this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
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That might be fixable with a reball. Hard to say from the picture if the pads are damaged, but they look pretty consistent. So either none are damaged, or they all are.
Nah the solder is propably not the thing that broke. From experience i would guess the copper pads are ripped off wich can be repaired but is not easy.
I definitely see a few ripped pads but repair is still probably doable. I've repaired similar in the past a few times. It takes some patience to say the least. If that's a high capacity drive in today's economy definitely don't throw it out.
Yea its very doable if you have a microscope, i really like the small repair stuff but i would not be shure if your local phone repair guy is able to fix this. If i were in canada i would take a look at it. Even if it is a 128gb drive i would at least try, either get experience or a working drive nothing to lose.
What did you use for pad replacement in your pictures? I have always used enamel copper wire but i also have seen people use premade pads to gluee on.
They're just some no-name BGA copper foil repair pads. You can get packs of various sizes for pretty cheap. Scrape to expose remaining trace, solder the new pad in place, remove excess tail, clean, cap with UV solder mask, solder down the chip, etc. They're pretty easy to work with after some practice.
You're right. I see now that some of the dots on the chip are teardrop shaped, so most of the copper pads were lifted off the board.
theres a couple torn up pads/traces if you look closely on the chip.
Still probably repairable, but is it worth it if the cost is 50% or more of a new drive, since Op had no significant data loss?