Soldered flash · tablets, Chromebooks, small PCs · not phones
eMMC is a controller and flash in one package, soldered to the board, and common in budget laptops, Chromebooks, tablets and the small PCs sold as media boxes and thin clients. UFS is its faster successor and is appearing in the same places. Both can sometimes be read directly from the package when the board has failed, unless the device encrypts its storage with a hardware-bound key, as ChromeOS and modern Android tablets do, in which case the board has to work. We take eMMC and UFS from laptops, small PCs and some tablets. We do not handle mobile phones; please use a phone specialist. A single device is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668
| What is going on | The usual reason for it | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| No power, no lights | Board fault; package usually intact | Board inspection, then direct read where possible |
| Boots, then the file system is damaged | Logical fault on a working package | Imaged in place; good odds |
| A reset or powerwash was done | Keys destroyed with the reset | Usually nothing recoverable; told at the free look |
| Chromebook with a dead board | User data encrypted to the security chip | Board work or nothing |
| It is a phone | Outside what we do | A phone specialist |
A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. The drive is read on our own equipment, never in a computer that might send it a TRIM command. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
Every power-on gives a failing SSD another chance to run its own housekeeping. Here the drive is brought up in the controller's diagnostic state instead, which lets the bench speak to the flash directly and keeps damaged firmware out of the conversation.
Where the device does not bind its storage to the processor, the eMMC or UFS package is read directly at its pads, the dump is rebuilt into a volume and any operating-system encryption is unlocked on the image with your credentials. Where the device does bind its storage, the board is repaired to the point of unlocking, or the job is declined at the free look.
Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, weak pages retried in their own passes, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the key you supply, and never on the original.
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
The machine had stopped charging and then stopped entirely. The eMMC package was read directly at the pads, the dump rebuilt into an NTFS volume, and device encryption unlocked on the image with the recovery key from the student's Microsoft account. The notes, the essays and the photos all opened.
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine caseNo. We do not handle mobile phones of any make. A phone specialist is the right place.
Case by case. ChromeOS encrypts user data with keys tied to the security chip, so a working board and your sign-in are needed. We say at the free look whether yours is possible.
Often, yes. The free look tells us whether the package can be read directly or whether the board has to be revived first.
£300 + VAT for one device after the free look, fixed in writing.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the drive switched off.