A memory card, a monolithic USB stick and a portable SSD share a brand and almost nothing else. Which you have determines the route, the price and the realistic prospects — so it is worth separating them properly.
A card is a monolith read through test points. A stick might be either monolithic or discrete. A portable SSD is a controller problem, and on certain models a well-documented one.
SanDisk makes flash in every format that exists, and the recovery method depends entirely on how a given product is built rather than on the name. The distinction that matters is discrete versus monolithic — whether the controller and the memory are separate components on a board, or moulded together into a single die.
Discrete construction allows the memory to be removed and read on a programmer. Monolithic construction means locating test points on the die itself and making connections by hand under magnification. Same brand, same capacity, completely different job.
One product line deserves specific mention. The Extreme Portable SSD range attracted widespread reports of sudden failure in 2023, and those units arrive here dead with no prior symptom at all.
Extreme Portable SSD The 2023 failure reports. Units arrive completely dead with no warning. Send the whole enclosure.
Cruzer Blade, Glide, Ultra Flair USB sticks, mostly monolithic on smaller capacities despite the metal casing on Flair.
Extreme and Extreme Pro USB Higher-end sticks with discrete controllers on several models. More direct to work with.
Extreme SD and microSD Camera and drone cards. Full-size Extreme is frequently discrete; microSD is monolithic.
Ultra microSD Phones, dashcams and trail cameras. Monolithic almost without exception.
iXpand and dual-connector drives Lightning and USB-C combination sticks. Connector damage is the leading fault.
SanDisk is the most counterfeited flash brand in the world, and fakes reach this bench regularly. A counterfeit reports a false capacity to the operating system and silently discards anything written past its real size, so data appears to save and then is simply not there.
If a card or stick has lost files that were apparently written successfully, and it was bought cheaply from a marketplace seller, counterfeit capacity is worth considering before anything else. We identify it at the diagnostic, and where that is the fault there is frequently nothing to recover because the data was never stored.
Consistent with the 2023 reports on that range. Send the whole enclosure — the controller sits on the internal board and the assembly matters.
Usually a file system fault rather than flash failure, and usually recoverable. Do not let the camera or Windows reformat it.
We check at the diagnostic. Counterfeits report false capacity and discard data written past their real size, which explains files that seemed to save and then vanished.
Usually recoverable. A sheared connector is board-level damage and the flash behind it is normally untouched.
From £250 +VAT for cards and USB media, £300 +VAT for portable SSDs, fixed after the free diagnostic.