SSD (Solid State Drive) device is basically made of several flash memory chips (mostly NAND, but can be NOR or other type) put together so they represent a logical whole. They are available from the mid 80’s, but have gained popularity in the last few years, because of a significant price drop.

Users are mostly under impression that they are fault resistant and safe, because they have no moving parts. What they do have are electrical components, biggest of which are memory chips and controller. They can be damaged and/or can fail for a myriad of reasons.

Solid state drives can lose data by:

• damages of physical or electronic nature
• bad blocks
• internal controller program corruption
• data corruption by software or OS
• memory chips degradation caused by too many writes
• accidental erasure
• Fire, flood, and other natural disasters

SSD malfunction – what to do?

The most important thing is to keep it powered off. Even though SSD cannot be physically damaged by turning it on, like standard drives, it can overwrite files or permanently destroy the data sectors which are marked for deletion by corruption. Another thing is the TRIM command which can reduce the chances for data recovery. There is also an option that the memory blocks started to degrade or there is some problem with the controller, and by not turning it on, you are keeping the media in original condition.

It is important not to try data recovery programs or disk utility on an SSD, because it can further damage the media.

Data recovery from SSD

Data Solutions Laboratory uses the latest technology to recover data from SSD and SSHD media. We can access any type of SSD regardless of its format and interface type: SATA, SAS, PCIe, USB, mSATA, M.2… By continually improving and learning, and searching for new solutions, we can help you in most cases.

We are offering you a free diagnosis of your SSD, where you will get an estimate of data recovery and time frame, as well as the price.