Core Data Recovery

Archive for September, 2012

First, let it be said this is general advice if you can’t read a usb drive and you understand tampering with the device could lose all the data contained in the device.

I had a recovery job come in for a hardware encrypted USB key, when plugged into any USB port:

Device Not Recognized was the message.

This customer had flown to Grand Cayman and his encrypted data drive would not identify to let him get to his data.

In some cases salty air can corrode the contacts on USB devices, or pocket lint/trash can obscure the proper contact points on a flash drive from being readable.

You can take a standard Q-tip and crimp it down, pull off some of the cotton and push the stick back and forth to clean the USB contact points.

To do this the q-tip must be fairly tight fitting between the metal frame and the circuitboard on the end of the memory stick.

This quick cleaning kept him from having to have actual data recovery done on his device.

We then set him up a second device with truecrypt encryption and transferred all his documents onto that device in case the device in question failed.

Q: Help, my Logitech M505 Mouse stopped working. I’ve changed the batteries but can’t get the mouse to work.

A: Often times wirless mice have a button to reset, this one does not.

Here’s how I solved the problem:

Take a pair of pliers, crimp the end of a Q-tip flat for about 1/2″.

Put the q-tip into the USB Unifying adapter and push it in and out along the contacts (there are 4)

This will clean any debris off of the contacts and allow them to work.

(in this case they could use it on their desktop, but not their laptop)

This trick will work to fix some flash drives that you can’t retrieve data from (anything that keeps the USB from communicating with the port on the computer, dirt grime, oxidation etc)