Is It Possible To Recover Data From Failed SSD

Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are highly popular for their fast read/write performance and security. These NAND flash drives live longer than Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and offer several other benefits. Moreover, unlike traditional hard drives, SSDs aren’t susceptible to mechanical failure or damage due to sudden shock or drop. This, however, doesn’t mean an SSD can’t fail. SSDs are storage drives that may run into errors or fail, making your data inaccessible.

Worried about your data? It may seem complex to recover data from failed SSD, but it is not. This blog will walk you through the best ways for failed SSD recovery.

Why Do SSDs Fail?

Unlike traditional hard drives, SSDs aren’t susceptible to mechanical failure or damage due to sudden shock or drop. However, an SSD may fail due to physical damage or electronic errors—but the chances are bleak. SSDs commonly fail due to disk errors caused by the following reasons:

Power Surge or Interruption

Unlike a standard magnetic hard disk drive, Solid-State Drives (SSDs) considerably depend on power supplies. It is because they are primarily made of electronic components, such as capacitors and transistors. As a result, if the SSD suffers power surges or frequent power outages, it may experience short circuits and put your data at risk.  

Overheating

It is one of the most common reasons behind SSD failure. The SSDs may get extremely hot due to the heavy workload, especially during high-level calculations. As a result, the performance of the SSD is affected due to overheating. Usually, they are 10°C warmer compared to an HDD.

Malware or virus infection

Since Solid State Drives are one of the most preferred data storage devices today, they can be a potential target for cybercriminals. If hackers find their way to infect the drive, they can easily snoop around the data and encrypt, steal or leak it.

Firmware Error

The SSD firmware is complex, and you need to update it to improve its performance. However, sometimes the firmware update process is interrupted, leading the SSD to fail. Although the SSD fails in a fail-safe mode in most cases, it may stop working properly.

Unsafe Drive Usage Practice & Data Corruption

Other than the above-discussed reasons, SSD may fail due to unsafe device removal practices, such as keep using the SSD during a power surge, leading the SSD to malfunction. Additionally, if it’s not properly shut down, the SSD may encounter data corruption or even damage physically.

The SSD may also get corrupted and develop bad sectors on keep using it unsafely or due to aging, due to which the drive may stop responding promptly, leading to complete failure and data loss.

Ways to Recover Data from Failed SSD

There are a few ways to help you regain access to the failed SSD. However, before proceeding with the following methods, ensure that the TRIM command is disabled.

To disable the TRIM command, follow the given steps:

• Run Command Prompt as administrator.

• In the elevated window, type fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1 and press Enter.

 Close the window and reboot your system. The command will be disabled.

Scenario A: Solid-State Drive is Logically Damaged

Logical damage refers to the drive formatting, corruption, or bad sectors. All such reasons may cause the SSD to not function promptly or fail. Due to this, you may not be able to access your data. In such a scenario, you can recover data from failed, corrupted, or crashed SSD with the help of dedicated data recovery software, such as Stellar Data Recovery Professional. The software is easy-to-use, and powerful enough to retrieve data from formatted, corrupted, or crashed Windows PCs. You can follow the given steps to recover data from failed SSD:

• Download, install, and run Stellar Data Recovery Professional on your PC.
• Launch the software, select ‘All Data,’ and click ‘Next.’

• There are chances that your failed SSD may not appear under the Connected Drives list. If this is the case, you can select the Can’t Find Drive option and click Scan.

• Now, choose a hard drive with missing or deleted partition(s) in the Select Hard Drive to Search Lost Partition window and click Search.

• All the partitions found will appear in the Select Partition to Recover Data window. Choose the desired partition from the list and click Scan.

• Once the scanning is done, the files will show on the screen. Select all the important ones you need and proceed with the Recover option.

• Next, click Browse to choose the desired location (an external drive or another system partition) for saving the recovered files, and finally, click Start-Saving to complete the process.

All the recovered data will be saved to the chosen location.

Scenario B: Solid-State Drive is Physically Damaged

Electric errors, controller malfunction, water damage, or other factors physically harm the SSDs. In such cases, the software won’t help in recovering data. Instead, you’d need to connect with a reliable data recovery services provider, such as Stellar Data Recovery Services. The experts at Stellar perform a secure failed SSD recovery in a class 100 cleanroom that holds the same temperature in which a hard drive is built. They take care of even the tiniest things to prevent the hard drive from further damage and can recover files from failed SSD up to 100 percent.

Can a failed SSD be repaired?

Here are some methods you can try to repair failed SSD.

#1 Update SSD Firmware

SSD firmware must be updated to improve security, performance, and bug fixes. However, there is a possibility that the SSD firmware might be corrupted. Due to a corrupted or broken SSD firmware update, you may have a problem accessing your drive and its data. Hence, we’d suggest you try updating SSD firmware using the below steps:

• Open Device Manager from Windows Search.

• Now, expand the Disk Drives category, right-click on the driver, and choose Properties.

• Now, open the driver’s Properties, move on to the Details tab and select Hardware IDs from the drop-down menu.

• Now, click OK to proceed.

• Now, use a reliable SSD Firmware Update tool to download the updates.

#2 Format SSD

You can also format your SSD if it’s logically failed (corrupted, turned RAW, or inaccessible). However, make sure you have data backup available or have recovered data with professional data recovery software. Once ensured, you can proceed with formatting your SSD to repair it. Follow the steps below:

• Open Disk Management from Start.

• Now, if you see your hard drive with ‘RAW’ or ‘Unallocated’ status, right-click on it and choose the Format option.

• On the next prompt, choose File System and click Quick Format > Start.

• Once the process is complete, close the window and see if you can access your SSD.

#3 Run CHKDSK

If your SSD is corrupted or has bad sectors, it may not function properly, leading to BSoD errors, boot-up errors, or even system crashes. Hence, you can run the CHKDSK command to check and fix corruption on the hard drive. However, one thing to remember is that CHKDSK not only marks the bad sectors and fixes corruption but also prevents Windows from storing data from those bad sectors, eventually causing data loss.  

• Run Command Prompt as administrator, type CHKDSK /f/r D: and hit Enter. (Replace D: with your drive letter.)

• The scanning process may take some time. Once done, close the window and see if you can access the drive now.

#4 Rebuild MBR

Sometimes, there may be corruption in the Master Boot Record (MBR), which may damage the entire SSD partition table leading to SSD failure. You can rebuild MBR with the following steps:

• Open Command Prompt and run it as administrator.
• In the elevated window, type the following commands and hit Enter.

Bootrec/FIXMBR

Bootrec/FIXBOOT

• Let the process complete. Once done, close the window. Finally, see if the hard drive can be accessed.

Tips to Prevent SSD Failure

• Handle SSD with care to prevent sudden fall and store it in a safe place.
• Keep the TRIM command enabled in computers with SSDs, as it improves the SSD performance. However, as suggested, you’d need to disable it to perform failed SSD recovery.
• Avoid SSD from getting overheated. Make sure there is good cooling in your system.
• Get a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to protect SSD from sudden power surges and outages.
• Ensure that you always leave at least a portion of the SSD empty. Don’t keep adding data when some files are deleted; doing so will overwrite the data, and chances for recovery will be lesser.
• Keep backing SSD data regularly. Follow the three-generation concept (at least three copies) while creating a backup.

FAQ

1. How do I recover a corrupted SSD?

You can recover data from a corrupt SSD with the help of dedicated data recovery software, such as Stellar Data Recovery Professional. The software deep scans the corrupted or inaccessible hard drive and finds the missing or lost data.

2. How common is SSD failure?

Research shows that over 20% of SSDs develop uncorrectable errors over four years, and 30% to 80% develop bad blocks. All of these errors can affect data retention and lead to effective failure.

3. How do I fix the SSD Not Showing up error?

SSD not showing up is a not-so-common error. However, the reasons could be common, including outdated or faulty controllers, corrupted file systems, SSD not initialized, and more. You may fix it by:

• Verifying SSD shows in BIOS
• Updating storage controller driver
• Formatting SSD with NT File System
• Initializing SSD
• Running Windows Memory Diagnostic tool
• Assigning the drive letter to the SSD

4. Which one is better – SSD or HDD?

Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and Solid-State drives (SSD) are popular storage media that people commonly use. However, when it comes to SSD vs. HDD, you should consider a few major factors, such as advanced technology, superior performance, long life, and data safety. SSD outshines in all these features compared to HDDs.

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About The Author

Aruna Attri

Aruna Attri is a Senior Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. She is a technology blogger and Windows expert. She has experience in Windows data recovery domain. She loves to troubleshoot Windows issue and write technical tips and tutorials.