frank wrote on 6/22/2017 7:47 AM:
Hi,
I already know the answer but we never know if anyone out there can make
miracles
I've been given a dead USB drive, in my linux laptop is identified as usb
storage device but it fails to read (probably) the capacity and the usb stack
keeps on resetting the device.
It's not possible to open it, looks like a small solid plastick stick with
metal tabs embedded on one side. It's just a bit longer than the typical
usb slot.
I tried heating and freezing it, just in case it was some temperature
sensitive fault, but behaviour never changed.
I don't think there's a way to expose the actual NAND-flash chip and read
it separately, but I'm asking the expert here
Did anyone ever found a way to open (or otherwise read) these little
data killer devices?

Just to be sure, you are talking about a USB Flash drive, right? I've yet
to find one I couldn't open. It would cost them extra money to make them
hard to open, solid plastic.

Not sure what you might be able to fix inside other than a failed solder
joint though. Mostly they are a single Flash chip with a built in
controller, nothing to replace without losing the data in the chip.

The lesson here is that Flash chips are not terribly reliable for long term
storage. Anything on a Flash drive should be backed up on another Flash
drive or your computer hard drive or both. Backup, backup, backup.

--

Rick C