Tracked postage means SSD data recovery works anywhere in the UK, but most of it comes from close by: the SATA drive from a student's laptop at Heslington, or the M.2 from an office machine at Clifton Moor which died between boots and gave no warning or noise. If your computer cannot 'see' your drive anymore, that is perfectly normal. It is usually still full.
All SSD jobs have free diagnostics. The quote comes back fixed and in writing before any tools are used.
In most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Chip level, electronic and mechanical repair is charged at 50% at start-up, and the other 50% only upon successful recovery of your data; all BitLocker, ransomware, forensic and CCTV/DVR recoveries are charged at start-up when you accept our fixed quote. More information can be found on the data recovery cost page.
The first thing we do when working on an SSD is to match up symptoms and fault. After two decades, these twenty-five cover nearly every one that comes through the door.
The management chip decides not to function properly. The SSD leaves the bus. All of the user's files remain untouched on the NAND behind it. They simply need someone who will provide them with a spokesman. That's what we provide.
The alias indicates that the Phison controller has become stuck in its boot loader. The files remain intact behind their incorrect names. Service mode allows us to retrieve these files.
The translator is down. The drive stays polite while lying about how big it is. After the rebuild in service mode, we image it in full.
Three things can produce a blank screen: boot ROM, power rail, controller. The rig will decide which.
EOL protection has frozen all writes. Annoying to deal with at a desk. Favourable for us when imaging this type of device.
It's rare flash gives you a warning letter before it decides to die. It usually goes cold turkey. That is why "it worked fine yesterday" is how so many of our calls start.
The translation tables are scrambled when a write is interrupted midway; a genuine surge also takes out the power stages. We run into each one every week.
Worn cells answer differently each time they are used while SMART remains quietly angry. This first full image is therefore the only account of any real value to believe in.
Background erasure of deleted blocks occurs every time current flows through them. Shut off power and the countdown stops. Leave it plugged in and it carries on.
Thinner boards have disagreements with upgrade tools and stiff envelopes. Track repair where the break allows; chip-off where it doesn't.
Examples from the first run chewed up reallocated sectors at a rate that can be cited by Samsung's warranty team from memory. The NAND still reads. We rebuild the map.
WD's SATA Blue has a well-documented penchant for disappearing from the bus until firmware gets to it. A familiar problem, a familiar solution.
Units in the A400 class collapse into megabytes or cease to exist if their map gets corrupted. This is service-mode territory; the flash below the surface usually has little to do with the problem.
SSD Plus drives will freeze while writing and immediately abandon conversation. They can then be awakened through service mode, or read chip-off if they won't wake.
SSUBX and SSPOLARIS blades from 2013 to 2017 computers fail like any SSD and can be imaged here on native adapters, with no need for a donor Mac.
The lack of DRAM results in poor wear levelling and the heavy-duty use causes Crucial's budget SSD to brick prematurely. The chips are removed and the data is read from them.
Fakes sold on marketplaces loop writes across a small portion of legitimate flash until none of the drive will mount. Whatever genuinely landed inside the real flash can be carved out.
During an ordinary replacement, the SATA tab shears. After board-level repair, the drive will act as though there has never been a problem.
After years of extensive use, the rated TBW (Total Bytes Written) runs out and the drive either locks or becomes unstable. There is only one shot at imaging, so it gets planned like one.
Vendor-provided software crashed mid-flash and now the drive won't talk. Reflashed on our rig, or completely bypassed, silicon willing.
Once QLC runs out of fast cache it slows to single-digit speeds mid-copy. Owners assume this means it froze and yank the cord. This slowdown is intentional. What happens next is not.
Cells leak during long-term storage. When a drive left unpowered since 2019 reads back mush, patient ECC work and repeat-read imaging can recover what a quick pass would bin.
Seasonal thermal cycles crack the BGA joints under the NAND and controller. After rework, contact holds long enough for a good image to be taken.
Multiple vendors have produced firmware that will "brick" an SSD when a specific number of power-on hours is reached. At that point the SSD stops responding. It is repaired in service mode and then imaged.
The security state becomes corrupted and locks a self-encrypting drive. The PSID code on the label is able to revert the security state, but it does so by erasing all data from the drive. Therefore we do not perform this process. And neither should you.
An SSD stores nothing in a single location: the controller distributes your files across various NAND chips. The controller also stores the only map of how they are arranged. If either the controller fails or the map is damaged, the entire drive simply ceases to appear in the system. However, each of the individual NAND chips continues to store its portion of the user's data without issue. There are two paths back into the data: either wake up the controller via the maker's hidden "service mode", or read each chip raw and rebuild the map in software. Both processes occur most weeks here. Neither is a job for a standard recovery utility, because those tools need a drive that responds to them.
Samsung, Kingston, SanDisk, Crucial, WD, Intel, plus all those removable Apple blades (2.5-inch SATA, mSATA, M.2): if it unplugs and can be posted, it qualifies. There are two flat "no's", stated now since we would rather disappoint you before the postage than after: any storage that has been soldered onto a motherboard, and any phone or tablet of any type. Neither is something we do. TRIM and encryption make a few of these jobs much harder than they look, and we will tell you about those issues when we assess your job, not when you see them on the bill. The standard three drives that come out of York offices, the ones all PC builders fit (870 EVOs, MX500s, A400s), are ones we know by heart when it comes to failure patterns.
Solid-state recovery is nothing but firmware and chip work from the beginning. Therefore the equipment list for this setup includes:
Coaxes a silent drive into its manufacturer's service mode (to right the firmware and rebuild the translator), then takes an entire image of the drive before asking it to do anything else.
Drives that stall have hardware enforced time-outs and a retry strategy chosen for the patient (on the rig), not taken out of a textbook.
Each removable solid-state format has a native connection to our system, including 2230 stubs and Apple blades.
If service mode can't rouse the controller, then the packages will be taken off and read, one at a time. Same destination as before, just the "scenic route".
Interleave, XOR and ECC are decoded from bare dumps until the mapping is restored in software, and the volume follows it back out.
First, the scorched power circuits and broken boards have to be repaired. No one likes to image a drive that browns out halfway once, let alone twice.
All those part numbers have an individual place. The early 990 PRO firmware would rapidly downgrade the health readout until the patch, and we see unpatched versions still pop up; the QVO gets unplugged mid-write by impatient owners because of its slow crawl after the cache; the SA510 prefers a quiet exit; and the NV2 is random in terms of controller and NAND, which determines how we proceed with it. If it unplugs, whether it's 2.5-inch, mSATA or M.2, we can work on it here, including drives locked read-only by their own safeties. Only two items do not fit: soldered flash on a motherboard and any mobile phone or tablet.
Get a quote first, by calling us on 0800 689 0668 or using our free online diagnostic tool. After receiving your quote, tracked and insured post is how nearly every job reaches us: it is the fastest and safest way to get your drive to our lab in Leeds. There's no collection service, so the parcel is yours to send, or you can hand it in at the Leeds lab's reception.
Is the hard drive or SSD still inside a machine, such as a laptop, MacBook, iMac, CCTV/DVR system or server? Please remove the hard drive or SSD from the machine first and then post just the bare drive by itself; we do not provide a service for removing drives from devices. For a server or RAID, send every disk, each clearly marked with its bay. For a NAS, send its disks labelled by bay if you can remove them, otherwise send the NAS itself. We cannot work on storage soldered to the motherboard (e.g. Apple Silicon Macs, T2 Macs and certain slim laptops): if it doesn't come out, it can't come in. If you are unsure whether your storage is removable, call us before sending.
↓ Print the booking-in & shipping form (PDF)
Once you have your quote, send your package addressed to Leeds Data Recovery (about a 40 minute drive from York on the A64 & A1(M) or next working day if you want to send it using trackable post). We will contact you as soon as we have taken delivery of your package and put it in line to be worked upon.
Can't figure out what to pack? Ring 0800 689 0668 first, or try our free online diagnostic tool.
Free diagnosis, fixed written quote, and on most work you only pay if we recover your data. Start online or call our freephone.