Monolithic Flash Data Recovery

Traditionally memory cards and memory sticks have used a printed circuit board with a number of surface mounted components attached. The two main components are the processor chip, and the flash NAND chip. If the processor chip has failed then CDR – Manchester Data Recovery Services – can remove the flash NAND chip, read it directly, and then emulate the processor chip using specialist equipment. Flash NAND chips typically have a standard 48-pin output which can be readily interfaced with.

Typical ‘Monolith’ devices

Monolithic (or monolith) storage devices do not allow for this. This is because all of the components that are found to be surface mounted on a standard memory stick/card are integrated into a single chip. Unfortunately, there is no standard pin-out configuration as per the 48-pin NAND chip. Each manufacturer and model of monolithic storage can have a different combination of pin-out. This makes it extremely difficult to interface with, resulting in a relatively high number of unrecoverable devices. Typical applications of monolith are all MicroSD card, many SD cards, and the small (less than 3cm) sized memory sticks.

The development of the two widely used flash memory data recovery hardware/software solutions is relatively slow when it comes to monolithic devices. Support for monolith is starting to appear, but due to the time-consuming nature of working on the devices it is still limited. The progress of monolithic support can be reviewed at the manufacturers’ websites, please visit:

AceLabs – PC3000 SSD Flash recovery

SoftCenter – Flash data recovery

Free diagnosis: No Recovery – No Fee.

CDR – Manchester Data Recovery Services – offers fixed price quotations only payable on a successful recovery. We will happily examine your monolithic flash memory card or stick for free to establish whether recovery of the data is possible. If we can not recover the data then there are no charges.