Pen drive and memory card recovery tools
5 tools 3 hardware 2 software 2 free
USB pen drives and memory cards keep data in NAND flash chips behind a small controller. When the controller dies, the chip is removed (chip-off) or, on one-piece monolithic cards, read through tiny test points.
The raw dump is not usable as it is: the controller scrambled it (XOR), added error correction (ECC) and spread it over the chip. These tools rebuild a normal disk image from the dump, often using a database of known controllers.
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Flash Extractor
Hardware + software
Discontinued
by Soft-Center Software that rebuilt data from NAND dumps of flash drives, sold with its own NAND reader. The developer closed the project in 2022.
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PC-3000 Flash
Hardware + software
by ACE Lab ACE Lab's system for recovering pen drives and memory cards whose controller has failed: the memory chip is read directly and a working image is rebuilt from the dump.
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GNU ddrescue
Software
by GNU Project A free command-line tool that copies a failing disk to an image or another disk, saving the easy areas first and coming back for the hard ones.
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Visual NAND Reconstructor (VNR)
Hardware + software
by Rusolut A chip-off kit from Rusolut (Poland) with its own NAND reader, adapters and software for recovering broken flash devices and studying NAND images.
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PhotoRec
Software
by CGSecurity A free, open-source file carver: it ignores the file system and finds files by their content, so it works even after formatting or heavy damage.
At a glance
| Tool | Maker | Type | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flash Extractor | Soft-Center | Hardware + software | Discontinued (sales closed) |
| GNU ddrescue | GNU Project | Software | Free (open source, GNU GPL) |
| PC-3000 Flash | ACE Lab | Hardware + software | Not published (quotation from ACE Lab) |
| PhotoRec | CGSecurity | Software | Free (open source, GPL) |
| Visual NAND Reconstructor (VNR) | Rusolut | Hardware + software | Not published (the kit includes one year of support; updates need an active subscription) |
Free tools from DataCare Labs
See the tools
HDD Switch by DataCare Labs Freeware
Spin drives down and up from Windows, without unplugging them.
Works with SATA, USB and SAS disks, shows the model and serial before anything is sent, and warns you when the drive is in use.
Folder Snapshot by DataCare Labs Freeware
Send your customer a browsable report of the files you recovered.
One HTML file that opens in any browser, with your own logo and colours and an optional password.
Drive Health by DataCare Labs
Check a drive's SMART health before you start a recovery.
HDD and SSD health and temperature for Windows, read straight from the drive. Works offline; nothing is uploaded.
Coming soon
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