Small devices, big losses. A USB flash drive with years of work documents, an SD card from a holiday you cannot repeat, a memory card holding footage from a wedding or a child’s first steps — when these devices stop working or their files disappear, the impact can be enormous. At Mojoo Limited, we understand how much is stored on these tiny pieces of technology, and we have been recovering data from flash drives and memory cards for over 25 years. Whatever has happened to your device, do not write anything new to it, do not format it, and do not panic — the data is very likely still there. Call us on 07958 468 173 and let us help.
Devices We Recover
USB Flash Drives
We recover data from USB flash drives of all brands, capacities, and form factors — from standard full-size USB-A drives to compact USB-C models and older USB 2.0 sticks. It does not matter whether the drive is from SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung, PNY, Lexar, or an unbranded budget drive: the underlying technology is similar and our recovery tools work across all of them. We handle logical failures (deleted files, accidental formats, corruption) as well as physical failures, including drives with snapped connectors where the NAND flash chip inside remains intact.
SD Cards & microSD Cards
SD and microSD cards are the most common type of removable storage we see for recovery. They are used in cameras, drones, dashcams, action cameras, mobile phones, and countless other devices, and their small size makes them easy to damage and easy to accidentally format. We recover data from all SD card standards — SDHC (up to 32GB), SDXC (up to 2TB), and the newer SDUC standard — as well as all microSD and miniSD variants. Whether your card has come from a camera, a DJI or Autel drone, a GoPro, a dashcam, or a smartphone, we have the tools to assess and recover it.
CompactFlash & CFexpress Cards
CompactFlash and CFexpress cards are used primarily in professional-grade cameras and video equipment from Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Fujifilm. Because they are used by professional photographers and videographers, the data on them is often commercially valuable and genuinely irreplaceable. We recover data from CF Type I, Type II, CFexpress Type A and Type B cards. If you are a professional who has lost footage from a shoot, our emergency same-day service is available for urgent situations.
Memory Stick (Sony)
Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick format is found in older Sony cameras, camcorders, and PlayStation Portable (PSP) devices. Although the format has been discontinued, we still see Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro cards for recovery on a regular basis — often holding older family photos that have never been transferred to a computer. We recover data from all Memory Stick variants including Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, and Memory Stick Micro (M2).
USB Hard Drives & Portable SSDs
Portable hard drives and external SSDs connect via USB but contain either a full hard drive mechanism or an SSD module inside the enclosure. These devices are covered by our dedicated recovery services: see our hard drive recovery page for portable HDDs, or our SSD data recovery page for portable solid-state drives such as the WD My Passport SSD, Samsung T7, or Crucial X8.
Common Problems We Fix
- Device not recognised — the computer detects that something has been plugged in but cannot read the device, or the device does not appear at all in Windows Explorer or Disk Management.
- Physical damage — snapped USB connector, bent or cracked card, broken casing. If the NAND flash memory chip inside is undamaged, recovery is often possible even when the housing is destroyed.
- Accidental format — the card or drive was formatted, either deliberately (thinking it was empty) or accidentally. Formatting resets the file system but does not immediately erase the data.
- Files deleted — files were deleted on the device, either individually or in bulk. As long as no new files have been written to the device since the deletion, recovery is very likely.
- Corrupted device showing 0MB or incorrect capacity — the device appears in Windows but shows zero capacity, or reports a size far smaller than it actually is. This is a sign of file system corruption or a failed controller chip.
- Write-protected error — Windows refuses to write to or read from the device and shows a write-protect error. This can be a physical switch issue or a sign of deeper corruption.
- Camera reporting “card error” or “no card” — the camera cannot initialise the memory card, even though it worked previously. This is often file system corruption caused by removing the card while the camera was still writing.
Whatever the symptom, the most important rule is the same: stop using the device immediately. Every file you save to a USB drive or memory card after a data loss event risks overwriting the data you are trying to recover. Contact us before doing anything else.
Recovery Process & Pricing
Our process is straightforward and transparent. There is no charge until you have seen a full written quote and agreed to proceed, and our No Data, No Fee guarantee applies to every job. Here is how it works:
- Free diagnosis — bring your device to our West Bromwich workshop or post it to us. We assess the device at no charge and identify the cause of the fault. We will contact you with a full written diagnosis and a clear quote, usually within 24 hours of receiving the device.
- Recovery — once you have approved the quote, our engineers get to work. We always create a full sector-by-sector image of the device before attempting recovery, so the original data is never put at risk during the process. Specialist software then reconstructs the file structure and retrieves your files.
- Delivery — recovered files are returned to you on a new USB drive or via a secure download link, whichever you prefer. We check the recovered files before handover to make sure you have what you need.
| Recovery Type | From | Typical Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Logical recovery (deleted files, accidental format) | £50 | 1–2 days |
| Physical damage recovery | £120 | 2–4 days |
| Chip-off recovery (severely damaged device) | £200 | 3–7 days |
No data, no fee. For a full breakdown of all our pricing, visit our data recovery pricing page. Our main data recovery service hub gives a complete overview of everything we can recover.
Sending Your USB Drive or Memory Card to Us
USB drives and memory cards are small and light, which makes posting them to us simple and inexpensive. Here is how to do it safely:
- Place the device in a small padded envelope or wrap it in bubble wrap inside a rigid cardboard box. For something as small as a microSD card, a hard plastic card case or a coin envelope inside a padded mailer works very well.
- Include a note with your full name, phone number, email address, and a brief description of what happened and what you are hoping to recover.
- Send it to: Mojoo Limited, 4 Atlas Grove, West Bromwich, B70 9EB using Royal Mail First Class or Special Delivery. Special Delivery gives you tracking and compensation if anything goes wrong in transit, and is recommended for anything irreplaceable.
- Keep your proof of postage. We will email you a confirmation as soon as your parcel arrives with us, and one of our engineers will call you with a diagnosis within 24 hours of receipt.
If you would prefer to bring your device in person, we are at 4 Atlas Grove, West Bromwich, B70 9EB. Walk-in appointments are welcome Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm. We serve customers from across the West Midlands, including Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell, Sutton Coldfield, Solihull, Halesowen, and Stourbridge.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you recover photos from a formatted SD card?
Yes, in most cases. When an SD card is formatted, the file system is reset and the photos are marked as deleted — but the actual image data remains on the card’s flash memory until new files are written over it. As long as you have not taken new photos on the card since the format, the chances of a full recovery are very good. The moment you suspect a format has occurred in error, remove the card from your camera or device and do not use it again until you have spoken to us. The more the card has been used since formatting, the lower the recovery chances become.
My USB stick snapped in half — is the data still recoverable?
Quite possibly, yes. The data in a USB flash drive is stored on a NAND flash memory chip that sits inside the plastic casing. In many cases when a USB drive snaps, the chip itself remains intact even when the USB connector and circuit board are broken. Our engineers can access the chip directly and read the data from it using specialist chip-off recovery equipment. Bring all the pieces in — even if the drive is in two — and we will assess whether the chip is undamaged. Do not attempt to plug a broken USB drive into a computer, as this can cause further damage to both the drive and the port.
The card was in a washing machine — can you still recover the data?
Possibly. SD cards and USB drives are surprisingly resilient to water exposure, because the NAND flash chips that store the data are solid-state components with no moving parts. The greater risk comes from heat (a hot wash or a tumble dryer) or from corrosion caused by detergents. If the device has been through a cold or warm wash and has not been powered on since, there is a reasonable chance the data is still accessible. Do not attempt to dry the device with heat, do not plug it in to see if it works, and bring it to us as soon as possible. We will assess it carefully at no charge.
How do I know if my files have been permanently overwritten?
The honest answer is that you cannot know for certain without a professional assessment — and neither can we until we examine the device. What we can tell you is that the risk of overwriting increases with every file that is saved to the device after the data loss event. If you deleted files and immediately stopped using the device, the chances are high that nothing has been overwritten. If the card or drive has been used heavily since the loss, some or all of the data may have been overwritten. Contact us for a free diagnosis and we will tell you exactly what we find.
What format should my SD card be to maximise recovery chances?
Most SD and microSD cards use FAT32 (for cards up to 32GB) or exFAT (for cards 64GB and above). Both of these file systems are very well understood by professional recovery tools, which is one reason why memory card recovery has such a high success rate in general. If you have reformatted a card to a different file system (for example, NTFS or ext4) on top of the original FAT format, recovery becomes more complex but is still often possible. Whatever format your card uses, the most important factor remains the same: stop using it the moment you suspect data loss.
Recover Your Files — Contact Us Today
If you have lost files from a USB flash drive or memory card, we are here to help. Call us on 07958 468 173 Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm, or use our contact form and we will get back to you promptly. Free diagnosis, no obligation, and no charge if we cannot recover your files. We also offer emergency same-day recovery for urgent situations where every hour counts.