Re: [tlug] Recovering Data from a Dead Tablet

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2017-07-31 08:10 +0900 (Mon), CL wrote:

> She's suddenly realized that she recorded the last couple of visits
> to her recently deceased father on the internal SDD... She's asked
> me to try to recover those files before trashing the device, but I
> haven't a clue what is possible.  I haven't easter-egged the case (I
> have the proper tools), but I am assuming that the internal drive is
> integral to the motherboard and can't just be plugged into a USB
> cable and read.

On a cheap Windows tablet that is presumably not spending money on
design for extremely small size and low power it's reasonably likely
that the internal drive is not integral to the motherboard but is a
separate, possibly standardized, module[1] such as M.2[2]. (There are
several possible interfaces; e.g., M.2 supports PCI Express, SATA and
USB 3.0.)

If so, the module could be removed and read in another system with an
appropriate connector, perhaps by using a laptop with the same
connector internally and booting the laptop from an external drive.

The place to start is obviously opening it up to find out what's in
there.

Also, is the issue just the display or are other things broken? You
might try seeing if you can boot the system with an external monitor.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#Disk-on-a-module_form_factors
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson         <cjs@example.com>         +81 90 7737 2974

To iterate is human, to recurse divine.
    - L Peter Deutsch