SSDs fail abruptly and almost silently — present on Monday, undetected on Tuesday. In most cases the NAND still holds everything and the layer that reads it has stopped answering, which is a recoverable situation. Two things decide whether it is worth attempting: encryption, and whether TRIM has already been at work.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/nvme0 → Device: Samsung 970 EVO · 1 TB · NVMe → Status: NOT DETECTED — controller failure → Client: confidential · Kidlington, Oxfordshire $ bdr engineer-working → NAND read: chip-off · raw flash dumped → Reconstruction: wear-levelling + ECC resolved → Imaging: 0.91 TB / 1.00 TB (91%) $ bdr verify → ✓ documents — 71,440 files → ✓ photos — 44,900 files → ✓ data reconstructed — recovered
A firmware update rewrites the service area a recovery needs to read, and on an unstable drive an update that stalls can leave it permanently unreadable. Secure erase is irreversible by design. If the drive has started dropping out, stop using it.
SSDs give far less warning than hard drives, and the symptoms are almost always the same regardless of cause.
SSD recovery is a different discipline from hard drive work, and considerably less standardised.
Where the controller can be revived, it is put into a vendor-specific technical mode that allows the service area and translation tables to be read directly. From there the drive can be imaged read-only, and the file system rebuilt from that image. This is the good path and it covers most controller failures.
Where the controller cannot be brought up at all, the NAND can be read directly — but that produces raw flash which then has to be de-interleaved across channels, corrected for ECC, and unscrambled according to that controller’s own arrangement before it means anything. It is slow, specialist work, it is manufacturer-specific, and not every case justifies it. We will tell you honestly which route applies and what it is worth.
Both can end a recovery before it starts, so both are established at the diagnostic.
Many SSDs encrypt by default — Class 0, TCG Opal, or BitLocker layered over the top. Without the password or key, no amount of healthy NAND helps.
The T-series and similar portables encrypt as standard. If a user password was set and is not available, the data cannot be decrypted by anyone.
If what you want was deleted from a working drive rather than lost when it failed, TRIM has almost certainly erased it already. That is a different situation and usually not recoverable.
Counterintuitively, a drive that stopped responding cannot run TRIM — so failure preserves data that continued health would have erased.
Including when the honest answer is that there is nothing to recover.
SSD and NVMe recovery is from £300 +VAT after a free 48-hour diagnostic and a written quote. Most jobs are no fix, no fee; controller-level physical work carries a 50% deposit with the balance due only on success.
Send the bare drive rather than the machine, and tell us the make, model and capacity — controller work is manufacturer-specific, so that determines the route before the drive arrives. Full write-ups: a pocket SSD that stopped answering.
Send the device in for its free diagnostic and tell us briefly what happened; an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before anything starts.
Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01865 593000.
What people ask us most about SSDs the computer won’t detect or recognise.
Usually not. The commonest serious SSD fault is the controller or its firmware, not the flash, so the NAND still holds your data behind a controller that has stopped answering. It can often be reached in vendor mode and imaged read-only.
No. A firmware update rewrites the service area that a recovery needs to read, and an update that stalls on an already-unstable drive can leave it permanently unreadable. The same applies to secure erase, which is irreversible by design.
Because the controller maintains mapping tables that translate logical addresses to physical flash. Losing power mid-write can leave those inconsistent, and the drive then refuses to present itself rather than risk serving corrupt data. The flash contents are usually intact behind it.
It can end it entirely. Many SSDs encrypt by default and BitLocker may be layered on top, so without the password or recovery key the data cannot be decrypted by anyone regardless of the drive’s condition. We establish this first.
Usually not from a working drive — TRIM erases those blocks within minutes and the erasure is genuine. A drive that has failed cannot run TRIM, which is why a dead SSD is often a better prospect than a healthy one.
From £300 plus VAT after a free 48-hour diagnostic and a written quote, with most jobs no fix, no fee. Controller-level work carries a 50% deposit with the balance payable only on success.
Controller, firmware and chip-level recovery, all in-house, a free written diagnostic to open, and no fix no fee on most jobs. Begin your recovery today.