Rescuing Data off a broken phone

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olivernz

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Topic # 229138 9-Feb-2018 09:28

Hi all,

Looking for suggestions/ideas. A friend of mine broke his phone (physically). Phone shop says doesn't even power. Now he has very valuable data on there he needs to recover relatively urgently. So my suggestion was to solder the eMMC/NAND chip into another phone of the same type (ZTE Blade A462, which he has). Now this is a task for a pro that can solder BGA parts and it's still very risky. One could also solder wires to the pins of the eMMC and interface with it directly although then I wouldn't know how to get that data onto a new phone...(i.e. then there'd be more hurdles). It's not about fixing the thing but a one time access would already be enough.

Anyway...

looking for ideas that I may not have had yet
looking for referrals to people that could do the eMMC transplant
looking for referrals to people who have JTAG/Riffbox experience

Any ideas?

Cheers Oliver

trig42

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Reply # 1954121 9-Feb-2018 10:11

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I'd be contacting a data recovery expert (Datalab, Computer Forensics). They say they can recover data from Cellphones/Tablets.

Won't be cheap (but maybe cheaper than a donor phone and someones time to unsolder/resolder eMMC).

michaelmurfy

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Reply # 1954128 9-Feb-2018 10:30

Something else to consider too is if the data is encrypted. I am not 100% sure how it is encrypted but it could well be a lost cause if the encryption keys are stored on the SPI flash of the CPU of the existing phone. How is the phone broken?

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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olivernz

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Reply # 1954296 9-Feb-2018 13:04

michaelmurfy:

Something else to consider too is if the data is encrypted. I am not 100% sure how it is encrypted but it could well be a lost cause if the encryption keys are stored on the SPI flash of the CPU of the existing phone. How is the phone broken?

Yeah, wouldn't know that until it was swapped. That's just a gamble.

1101

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Reply # 1954349 9-Feb-2018 13:45

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olivernz:

Now he has very valuable data on there he needs to recover relatively urgently.

data is valueable, so...
Then dont mickey mouse it.
As suggested above, go to a data recovery expert (Datalab etc)

It WILL be expensive , at least $500++ , could run over a $1000++
Often data isnt so valuable when presented with recovery costs :-)

If they wont pay big $ for data recovery experts, then look at other options,
or if wont pay the $$ needed , walk away from the whole thing as you dont want to be in the middle of data recovery done on the cheap.

There are 2 Laptop repair companies in Ak that do board level repairs (surface mount components)
They might do component swaps from one device to another , but wont be interested any further than doing the part swaps .
Again, that wont be cheap either .

either way , you'll be paying for expertise , not the actual time involved.
$$$$