The Samsung Evo range of 2.5” S-ATA and M.2 PCI solid state disks has proved extremely popular in Ireland for their speed, capacities and reliability. Typically, the EVO range (840, 850, 860) uses MLC-NAND coupled with in-house Samsung designed controllers. Capacities include 120GB, 240GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.
While most users enjoy a trouble-free experience, there are occasions when data recovery is needed for your Samsung EVO SSD. Take last week for instance, we had a customer who had a Samsung EVO (MZ-7TD120) which was no longer initialising on their Windows 10 system. They removed the disk and connected it to a second Windows 10 computer using a USB 2.5” enclosure. However, it still remained inaccessible. They tried running some EaseUS data recovery on the drive but that too proved fruitless. They ran Samsung Magician software to help them diagnose the problem but the software could not even recognise the drive. When they attempted to open it, they were thwarted by some Torx screws. They sent the disk to Drive Rescue.
We first removed the metal casing of the SSD using a Pentalobe screwdriver. Then using a multimeter, we tested the voltages on the PCB. They appeared normal. Using a ESD-safe tweezers we applied them to the short points on the disk’s PCB to put it into Safe Mode. This would allow us to use a Samsung firmware emulator to access the NAND. The terminal read-outs from our Samsung SSD recovery equipment indicated that there seemed to be a problem with the FLT layer (Flash Translation Layer) of the SSD. This layer, found in the FW layer (firmware) assists the SSD with functions such as wear levelling and garbage collection. But more importantly, it peforms the vital function of logical block mapping. This maps the Logical Block Address (LBA) to phyical blocks on the NAND chips. Basically, it acts like an internal roadmap for yoru SSD. When it goes corrupt, the data cannot be accessed.
After a couple of hours of FW reparation work, and a few disk re-initisations, a valid NTFS volume was finally retrieved along with all the client’s data!
Drive Rescue are based in Dublin, Ireland and offer a complete Samsung SSD data recovery service for disks such as the EV0 840, 850, 860, PM863, PM863a, PM883, SM843T, MZ-7WD240HCFV, MZ-7WD480N and MZ-7WD4800.