups. It never occurred to me to back up my back ups, so there you go. Decades of music and photo’s lost. I simply had to pop the HDD in the post, and in under a week I pretty much all my files recovered and on a USB stick. Thank you Anthony and Liverpool Data Recovery.

Richard Chester, Preston

Mark Bolton, Southport

Tony and the rest of the Liverpool Data Recovery team did an excellent job of recovering data that was considered to be unrecoverable by 4 other companies.

Mark Bolton, Southport

Emmanuel Johnson, St Helens

Thanks for the hard drive recovery! The charity organisation (Oxfam) is very pleased with the quick turn around and service provided.

Emmanuel Johnson, St Helens

Luke Watts, Bootle

I am happy to report that you have been able to recover all of my missing and deleted data.

Luke Watts, Bootle

Andrew Nolan, Sefton

Many thanks to Liverpool Data Recovery and your data recovery engineers on the recent recovery of the HP RAID-5 data belonging to our client.

Andrew Nolan, Sefton

Ian Wilcox, Wirral

Great result guys. You truly delivered as promised. I got a no way to recover my files anywhere else. But you guys recovered the data for me.

Ian Wilcox, Wirral

Christian Donelon, Wigan

Thank you very much for your help. You recovered 100% of our precious data. It’s been a pleasure to deal with yourselves.

Christian Donelon, Wigan

Susan Byrne, Blackpool

Liverpool Data Recovery saved the data on a sd card recovery after our camera fell into the bath (don’t ask!). Of course the camera was covered by insurance, but I lost all the pictures of my new baby. I pinned my hopes on a free data recovery software but it didn’t work so I considered some things are worth more than money. I cannot explain the joy at getting a USD stick with all my precious photos back.

Susan Byrne, Blackpool

Elliot Budd, Chester

Gutted when my PC crashed and of course all my backups were outdated. Liverpool Data Recovery talked me through the easy steps, and back it came a few days later with all files recovered. Boss service.

Elliot Budd, Chester