I'm trying to examine an SD card that only briefly appears in a GUI file browser (both in Win7 and Ubuntu).
Apparently this card was in a camera that suddenly stopped responding and doesn't power on anymore.
While I was under the impression that unmountable devices were bricked, I've seen a few data recovery vendors claim that they can retrieve files off unresponsive flash drives. So what are they doing, or what can I try?
If the chip appears briefly, it is probably OK and may just require normal logical data recovery
It it can not be detected by the PC it sounds more physical/electrical. The level you are talking about is to remove the memory chip from the SD device and access it specialised hardware.
One possible solution (I have no experience of it)
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Make sure your reader supports hdhc. I have seen this exact behavior when using my older card reader.
What are the physical interfaces you are going thought? Any write blocker? If so, usb interface adapter to the bridge can be an issue as miket065 pointed out. Might not hurt to try different physical interfaces as miker065 pointed out.
Also with that try another Linux boot cd to see if the physical volume can be seen. LinEn with x-over has been very successful for me with USB devices.
Dump your dmesg in ubuntu and paste them here. I would be interested to see what the kernel was complaining about before I went and said either way. I have been able to grab stuff from a stick that doesn't want to mount, but that was because the FS was junk. But obv if the hardware is no good, then there isn't much you or I could do…
Best of luck,
-L0ft