A pocket SSD stopped being recognised - the flash was intact, reached by rebuilding the controller's map.
A photographer's Samsung T7 portable SSD, used to shuttle work between machines and out on shoots, suddenly stopped being recognised on any computer it was connected to. Portable SSDs feel robust — no moving parts, pocket-sized, fast — but they fail in their own ways, and a drive that vanishes completely from every machine is a classic sign that its controller has faltered rather than the flash being worn out.
On our equipment the drive either failed to present at all or showed an invalid identity, the pattern of a controller fault. As with any solid-state device, the flash itself was most likely intact; the problem was that the controller managing it had stopped responding properly, leaving the data unreachable through the normal interface.
Using the PC3000 we accessed the controller in its technical mode, cleared the fault condition and read its internal structures. The translator — the table that maps the logical drive the computer sees onto the physical flash — had become inconsistent, so we rebuilt it; with that corrected the drive's data became addressable again and we imaged it against a copy. A small number of flash blocks had worn beyond use, as happens on any working solid-state drive over time, which cost a little data at the margins.
From the image we rebuilt the file system and opened a representative spread of the photographer's libraries to confirm the files were whole, then wrote everything to fresh media.
We recovered around 98% of the SSD — effectively all of the photographer's libraries — over five working days. Solid-state drives give very little warning before they fail, so they are best treated as fast working storage with a separate backup behind them, not as the sole copy of anything irreplaceable.
PC3000 — imaging and recovery carried out in-house. Every job is imaged before any recovery work begins, and the original media is never written to.
Send us your device for a free diagnostic, and tell us a little about what happened — an engineer will review it and confirm your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
Recovering your data starts with getting the device to us. Pack it safely, add your contact details, and send it over — after we run a free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work begins.
Posting it in? We recommend a tracked, insured service. Prefer to drop it off? You’re welcome Monday–Friday, 9am–5:30pm — please still package the device as above.
If you need more information on our data recovery service, fill out the form with more detail about your issue and an engineer will review it and give you a custom quote.
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Yes. When the controller fails the flash is usually intact — we reach it with the PC3000 or by reading the NAND chip directly, then rebuild the data.
USB sticks and memory cards are from £250 plus VAT, and portable SSDs from £300 plus VAT. No fix, no fee on most jobs.
No. That usually means the controller has lost its tables, not that the data is gone. Do not format it — bring it in.
Start with an instant online quote, or call and talk it through with us first. You'll have a clear, fixed price before any work begins.