Monolithic memory card data recovery?

[JvanV]

A 16GB Silicon Power memory card I have been using in my camera has recently malfunctioned. My camera does not recognise the card anymore. Inserting the card in a card reader in my PC produce no drive letter. Apparently this indicates that the controller chip on the card must be broken. When I sent the card to a data recovery specialist in the UK he informed me that the card is of a monolithic construction. That is, the controller chip and the memory chips are in a monolithic block and not separate and hence he cant read the memory chips directly with his specialist equipment. He is certain the data could have been recoverable if the memory chips were separate.

Is there any way in which monolithic memory card data can be recovered?

How can I ascertain whether cards are of the monolithic type? Obviously, I want to avoid buying these problematic cards in the future.

Many thanks for any help and advice you can offer.

Johannes.
Cambridge, UK.

[pcimage]

Which company did u send it to?

[JvanV]

Can PCImage recover data from this kind of monolithic card? Whats your success rate with these?

Johannes.

[pcimage]

Post a pic please

[JvanV]

See here for a picture:
http://www.silicon-power.com/news/new_v ... rlang=utf8

Johannes

[arvika]

You must disassembly the card and put the photo.

[pcimage]

You must disassembly the card and put the photo.

Exactly.

Just need to check if the pinouts on the monolithic block are standard or proprietry.

Need pics of the front and back of the flash inside the casing.

[JvanV]

How does one open the casing? It is sealed in solid in a blue plastic, about 1mm thick.

Johannes.

[pcimage]

How could the DR company be 100% it's monolithic without opening it?

[JvanV]

The company was MjM. www.mjm.co.uk

I suppose they have come across this kind of card before.

I have now sent the card to Silicon Power in Taiwan to see if they can recover the data.

Johannes.

[dobrevjetser]

I had some cards that were in transparent plastic, so you could clearly see the monolithic inside without opening them.

Dobre

[scratchy]

I remember this card .. It is of the monolithic type with no external connectors on the chip. We did open it, but we are good at doing this and putting them back together The casing splits down the center line making it easy to open and snap back together.

[pcimage]

The company was MjM. http://www.mjm.co.uk

I suppose they have come across this kind of card before.

I have now sent the card to Silicon Power in Taiwan to see if they can recover the data.

Johannes.

Ok, fair enough. MJM are a reputable company and surely have come across this type before.

Good luck with the Taiwanese recovery

[kili21]

Hi everybody!

I have the same problem than JvanV mentioned in this post.

I cannot read the data from my Memory Stick pro duo Sandisk 4GB.

They opened to repair it but they told me that my memory stick Sandisk is a monolithic card (controller and data chip are the same) and its difficult to recover the data from this kind of card.

I think they are a lot of people with the same problem, and someone in this world could repair it!

does anybody know where can I send it to recover my photos?

tks!