: When a drive shows "Unknown FA00," it usually means the firmware is corrupted or the memory chip (NAND) has failed, making the drive appear as 0MB or "No Media" : Users often try to "revive" these drives using (Mass Production Tool) to reflash the firmware. The Story: "The Ghost in the Flash"
Look for packages labeled with support for AU6989SN-TA / AU6989SNCS .
The string Alcor Micro Unknown [FA00] F/W FA04 (or similar firmware versions like F113) refers to a USB flash drive controller that software—such as ChipGenius —cannot fully identify alcor micro unknown fa00 f w fa04
– The manufacturer of the logic chip governing the USB communication and memory access.
The "Unknown" status and the specific "FA00" firmware string are symptomatic of several failures: Firmware Corruption : When a drive shows "Unknown FA00," it
If you’ve gotten this device working for something cool (CAC login, Yubikey backup, etc.), drop a comment below.
Set the to "Full Scan" and MP Mode to "Capacity Optimize" for the best chance of recovering bad blocks. The "Unknown" status and the specific "FA00" firmware
: The low-level instructions (firmware) that tell the controller how to read the flash chip have been damaged. Hardware Malfunction
| NAND Flash Manufacturer | Flash ID Code | Memory Type | CE/Channel Configuration | Total Capacity | Source | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | EC3A94C3A4CA | MLC | 2CE / Single Channel | 32 GB | | | Intel | 8964643C | MLC | 1CE / Single Channel | 8 GB | | | KIOXIA (Toshiba) | 983C98B376E3 | TLC-16K | 1CE / Single Channel | 32 GB | | | SanDisk | 454C85937657 | MLC-16K | 1CE / Single Channel | 16 GB | | | Western Digital | 45DE94937657 | MLC-16K | 1CE / Single Channel | 8 GB | |