Lets Study Pen Drives [ USB Flash Disc's ]

[sceggy]

The problems that have to be surmounted for Flash memory (whether it be NOR or NAND technology) are:

(a) Physical package (TSOP, BGA, etc) and/or converter
(b) Removing package or clip on
(c) Reader and pin driver/voltages
(d) Decoding the write "levelling" process used by the ARM type microcontroller embedded on the drives

Whilst the Open NAND Flash (ONFI) working group is aiming to standardise there are a wide range of devices out there which are non standard.

Our bread and butter, I guess.

scegs

[hddguru]

From what I understand it's possible to make universal tool..... But of course it is secret as everything is.

[sceggy]

Somebody will always come along with some new method or algorithm, and make it more difficult.

At least nobody has found a way to change the laws of physics, so getting back to basic electronics is often the best!

And with NAND Flash you can always use an electron microscope and monitor individual charge voltages, though you'd get a bit bored after a while (and that's cheating!!!)

scegs

[scratchy]

The biggest hurdle to get over is working out the block order. Because of 'wear leveling algorythms', the blocks are rarely in the correct order. So sector 0 may be half way up the memory, and sector 128 at the start of the memory, etc. Not only that, the block sizes can be anything from a single sector to 256 sectors or more!

Depending on the processor and/or memory chip, sectors are usually, either 528 bytes or 2112 with the extra 16 or 64 bytes containing CRC data. Also hidden in here is the magic block number and other information. Some processors use a table near the start or end of the memory device, also some devices have muptiple segments of blocks (e.g. 4 blocks but each corresponds to a different segment of the memory) basically a nightware to untangle.

Multi chip memories sometimes are appended to each other (e.g. chip0 + chip1), sometimes striped like RAID0 (chip0 block0 + chip1 block0, and sometimes even striped at the byte level, inverted bytes, etc, etc.)

So like I said, the biggest problem is working out the block order. Once this is calculated, then the data should drop into place.

Scratchy

[utdr]

A good way to discover the block order could be to write a generated and recognizable pattern to a identical drive and raw read the contents and then for more clarity do the exact same thing again to determine how the rotation works.

[pepe]

Hi,

the block order is not a 'standard' thing, it won't be the same even in a similar device, since it depends on what blocks are written, erased and rewritten in what order...
So U must find the data structures within the flash memories that describe the block mapping, decode them (build an algorythm based on the info) and rebuild the LBA space...

pepe

[franckrules]

Hello Everybody,

I red this thread a few times. I could see a few people are able to raw read the memory chips. My question is witch kind of Device/Programmer with witch adapter are you guys use and are you satisfy with it?

Thanks for your answer.

[pepe]

Hi,

I had a Xeltek SP3000U, but it got damaged somehow and since I had dificulties using it and reading the whole memory, I didn't bother get it repaired. I built a reader on my own and wrote some FW for it and a client application that drives it from the PC side...
But as far as I remember later there was a topic about it and maybe Mikippp said he used this programmer with success.

pepe

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Hello Everybody,

I red this thread a few times. I could see a few people are able to raw read the memory chips. My question is witch kind of Device/Programmer with witch adapter are you guys use and are you satisfy with it?

Thanks for your answer.

Hi i did some research long time ago and figured out that there were many nand flash reading mcu out there you could try one out to make a perfect nand flash reader

[arkadas]

Flash Disk Data Recovery Equipment (FDRE)

Nowadays external Flash memory cards are very popular among users to carry data. But if you lost, broken these memory units, then it is hard to recover data from them. But using the Flash Data Recovery Unit Equipment (FDRE) you can quickly and easily get your data back. By using this unit, you can read the content, image of the flash memory to RAM or to your computer's hard disk, then using the internal software, internally developed for this unit, recover your files very quickly and and efficiently.

How can you use the unit?

Use of the unit is very easy. But it requires some basic electronic knowledge to get the microchip from board. After getting the micro chip, you put the chip to the unit, lock it and using the software read the content of the chip, then select right translation formula and view the file structure, after all you can command to recover to the given place.

[rameez]

Why the need of the unit this can be done also with a normal eprom writer with 48 pinadapter .

[hddbug]

Hi Rameez
Is there any software which we can use to decode data? If we put the chip on eprm programmer are there any imaging tools to analyse content of the flash?
Cheers
hddbug

[pepe]

Hi,

There are very few programmers able to read this kind of flash memories.
the SW in general U are asking about does not exist, I mean every single type of controller uses different algorythm for write leveling.
I usually have to analyse the data structure and build some code to properly assemble the LBA space afterwards.
Or u can check here wether your controller is supported by this product: http://www.soft-center.ru/reader2eng/

pepe

[hddbug]

Thanks a lot Pepe sir

Your information is very useful.
Best Regards
Hddbug

[TailWind]

Flash Extractor can convert RAW dumps to disk images

[arkadas]

Hi Everybody of HDD GURU

i find the products from a country ..it working good ..i test it ..and i made a video about it ..how to working ..if you want to watch it look at there

http://www.arkadasbilgisayar.com/video

i hope it will help to you too

[hddbug]

Hi Arkadas
Informative video , well done. thanks
Hddbug

[jimsun]

I am trying to use a SanDisk Cruzer 1GB that shows up in the debug file as sda (and it sees the sda1 partition) but it does not show up in My Computer. This happens on multiple thinclients. Results are the same for any drive I use.

Any ideas?

[HaQue]

I am trying to use a SanDisk Cruzer 1GB that shows up in the debug file as sda (and it sees the sda1 partition) but it does not show up in My Computer. This happens on multiple thinclients. Results are the same for any drive I use.

Any ideas?

Hi,
Firstly this is a 5 year old thread, so better to start a new thread.

Your details are very, very vague. the things you should have posted were

the debug file of what? Linux? what are the thin clients?

do you have to allocate the USB to a certain thin client? Really not enough details.

Sounds like the place would be the forums of the thin client system you are using.. VMware, nComputing etc..