Flash Recovery Starting
- Thread starter w.simon
- Start date
Well first up, you need to learn how to spell "Flash" ;-)
seriously though, here are some tips broken down into some kind of order based on importance, not comprehensive, but a starter:
Required:
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Get a Stereo microscope. doesn't have to be too expensive. I have one of these: http://www.wiltronics.com.au/catalo...dissection-microscope?productid=175410#175410 I added a LED light ring to it, and I really like it. AU$200
I would also add a good camera to it, or get one with a camera if I could.
Get a hot air SMD rework station and good soldering iron with fine tips. $AU$150 or so
Buy the best solder you can, I bought a roll of 5 core flux solder .045mm or so. AU$25
additions:
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a good logic analyser
a bench top adjustable power supply 1v upwards to say 15v is all we need
the usual small screwdrivers, sharp blades, tweezers etc.
small fine wire that solders well, such as stripped from dc power cables. about .010mm or thinner.
education:
---------------
Start learning about structures of NANDs, bytes pages, blocks, crystals, planes, different chip types (LGA, BGA, TSOP) etc. look on HDDGuru for posts by Sasha and go to ruSolut.com and read and reread everything. whenever you find something you don't understand, either ask on forum or research it by Google. answers seem to be nowhere, but usually you can find the answers - the trick is knowing the right question!
get some different flash drives, and take a disk image. look at it in a hex viewer and try and understand the FAT filesystem. be aware of the different FAT types - FAT16, FAT32, exFAT etc. Try and find a hex editor that will colour code different parts of the FAT structure.
setup a cheap PC with lots of RAM for your recoveries. you are going to need LOTS of HDD Space.
Tools:
I don't want to talk about tools too much... but briefly:
I would say that if you are serious about learning Flash, get VNR ruSolut.com. Yes, I am a tech partner, so full disclosure, but this tool has incredible research capabilities. you can take a dump of a chip and start cutting it up and labelling everything you discover, the bitmap features allow you to see data structures and SA areas very easily, and also is great for XOR research. The reader is very good, fats and has built in power modification ability. you can view data on a chip without dumping it, play around with different power levels to get the best dump, then dump the chip.
Flash Extractor and PC3k are 2 other tools worth having in your toolkit if you can afford it. most important to keep your tools up to date.
Experience is the key to flash. grab some devices, write some data, dump and try and recover.
seriously though, here are some tips broken down into some kind of order based on importance, not comprehensive, but a starter:
Required:
------------
Get a Stereo microscope. doesn't have to be too expensive. I have one of these: http://www.wiltronics.com.au/catalo...dissection-microscope?productid=175410#175410 I added a LED light ring to it, and I really like it. AU$200
I would also add a good camera to it, or get one with a camera if I could.
Get a hot air SMD rework station and good soldering iron with fine tips. $AU$150 or so
Buy the best solder you can, I bought a roll of 5 core flux solder .045mm or so. AU$25
additions:
------------
a good logic analyser
a bench top adjustable power supply 1v upwards to say 15v is all we need
the usual small screwdrivers, sharp blades, tweezers etc.
small fine wire that solders well, such as stripped from dc power cables. about .010mm or thinner.
education:
---------------
Start learning about structures of NANDs, bytes pages, blocks, crystals, planes, different chip types (LGA, BGA, TSOP) etc. look on HDDGuru for posts by Sasha and go to ruSolut.com and read and reread everything. whenever you find something you don't understand, either ask on forum or research it by Google. answers seem to be nowhere, but usually you can find the answers - the trick is knowing the right question!
get some different flash drives, and take a disk image. look at it in a hex viewer and try and understand the FAT filesystem. be aware of the different FAT types - FAT16, FAT32, exFAT etc. Try and find a hex editor that will colour code different parts of the FAT structure.
setup a cheap PC with lots of RAM for your recoveries. you are going to need LOTS of HDD Space.
Tools:
I don't want to talk about tools too much... but briefly:
I would say that if you are serious about learning Flash, get VNR ruSolut.com. Yes, I am a tech partner, so full disclosure, but this tool has incredible research capabilities. you can take a dump of a chip and start cutting it up and labelling everything you discover, the bitmap features allow you to see data structures and SA areas very easily, and also is great for XOR research. The reader is very good, fats and has built in power modification ability. you can view data on a chip without dumping it, play around with different power levels to get the best dump, then dump the chip.
Flash Extractor and PC3k are 2 other tools worth having in your toolkit if you can afford it. most important to keep your tools up to date.
Experience is the key to flash. grab some devices, write some data, dump and try and recover.
