Data Recovery Case File · Solid State & Flash · Spend the Good Moments Well
You Get a Limited Number of Working Attempts
His enquiry contains a word that changes the whole approach. A USB drive not recognised by his machine — except that "the system information sometimes recognises it and the light comes on. I did not remove it before ejecting it; I left it in the port overnight. Maybe it got too warm?" Sometimes is the important word. A device that fails consistently can be worked on at leisure; a device that works occasionally is offering a finite number of opportunities, and how those are spent decides the outcome.
| Media | USB flash drive — enumerating intermittently, with the host recognising it on some connection attempts and not others; left connected and powered for an extended period prior to failure |
| Reported situation | Drive not recognised on most connection attempts · recognised intermittently with the indicator illuminating · left connected in the port overnight before the fault appeared · owner querying thermal cause · contents required |
| Fault class | Intermittent enumeration — marginal connection or controller instability; capture opportunity limited and diminishing |
| Equipment used | Browsing and casual connection attempts discontinued · capture prepared in advance and initiated on the first successful enumeration · imaged write-blocked under strict timeouts with resumable sessions (DeepSpar USB Stabilizer 10Gb) · contents validated by opening |
The decode: what intermittency means, and how to spend it
What "sometimes recognised" tells us: the device is capable of working. Enumeration succeeding at all means the controller can start, the memory can be addressed, and the interface can negotiate — so nothing is fundamentally beyond reach. What it cannot do is achieve that reliably, which points at a marginal connection inside the device, a failing solder joint, or a controller that is unstable rather than dead.
Why the strategy has to change, and this is the point of the case: with a consistent failure, you can investigate, try things, read about it and come back tomorrow. With intermittency, every successful connection is a resource, and there is no way to know how many remain. Marginal faults tend toward permanent ones — a cracked joint that sometimes makes contact eventually stops making it — so the number of good moments is finite and decreasing.
What that means in practice: do not spend a working attempt browsing. The instinct on seeing a drive appear is to open it, look at the folders, check that things are there, maybe copy the most important file. That is the worst possible use of the opportunity. The capture should be prepared in advance — destination ready, imaging tool loaded, nothing else running — so that the moment it enumerates, a complete capture begins immediately and runs for as long as the connection holds. Anything gathered is permanent; anything not is available next time, if there is a next time.
Why resumable capture matters here specifically: the connection will probably drop partway. An imaging process that records what it captured and continues from that point on the next successful enumeration turns several partial opportunities into one complete image, where repeated file copying would restart from the beginning each time and capture the same first portion over and over.
On his heat theory: reasonable, and probably not the whole answer. A stick left in a port is powered continuously and does warm, though an idle device generates far less heat than one under sustained transfer. Prolonged power does age a controller, but intermittent enumeration more commonly indicates a physical connection problem — and leaving a stick protruding from a machine overnight exposes it to being knocked, which stresses the joint between the connector and the board.
What to stop: repeated plugging and unplugging to see whether it appears. Each cycle works the failing joint.
On the bench
Browsing and casual connection attempts were discontinued, since a device enumerating intermittently offers a finite and diminishing number of opportunities and each is spent by whatever is done first. Capture was prepared in advance and initiated on the first successful enumeration rather than after any inspection. Imaging ran write-blocked behind the DeepSpar USB Stabilizer 10Gb under strict timeouts with resumable sessions, so that partial captures accumulated across several enumerations rather than restarting. Contents were validated by opening.
The outcome
The capture prepared before any attempt and accumulated across resumable sessions, with contents validated by opening. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT; where a chip has to be removed, 50% of parts and labour is payable upfront with the balance only on success — otherwise no recovery, no fee. The decode, for anyone whose device works occasionally: intermittency changes the strategy entirely. Every successful connection is a resource and there is no way to know how many are left, since marginal faults become permanent ones. So don't spend a working moment browsing — have the capture ready to start the instant it appears, and use a method that resumes rather than restarts.
Device that's recognised sometimes and not others
Stop plugging it in to see whether it appears — and when it does appear, don't browse it. That instinct to open the folders and check everything's there is the worst possible use of the moment. A device enumerating intermittently is offering you a finite number of opportunities, and there's no way to know how many are left, because marginal faults reliably become permanent ones. So prepare first: destination ready, copying tool open, nothing else running, so that the instant it's recognised a complete capture starts and runs for as long as the connection holds. Use something that can resume rather than restart, since the connection will probably drop partway and you want partial captures to accumulate rather than repeating the same first portion.
Don't spend the next good moment looking — call Newcastle Data Recovery on 0191 406 1051; capture prepared in advance and started on first enumeration, imaged under strict timeouts across resumable sessions.
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Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.