Data recovery FAQ: answers to your questions

A swollen battery (bloated battery) is a real risk to data. As it expands, it can put pressure on the motherboard and internal connectors, causing poor connections, or even physical damage to the solder joints or memory chip.

Do not continue using a tablet with a swollen battery. The risk of fire or explosion is real, and the damage caused by a punctured battery is often irreparable to the motherboard.

If you notice swelling, immediately turn off the tablet, do not plug it in, and take it to a professional. Our technicians can extract the data before any battery replacement.

The data recovery time on a tablet varies depending on the nature of the failure and the level of urgency selected:

• Initial diagnosis: free, performed within 3 hours of receiving your device in our Ins (BE) laboratory
• Software recovery (accidental deletion, corrupted software): generally 24 to 48 hours
• Hardware recovery (broken screen, power failure): 2 to 5 business days
• Chip-off extraction (memory chip): 5 to 10 business days depending on the model

An Express service (high priority) and a Critical service (24/7 intervention) are available for urgent situations.

Recovering deleted files on a tablet follows the same principle as on a smartphone: deleted data is not immediately physically overwritten; it remains accessible until the space is reused.

For an Android tablet, if USB debugging is enabled or if the tablet is still functional, our professional tools can extract the complete memory image and reconstruct the deleted files. Without USB debugging or root access, extraction may require hardware intervention (ISP or chip-off).

For an iPad, recovery without an iCloud backup is more difficult due to the default AES 256-bit encryption. If you know your PIN code, extracting deleted files is still possible within a timeframe of a few hours to a few days depending on the model.

Yes. The internal memory of an iPad is separate from its touchscreen. A cracked or completely failed screen does not prevent the recovery of stored data.

For recent iPads (Face ID), a replacement screen is often required in the lab to bypass authentication. For older models (Touch ID), connecting to a trusted computer via Lightning or USB-C is usually sufficient.

If USB debugging was enabled and a trusted computer was already paired, extraction can be done without manipulating the screen. In the most complex cases (completely inert iPad), our technicians proceed with a direct extraction of the NAND memory chip.

A factory reset erases the file system, but on most Android tablets, the physical data remains partially present on the NAND memory until it is overwritten by new data.

On iPads, encryption is recreated during a reset, and previous data becomes inaccessible — recovery without an iCloud backup is then very difficult.

For Android tablets that have undergone a reset, the more the device is used after the reset, the lower the chances of recovery. In the lab, direct memory chip extraction (chip-off) offers the best chance of recovering partial or complete data.

No, the data is not lost. A charging problem is related to the battery, the connector, or a power component — not the memory chip. Your files remain intact on the internal memory.

If the tablet no longer starts due to a lack of battery, our technicians can:

• Replace the battery or directly power the motherboard to access the data
• Extract the NAND memory directly if the motherboard is defective

Data recovery is possible in the vast majority of cases, even if the tablet is permanently out of service.