Samsung develops and manufactures both its own controllers and V-NAND flash memory. This contributes to making their products so quick, but also difficult to access once they stop communicating with the computer. On top of this, the T-series portable drives are encrypted prior to leaving the factory.
As mentioned above, because Samsung has developed everything themselves (the controller, firmware & flash memory), the entire process of recovering your files depends upon accessing those files via the controller. Also, depending on how the drive was set up, there could be an additional layer of security (encryption) in place that prevents access to your files.
SATA lines 840, 850, 860 and 870 (in EVO & PRO) usually fail due to the controller or its firmware as opposed to the actual flash memory. The failure pattern remains the same: the drive will either disappear from the BIOS, appear with no model ID string or report an incorrect/unknown size of capacity. Usually, the data is still good behind this failure.
Signature failures (controller corruption/firmware corruption) are a recognisable fault on the 860 EVO; we have an extensive 860 EVO controller failure guide as this requires a specific path to diagnose.
Thermal stresses are common with NVMe drives from the 970 and 980 series; these tend to get much hotter than SATA-based units. Overheating is a real reason for failure, especially with very thin notebooks, and when an M.2 unit is mounted directly under a graphics card. A drive that repeatedly throttles and recovers may eventually not come back at all.
The process of recovery involves putting the controller into vendor mode so we can access the translation tables, then use them to image the flash. This is more involved than what happens with SATA interfaces, simply due to tighter integration of the interface. If the controller cannot be revived, there’s theoretically some potential for reading NAND directly. However, what you’re left with are raw flash files that need to be de-interleaved and corrected prior to being useful.
Encryption is turned on when shipped (T Series) and (for the T7 Touch), there is an integrated fingerprint reader on top of this. If you set a password, we will need that password in order to decrypt your data; otherwise we won’t be able to access your data, nor will anyone else, regardless of how well the flash may be. We suggest you do this as soon as possible as this decision will determine if it’s even worth our time to attempt a recovery.
When there was no user-defined password and it was simply blank, then the drive could be accessed via its controller as usual. If a user had defined a password which they still remember, then the recovery process continues as per normal and the password will apply to the image created rather than to the failing drive.
Recovery of Samsung SSDs and other NVMe devices costs from £300 +VAT, after a free 48-hour diagnostic and a written quotation for your case. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. However, a 50% deposit is typically required when controller-level physical repair to the device is necessary.
There is one honest limit when it comes to recovering data off an SSD: if the files in question were deleted from an active drive then it’s highly likely that TRIM (the function of the OS to clear unused sectors) has already been called on those sectors so they are now gone forever. This situation is different than having an SSD fail with data still present. In the latter instance you can attempt recovery of the data. A diagnostic will help determine what kind of situation we’re dealing with at no charge, before you commit to anything.
Most times, yes. Most failures on Samsung drives are either with the controller or the software/firmware (not with the flash), therefore the data is usually good on the other side of the controller that is simply not talking. A vendor mode is used to reach the drive, the translation tables are read, and the flash is imaged as read-only.
Typically a problem with the controller or firmware. Tells include a drive that disappears from your BIOS, a blank model number string appears, or an incorrect/ridiculous amount of space is reported. None of these will tell you if there is a problem with the flash; they will just tell you if the device layer reading it has been compromised.
Only if you know the password, where one had been set. All T series devices come encrypted, and without the password there is no way to decrypt the data, regardless of how physically damaged the device may appear. If no user password was assigned to this device, it can still be read from the controller as normal.
No. Firmware updates write over the service area where the recovery process reads from so if an update fails on a bad drive you can permanently lose access to that drive as well as the data. Secure erase works in the same way and cannot be undone as part of its design.
Prices start at £300 + VAT per device for a solid state disk (SSD) or NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express). Once diagnosed with our free 48-hour diagnostic, our price is quoted in writing and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data; however for controller level repairs there is a 50% deposit taken before proceeding, with the balance only charged should your data be successfully recovered.