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Is it possible to retrieve data from a broken USB drive?

My usb drive died, can it be revived/data be recovered?

6 answers
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Apr 15, 2010. 10:42 AMlemonie says:
Try this software:
PhotoRescue - (Click on a button above to download your free PhotoRescue trial version). see if it can read your stick. Then let us know

L

Apr 16, 2010. 12:08 PMlemonie says:
Thanks for trying that, it's designed for damaged media. Which leaves me to conclude that you're probably not going to recover the data. You might think about sending it to professional data-recovers but that's probably going to cost you more than it's worth even if they can.

L
Apr 15, 2010. 12:28 PMjeff-o says:
How dead is it?  How did it die?  Does it show up in your list of drives?  Can you open it up to see if you can spot any obvious (and hopefully repairable) damage inside?
Apr 15, 2010. 10:27 AMorksecurity says:
Depends on how it broke. The data may still be in the memory chip, but getting it out would require replacing the support electronics. Or the memory chip may be fried. Or you may just have fried your data; it's reported to be possible to get a USB key into a state where it's electronically fine but logically unable to operate.

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