USB Flash Drive Repair

Hi there, it's a nice weekend.

My budget tells me to stay at home so what could be better than to stay at my lab and do some tinkering. Then I found something worth spending my time.

If you're a father and you have children, specifically a toddler, most likely you will encounter something like this on one of your personal stuff.

Yep, that is my good old 4GB Cruzer flash drive. I have it for sometime now and even if it seems a bit obsolete by today's standards, but then, it contains important data that I'm now having trouble accessing due to it's current state. That is after my daughter munched out the usb connector itself w/c is made of a brittle piece of plastic. Most of the plastic parts we're torn off and cannot be fixed by superglue or adhesives. Now I have to resort to better alternatives for me to repair this one - I thought of maybe an improvement.

This flash drive is worthy of repair and I have to give this a thumbs up based on how it performed. This is one tough and  resilient flash drive. At this condition, I tested it and it's  still working, it's just i have to hold the drive securely on the usb port and it is being detected by the host. Even before this torture, it survived a full wash cycle from the watch pocket of my jeans, no data loss whatsoever.


So, first up, I inspected how this flash drive was built from the inside. Since this is made of plastic, a little prying tool reveals the innards of this flash drive.

The drive is a single chip solution which is a 4Gb memory chip itself with a couple of passive components. Since the PCB trace acts as the USB port contacts, I thought of replacing this as well using a metal usb connector.









Looking at my stash of old usb connectors, I found this crusty one. Since I don't wanna trash a better connector, i figured a little clean up will make this connector work just fine.

After some cutting and grinding using my Dremel tool, from the way it is fabricated, this connector will be perfect for my intended use.









Before I proceed any further, I have to find a new enclosure since the old plastic is not only part of the connector but the enclosure itself, hence, it needs to be replaced as well.

And for that, I happen to  have the perfect candidate. This is an older flash drive (just 512Mb) barely usable these days due to a very low capacity. Looking at the enclosure, I figured this is detachable and and can be assembled back in one piece.

Here it is after teardown, just perfect for my intended purpose.










Next, I lined things up to see how the transplanted chip will fit in the new enclosure, and sure enough, it was not a perfect fit on the spot. I thought  of using the usb connector from the donor chip but it was too long for the enclosure. So instead of wasting a good solid usb connector, I just modified the connector from the cable as originally planned. I just saved the old chip and connector, might be useful for future projects.

The longer cable usb connector is cut to size by using a Dremel cutting tool.











This is the final line up before soldering.
The assembly aligns perfectly with the enclosure.












After soldering, everything is nice and tight.

This is the final result. The flash drive is now usable with a better enclosure and connector.

Of course, I tested it and it still works like a charm.

I just used basic workbench tools for these project. Only special tool is the Dremel cutting tool but it can also be done by a common metal saw.









Well, that was a lot of fun,  will appreciate your comments, suggestions or just your thoughts.
Have a nice weekend.


'til the next post, bye!

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Solution : Broken Hard Drive?

Hi there, It's been a while since I published a blog. Not much have changed, I'm still at it, always doing DIY stuff :)

By now, I already have lots of stuff that I think is worth sharing as these might be useful reference for others seeking for solutions online. Anyway, I would like to rekindle my blogging spirit by sharing what I consider to be one of my great accomplishments involving the use of today's technology and how to recover what is lost (apparently) because of technology itself. I hate hate it when technology fails...

Got a broken hard drive? I mean not just a hard drive, a 1TB hard drive containing your precious backups and valuable information? oh the tragedy...at least that's how I felt about it.

Well, all is not lost, there's still hope (that is, considering if the symptoms of failure is similar in my case) of recovering data from your hard drive. So, first up, let me discuss the possible cause of failure that causes a hard drive to fail.

1) Hardware problem or physical damage to the drive, due to
-Improper handling (i.e. excessive force due to dropping, damage due to static electricity)
-Improper installation (i.e wrong power supply, connectors)
-Wear & tear (i.e. corrosion)
-Broken electronic parts (i.e failed electronic board / circuit)

2) Software problem
-Firmware problem
-OS or Motherboard incompatibility
-Filesystem incompatibility (FAT, NTFS, EXT3, etc) more on file systems at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system

In my case, It's an external hard drive with a separate power supply. A Maxtor 1TB Basics USB2.0 drive.

I've been using the drive for more than a year already. This is my main backup drive for important documents, videos, movies, etc. The day came when the drive seems not being able to initialize properly, indicator lights just blinking and the drive is not being detected on my PC's (I use to watch movies on my TV direct from this drive and of course, its not working as well). Other symptom include a repeating pattern of sound (similar to the sound of the hard drive initializing) upon power up. My jaw dropped when I smelled something burning from w/in the enclosure, and so I thought, that's it, all my data is trash.


Out of my frustration, I opted to do a "postmortem" examination on the drive. After removing a couple of screws and some prying on the enclosure, I was in like flynn. On the inside, it contains a separate board for power supply (with a 220 to 12v DC adaptor) and USB to SATA interface. The hard drive itself was a Seagate Barracudda 7200.11 drive.

After removing all the connectors, and smelling the drive closer, my heart sank as I confirmed that the drive was fried. So in my case, the problem was hardware related.

I immediately searched online on the possible recovery methods and procedures but it was not readily available on my country. I found a local outlet offering hard drive data recovery but it was so expensive (around $500), has no guarantee of full recovery, will have to wait for a week, and worse, I have to give them the drive and they'll just give the recovered data. I'm not so comfortable with that so, didn't happen.

I also tried possible "software" recovery methods (though I'm pretty sure the hardware was bad) but desperation calls for a miracle at this point. As expected, it did not help, I gave up.

As I was trying hard to accept the loss, my broken drive sat on my stash of junk for months. As I was cleaning my junk and about to "recycle" the drive, I thought of giving it another try to revive it. Searched online for possible solution and I found that a replacement of the main board might work (though it still is not guaranteed, depends on the nature of damage). I found this site, offering just that: http://www.hddzone.com/

After careful consideration and damage assessment (i.e. assuming no damage on the drive platters) and seeing that the price is reasonable enough (around $40), I gave it one last try.

The site only needs the hard drive details like:

Brand / Model
Board Number: 
Main Controller IC: 
HDD Motor Combo IC: 

You might have to remove / uninstall the main board from the drive itself to get these information. Looking on the picture is not enough, other details on the board is available on site. You might want to double check each item before ordering a replacement part.

 


It's easy enough to remove the main board for replacement. Only tool needed at this point is a Torx (T2 or T3) screwdriver. As always, just be careful in doing this so as not cause further damage to other parts of the drive.

I ordered the replacement board and waited for about a month for it be delivered (postal system here in the Philippines sucks, especially registered mail). The replacement board was delivered on a secure package and was properly wrapped on an anti static bag. Here is the comparison of the old (left) and the replacement board (right).

Upon initial inspection, I know right away that the replacement is not a new board. There were screw marks on the holes and connector marks on the board. A closer looks shows a "chipped" ferrite material on one of  the inductors but everything else looks solid. The board has some labels sticking out. Then comes the next step.

It involves some soldering and component replacement from the old board to the new board. If you notice the "BIOS" label on one of the component, this must be removed and replaced by the same component on the old board. This is an important step since the BIOS chip contains important "drive mapping" information so the new board can read the drive platters properly. As this was a surface mounted component, I cannot perform "surgery" using just my soldering iron, I need a hot air knife*. So I brought the board to my good friend who has an electronic repair shop and asked for his help to transplant the BIOS chip from the old to the new board.

After that, we assembled the drive, plugged it in and it was pure joy.
The drive came back to life as if nothing happened and all data was intact :)

I prefer not put the drive back onto it's original enclosure. Remember the power supply, USB-SATA board in the enclosure? I'm suspecting a primary failure on that part that fried the hard drive electronics so I just bought a new external USB-SATA hard drive dock then it was all good.

After this incident, I opted not to buy large capacity hard drives again. Instead, I buy 500Gb drive, as the drive gets used up (i.e full), I buy another drive. This, so I can avoid a massive data loss from a single drive failure. This may not be economically efficient but considering the higher reliability and data security, I think it's worth it. Besides, hard drive prices are fairly cheap nowadays. I'm also considering Solid State Drives (SSD) as an alternative.

I might not be lucky next time and the damage might be internal to the drive heads or platters, I'm not sure yet of how to recover from that. I think it's possible though but I'll be needing a forensic lab and military grade tools for that already :)

'till the next post. bye!



*As of this writing, with help of my good friend, I was able to get a good set of hot air knife, . Now i can perform surgery on surface mount electronic components as well.

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