After several minutes, the progress bar reaches 100%. You unplug and re-plug the drive. It’s alive again! However, there's a catch: . The drive might even show a slightly smaller capacity than before, as the tool has hidden the damaged parts of the memory to ensure it remains stable. FirstChip FC1178/FC1179 MpTools V1.0.5.2 (2022-06-01)
: Re-link the controller to the NAND flash when the internal partition table is lost. firstchip fc1178/fc1179 mptools
If you use the wrong version, you might "brick" the drive, rendering it permanently undetectable. After several minutes, the progress bar reaches 100%
, which is used to repair or "mass produce" flash drives using these specific controllers. The Story of the Unreadable Drive However, there's a catch:
For the user, the goal is typically one of two scenarios: (restoring the drive to factory-fresh working order) or data recovery (attempting to force the drive to become readable long enough to extract files). However, the latter is often impossible because the MPtools typically perform a full erase before rebuilding the firmware.
Manufactured by FirstChip, these USB 2.0 flash memory controller chips are incredibly common in budget electronics. They are designed to be flexible, cheap, and highly configurable.