We regularly check out reddit.com/r/techsupport, an awesome community where people can ask questions about anything technology related and receive quick, personal answers from experts. We try to post advice on Reddit tech support without promoting ourselves too hard, but sometimes the question is weird enough that we have to share it.
Today, a Reddit tech support user posted the following question (username removed in case he/she decides to take the question down):
It’s a long story but i swallowed my USB stick and theres important files i need on there
My question is, will it still work when i pass it in a few hours
Later, the user posted the following comment:
people are saying i should go to the doctor but i’m reluctant to do that just now. If it hasn’t passed by tomorrow i’ll consider it. For people asking it’s one of those tiny SanDisk ones that is basically just the metal usb head size and a cap.
You can find the full thread here, complete with some hilarious answers (including our favorite, “be sure to hit “Safely remove hardware” first or you risk data corruption.”)
While it’s difficult to determine how serious this person is — there aren’t any more details, so we’re a little skeptical, and “it’s a long story” seems like a bit of a cop out — it’s at least an interesting scenario. It’s not something we’ve encountered in the past, but those SanDisk drives are pretty resilient (although they’re not especially tasty).
Data Recovery Options for Swallowed Thumb Drives
Our process would be to clean the drive (ew) with high-proof rubbing alcohol and electronics cleaners, dry it thoroughly, and attempt access. If necessary, we could disassemble the USB drive and attempt to access it with some of the flash drive equipment that we keep in our laboratories. Given that we’ve recovered USB drives that have sat in saltwater for days, this probably wouldn’t be an especially difficult case, so we’d estimate a high chance of recovery.
If a user attempts data recovery on a USB thumb drive at home, he or she might make the situation worse, particularly if the drive hasn’t quite dried yet (again, eww). Unfortunately, there’s no effective data recovery software option for…uh, soiled USB drives, so a professional data recovery service offers the best chance of a full recovery.
We’re not doctors, though — given that thumb drives have heavy metals and sharp edges, we’d strongly recommend going to the emergency room before worrying too much about your data.
As always, back up your data and try to keep your media away from your mouth. If you’ve got an unusual or unconventional data recovery scenario, shoot us an email at support@datarecovery.com.
