Hi,

Just received a Lexar 32GB flash drive that was dropped by the client. When it was dropped, the controller chip fell off (breaking half or so of the legs off with it).

Model: LJDTT32G-000-1001V
Controller Chip: SW3253L

Was wondering if anyone has had success with this particular model, as well as if anyone knows if the controller cards are mostly interchangeable or not. I can upload pictures later if it will help.

Dizi

I think the customer does not tell you the whole story...

You know, customer dropped it under his foot, or the wheel of his desk chair

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As a matter of fact here

All or let`s say 90% of my clients are Great and good on not saying what was really happened
they just wanted to know how good you are in solving puzzles

never rely on what they say,

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We don't pay too much mind to what they say normally anyways unless it directly hurts our chances of recovery (drive dropped, then I scanned it for two days, etc.). We usually just focus on getting the data, not how the medium came to be broken.

Does anyone know if the controllers are cross-compatible? Or do we need to match the code on the controller exactly?

Dizi

Never seen that controller chip, you have a pic?

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Symwave ???

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I think he means SM3253L

Now that makes sense!

Almost certainly do-able with flash memory removal and reconstruction. Will have XOR of some sort for sure.

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Yes, it does look like SM instead of SW. I attached a few pictures (didn't come out too great, as the controller card code is faded a bit).

Also attached a picture of some of the broken legs (along the left and right sides, and on the right you can clearly see the contrasts between legs being there and legs missing).

We're thinking this may be a bit over our heads (32GB flash drive as opposed to 2 or 4GB like we typically receive). Anyone near the central US want to take a crack at this one? Send me a quote and we can talk. The two data chips don't look cracked (from the top anyways), so presumably the main issue will be working with the reconstruction. After quotes, I can relay them to the customer and see what they would like to do.

Dizi

if you have experience working with flash extract the data from the NAND chips, otherwise it would be best to outsource. Controller has to be specific if you want to try and replace the controller. However there is also a good chance that additional components might have been damaged.

This case should not be so difficult to recover with the right tools and knowledge. There are a few guys here who can deal with this for you, maybe even an opportunity for a partner program you could benefit from.

Do you have any software / hardware for recovering from the NAND chips yourself?

Can help in UK, but sure there's guys nearer you

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Only thing we have for this is Flash Doctor, but we're not too confident about even attempting and possibly making a bad situation worse. Did want to note that on the board itself, when the controller chip came off it took a few of the contact points with it. Spoke with Jon at DataSavers and he's not too optimistic due to that, but would anyone else want to try? Or can you recommend anyone near central or east coast US?

Dizi

Wise decission, flash doctor in it's current condition is only good as a paper weight. Can you post a high resolution picture?
Most important is the NAND chips. You should have 2 of them. If the NAND chips have not been damaged, a recovery should be possible.

Couldn't agree more, flash doctor stands little chance of recovering this

Like Quasimodo says, as long as the actual flash chips are OK then it should be recoverable with a decent tool like Soft Center Flash Extractor.

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Did you explain to him that the controller pins came off and not the nand chips' pins? Because when I first read your post I thought the nand chips' pins came off (and that would be possibly game over). Then when I saw the pics you posted I realized it is the controller you were talking about.

I second (third) everyone's opinion, this is definitely do-able (assuming no damage to nand chips).

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That's gotta be an understatement. Did you try scanning the chip?

BTW, does your image editing software have a crop feature? ;-|

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@northwind,
Yes, we did explain that, we spoke with him on the phone. The tech that called him explained that the concern was that some of the actual contacts came off of the board with the controller chip, meaning a new one cannot be attached to that board.

@fzabkar,
We did try scanning the chip into the machine, but it didn't come out very well at all (worse than the pictures).

The client needed the data as soon as they could, and money was not really a concern for them, so we opted to send it to OnTrack. Update you guys further when we hear from them.

Dizi

This SM controller should not be so difficult to work with, regarding recovery from the NAND memory, so I am surprised at this...