MicroSD card format in Android

[Porthos]

What do you consider big bucks?

In the last 20 years, I have had only 2 home users willing to spend even $300 on any kind of data recovery even when it is non-replaceable family memories. It is hard enough for some to afford the new drive and reinstall labor, to begin with, to get the computer working again.
Each market and client base is different. Talking Windows computers here since I do not do phones

 

[Joep]

I'd consider, for your average home user (and, remember, that's my client demographic) $450 to be very big bucks indeed. That would be almost double what I paid for the last smartphone I bought (Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro) when it was new several years ago. There are lots of "non-flagship" folks out there for whom $450 is a major outlay. I'm not criticizing or questioning your fees, either, just answering your question as directly as I can.

I'm pessimistic because of what I have heard discussed, repeatedly, about recovery from SSDs and other related devices such as thumb drives, SD and microSD cards, etc. Perhaps that's changed relatively recently, but I have not been hearing much buzz about increasing levels of success with SSD and related device recoveries.

SSD and memory cards / thumb drives are different beasts when it comes to recovery. Memory cards and thumb drives if beyond repair allow for chip-off/off-chip, unlike SSD (mostly). Then there's a small category of cards / flash drives that may seem undetected or unreadable while a lab can.

So for SSD only hope is it failed like 'traditional' drive, lots of bad sectors etc., or has some obvious physical damage that can be fixed, or is supported by PC3000 and lots aren't.

And what may also trouble perception is TRIM and data (un)recoverability; I speak to plenty of people, and even techs, who only vaguely understand TRIM and assume, because TRIM > data can not be recovered from SSD which is nonsense in many situations.

Anyway, as many labs offer no cure no pay, and if client is willing to pay I don't see why you wouldn't let a lab give it a try. I guess if client is desperate to recover the data, why let your pessimism stand in the way?

FWIW, I also repair digital photos, which is sometimes $100 much work per file. If the photo is valuable enough, people who can will pay that or they'll buy a new phone a few months later to pay for it.

 

[HCHTech]

similar to this one I recovered

Good god, man - that's crazy. It looks so.....organic.