Recovering data from USB flash memory sticks that have been damaged or electronically erased

Authors:
B. J. Phillips;C. D. Schmidt;D. R. Kelly
Affiliations:
The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia;The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia;The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Venue:
Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Forensic applications and techniques in telecommunications, information, and multimedia and workshop
Year:
2008

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Abstract

In this paper we consider recovering data from USB Flash memory sticks after they have been damaged or electronically erased. We describe the physical structure and theory of operation of Flash memories; review the literature of Flash memory data recovery; and report results of new experiments in which we damage USB Flash memory sticks and attempt to recover their contents. The experiments include smashing and shooting memory sticks, incinerating them in petrol and cooking them in a microwave oven.