Data recovery for crushed iPhone?
July 13, 2010 3:08 PM Subscribe
My iPhone got run over by a car. It's unresponsive. Of course I haven't done a back up in ages. I just want my pictures off it. Any way I can attempt the mount the memory chip?
I called DriveSavers, who seemed like the only legit shop doing this sort of recovery, and as I expected, not cheap.
I called DriveSavers, who seemed like the only legit shop doing this sort of recovery, and as I expected, not cheap.
Depends on how crushed it is. Here's a guide to disassembly for iPhone 3G (A1241), iPhone 3GS (A1303), and iPhone 1st Gen (A1203). And this series of photos shows me it's onboard flash storage. With that, you could try rebuilding the phone (find another broken phone and try rebuilding it), or contact a local certified repair shop.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:28 PM on July 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by filthy light thief at 3:28 PM on July 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
2. the folks at an AT&T store may also be able to assist
No they won't. AT&T can sell you a new phone or give you a new SIM card but that's about it for Apple support.
Apple might be able to help, but if the phone is deader than disco, they can't. filthy light thief's links might help. If you've plugged it into your Mac/PC and it doesn't see the iPhone it could be a mortal injury. Since the memory is soldered to the board with may be cracked it might be hard to fix. You'd have to remove the chip and then get a working iPhone and remove it's chip. This is the kind of stuff machines do at the factory. So I'm not surprised if DriveSavers would give you an expensive estimate.
posted by birdherder at 3:58 PM on July 13, 2010
No they won't. AT&T can sell you a new phone or give you a new SIM card but that's about it for Apple support.
Apple might be able to help, but if the phone is deader than disco, they can't. filthy light thief's links might help. If you've plugged it into your Mac/PC and it doesn't see the iPhone it could be a mortal injury. Since the memory is soldered to the board with may be cracked it might be hard to fix. You'd have to remove the chip and then get a working iPhone and remove it's chip. This is the kind of stuff machines do at the factory. So I'm not surprised if DriveSavers would give you an expensive estimate.
posted by birdherder at 3:58 PM on July 13, 2010
Response by poster: @radiosilents: Yeah, I ommited the obvious. I plan make a visit to the Apple store after this ask.
@filthy light thief: Are you suggesting I might be able to attach the flash storage to another iPhone?
posted by rdhatt at 4:02 PM on July 13, 2010
@filthy light thief: Are you suggesting I might be able to attach the flash storage to another iPhone?
posted by rdhatt at 4:02 PM on July 13, 2010
Response by poster: @birdherder: yeah, my PC doesn't see it...I did get an "unrecognized usb device" message for a moment, but then it was gone.
posted by rdhatt at 4:10 PM on July 13, 2010
posted by rdhatt at 4:10 PM on July 13, 2010
Considering that it's already broken, your best first step would be to open it up and see what shape the flash drive is in currently. If it's damaged, it might be too late for anything but really costly data retrieval. If it's not, then what floam said would be the ideal route, which would require additional iPhone parts. eBay iPhones that are sold for parts are actually going for a pretty penny, so you'll want to price out all your options, along with the chances for success with each option. If you're not too hardware/tech savvy, find a friend who is. They'll love taking an iPhone apart. If you don't have any such friends, make one at an Apple store (possibly risky, if they think you'll blame them for failures) or one at an Apple tech shop (though they are likely to want to charge for their efforts, but you never know). Heck, there are enough MeFite hardware geeks that you could try hosting a "Let's Muck Around with My Dead iPod" meetup =)
Good luck!
posted by filthy light thief at 5:12 PM on July 13, 2010
Good luck!
posted by filthy light thief at 5:12 PM on July 13, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
2. the folks at an AT&T store may also be able to assist
posted by radiosilents at 3:20 PM on July 13, 2010