Devices · SSD and NVMe media
There is nothing to listen for on an SSD. It will just shut down normally, and next morning the BIOS will show no disk. Three things account for nearly every SSD failure: the controller fails, the firmware is corrupted, or the power cuts out while data is being written. Of the drives we get in from around Reading, WD and Crucial badges turn up most often. We work at the flash itself, sooner is better than later, and a single drive is £300 + VAT after a free look.
An engineer answers, and looking is free
0800 6890668
| What you are seeing | What is likely wrong | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| It shows up under the name SATAFIRM S11 | Only one possible cause: a Phison controller sitting in its ROM | Keep away from the vendor utility |
| The BIOS lists no drive at all | Nearly always either the controller or the firmware, with the flash behind it fine | That one is chip-level work |
| It reports 0GB, or an obviously wrong size | The flash translation layer (FTL), the map of where data is stored, has failed | Do not keep restarting it |
| SMART health drops sharply overnight | Either the flash cells are worn out, or the controller is misreporting | Check the maker's advisory, then image it |
| Every read comes back 0x800701E3 | This one is a hardware fault | Copy it first, and don't run any repair programs |
| A firmware update, and then Boot device not found | The firmware write stopped halfway, and since then nothing has booted | Do not power it at all |
A case number is assigned to your device when we receive it. An engineer then finds the real fault (free) before anything else occurs; you will be advised clearly of what will be returned and what will not, along with a single written price. Charges cannot begin until you have read this and accepted.
Every power-on costs a failing drive something. Here it is brought up in a vendor service mode instead, which puts the bench directly in contact with the flash and leaves the failing firmware out of the loop.
When the controller does not respond at all, the chips are addressed on their own terms and the translation table is rebuilt in software. A raw dump alone reveals nothing. Return the table to it and the folder tree is restored with it.
Wear levelling spreads the pieces of one file over every die fitted; that is exactly what it is designed to do. Those pieces are put back in sequence, the volume is reconstructed, and every entry is checked against the listing that goes out with it.
You look at the file list first and make a decision about what to do. We will never invoice anything until you have said yes, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. All of the information that we recover will be put on new media purchased by us specifically for this job, and our company pays the cost of postage back to you. The case stays open on the bench until you tell us the files open on your own machine.
Before you take an update: the flashing process writes over the map showing where your data physically lives, and if the power is lost during the write there will be nothing to fall back on. Most updates go through cleanly, so this is not an argument against updating: just copy your important files before you start. However, a drive that is already acting up is the last one that should be put through it.
The laptop's system SSD stopped responding during a firmware update, and nothing would come off it afterwards. An engineer went in through technical mode and rebuilt the translator tables, so the controller could map its own flash again. Ten years of a photographer's edits opened on the first attempt.
Possibly, but you have hours rather than days. The reason lies with TRIM: while it still has power, an SSD goes through the blocks a deleted file occupied and clears them at a time of its own choosing, with no command being issued. A hard disk has never acted like that. Pulling the plug is almost never the right instinct; for this one fault, it is.
Rarely. A silent drive has normally lost either its firmware or its controller, and the flash behind both is still intact. Those chips are read on the bench, and most of what was written to them can be retrieved.
Not harder; different. Hard disks fail at the moving parts. SSDs fail at the controller and in the tables it keeps. For blocks TRIM hasn't been through, the prognosis is good.
We won't take these on. Flash soldered onto the board means reading the chips mounted there, which isn't work we do. If you aren't sure which kind you have, ring us before sending it.
There is no charge for the look. You then receive a list of the files that opened, those that did not, and a fixed amount to complete the job. Keep it switched off until you have received that in writing.