USB sticks fail suddenly — snapped in a laptop, not recognised, showing zero bytes, or simply through the wash. The good news is the flash chips that hold your data usually survive; it's the connector, the controller or the board that give out. We recover SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung and every other make of flash drive for Belfast and Northern Ireland, in-house.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: SanDisk Ultra (64 GB, USB) → Status: SNAPPED — connector torn off, not detected → Client: confidential · Belfast $ bdr engineer-working → Connector: re-soldered · pads rebuilt → NAND: read direct · controller bypassed → Imaging: 61 GB / 64 GB · 100% read $ bdr verify → ✓ documents — 8,400 files → ✓ photos — 12,600 files → ✓ drive recovered — data back
If a stick has snapped at the connector, don't push the broken end back in, wiggle it, or glue anything — that risks tearing the tiny pads that carry your data off the board. Put the pieces safely in a bag and bring them to us; the memory chip is almost always intact and recoverable.
Flash drives take a lot of physical abuse and fail electronically too. Whatever yours has done, there's a good chance the chip survived.
We recover every make and style of USB flash drive — standard sticks, tiny nano drives, and rugged and encrypted models.
USB-A and USB-C sticks of every capacity, from standard drives to nano and rugged models — including monolithic chip-on-board sticks that need the flash read directly.
Recovering a flash drive means getting to the memory chip and making sense of what's on it. We repair the board or read the chip directly, then rebuild the drive's translation and file structure from that data — the stick itself is never relied on to keep working.
We assess whether it's the connector, the controller, the board or the flash that's failed, and how recoverable it is, then send a written quote.
For a snapped connector or damaged board, we repair or rebuild the connections so the stick can be read through its own controller.
Where the controller or board is beyond repair — or on monolithic sticks — we read the NAND chip itself at chip level.
We reconstruct the controller's scrambling and wear-levelling scheme for that model, turning raw flash back into readable data.
From that data we rebuild the file structure, so your files come back organised and named, not as raw fragments.
Recovered files are checked to confirm they open and are intact, and we can show you what's come back before anything is returned.
Your files come back on fresh media, or via our free download service for up to 75GB — whichever suits you.
From a stick snapped off in a laptop to a washed drive or one showing zero bytes, we recover USB flash drives of every make — repairing the board where we can, and reading the chip directly where we can't.
Give us a few details about what went wrong and an engineer will come back to you, usually inside one working day.
We will get back to you soon. If it is urgent, call 028 9002 0144.
A free diagnostic first, then a fixed written quote before any work begins. Recovering a single USB stick or flash drive is £250 + VAT, with no fix, no fee on most jobs — and where chip-level work is needed, a 50% deposit covers the specialist bench time, with the balance only on success.
A representative selection of USB sticks we've recovered across different makes and faults — device types and outcomes shown, customer details kept private.
The connector had sheared but the flash chip was untouched. We rebuilt the board connections and recovered every file.
The controller had failed. We read the NAND chip directly and rebuilt the translation to recover the data.
A firmware fault was hiding the capacity. We accessed the controller, rebuilt the affected area, and recovered the files.
The board had corroded but the chip survived. We cleaned it, restored the connections, and recovered the full contents.
The file system had corrupted but the data was intact. A read-only image and a rebuild brought the files straight back.
With no separate board, we located the contacts on the chip itself, read it directly, and rebuilt the data from raw flash.
Post or drop in your device for a free diagnostic, with a note on what happened — an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
First step: get the device onto our Belfast bench. Wrap it well, tuck your contact details in the box, and post it over — the diagnostic costs nothing, and you’ll have a firm written price to approve before we touch a single sector.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is best. Dropping it off instead? You’re welcome Monday–Friday, 9am–5:30pm — please still pack the device as above.
Not ready to send anything yet? Use the form to describe the fault in your own words and one of the engineers will come back with a quote tailored to your situation.
We will get back to you soon. If it is urgent, call 028 9002 0144.
The questions we're asked most about USB flash drive recovery.
Usually, yes — it's the most common flash-drive job we do. A snapped connector rarely harms the memory chip itself, which is where your data lives. We repair the board connections, or read the chip directly, and recover the files. Just don't try to force or glue the broken end back on.
It's a controller or firmware fault: the stick is detected but can't report its own capacity, so Windows thinks it's empty. Your data is hidden, not erased. We access the controller and rebuild the affected area to recover it.
Yes. A stick that lights up but never mounts, or does nothing at all, usually has a controller or board fault, with the flash chip intact behind it. We repair the board or read the chip at chip level and rebuild your data.
Very often. Water corrodes the board and contacts, but the memory chip usually survives. Don't power the stick on to test it, and don't dry it with heat — bring it to us, and we'll clean it, restore the connections, and read the chip.
One stick costs £250 + VAT, diagnosed free first, with no fix, no fee on most work. Where chip-off work is called for, a 50% deposit covers the specialist bench time, and the balance is only due if your files come back.
On most jobs, yes — no recovery, no fee. The exception is chip-level work, where a deposit covers the specialist bench time; the balance is still only charged on success. We're clear about which applies before any work begins.
Usually, yes — unlike an SSD, most USB sticks don't use TRIM, so deleted or formatted data typically survives until something overwrites it. Stop using the stick as soon as you realise, and there's a good chance we can bring the files back.
All of them — SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung, Integral, Verbatim, PNY, Lexar and the rest, in every capacity, including encrypted and rugged models and sealed monolithic sticks.
Please don't do either. Superglue and forcing a broken connector can tear the tiny pads that carry your data, and recovery software run on a failing stick can make things worse. Bag the pieces and bring them to us as they are.
A monolithic stick is a single sealed chip with the controller and flash built in, and no separate circuit board — common in small modern drives. It needs specialist work: we locate the contact points on the chip and read the flash directly. Yes, we recover them.
Sticks can be handed in at Cromac Square (weekdays, 9am to 5:30pm) or posted — a small padded envelope is plenty, and if the stick has snapped, put both halves in a bag together. Include your details and we’ll log it, diagnose it free and send a quote.
Flat-rate at £250 + VAT per stick, free diagnostic, no fix, no fee on most work — and every brand of flash drive handled start-to-finish on our Belfast bench. Snapped off in the port? Bag the pieces and bring them in.