Explanation: Ashley’s USB Drive broke when her laptop dropped onto the floor while it was plugged in. The case split apart, and the USB connector ripped off of the circuit board. Other than that the circuit board looked in tact.
The biggest tragedy was that all of her assignments for the whole semester (in one class) were on it and it was due in 3 days! So she called me and I came over. A closer look revealed that the circuit board was truly in tact and the USB connector cleanly broke off the board – only at the solder points. This was good news. So, with a pair of tweezers, and a bit of cotton from a q-tip (to insulate the tweezers from contacting metal on the circuit board) I bent the connectors of the USB to fit where they belong on the circuit board and then held them together with the tweezers.
With careful hands I plugged the hacked USB drive into her laptop, while she stood ready to copy all the filed to her Hard Drive asap… Shortly after plugging it in I heard that beautiful sound (the default sound Windows makes when it recognizes external hardware) and the explorer window popped up. With a quick “Ctrl A,” and one click and drag of the mouse, all here files were saved!!! And Ashley didn’t have to redo all her homework after all.