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EDR / Specialist / Samsung SSD recovery

Specialist · Samsung SSD recovery

Exeter Samsung SSD recovery. First it slows, then it's gone; your data is usually still in the chips.

No noise, no beeps: an SSD just fails in silence. An 870 EVO in an Exeter office fails at the BIOS level in mid-afternoon. A T7 fails to mount. A previously working drive suddenly displays "0MB" after many years. In almost every case, the flash memory (NAND) is good and all data are present, but the flash controller or its firmware has locked up. Accessing the contents is bench work and will require using programmer hardware, which cannot be done by an application running on the same machine.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Free diagnosis and a written quote Get a quote first, then post from anywhere in Devon

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What a Samsung SSD's symptoms are telling you.

Not there? Head for the triage →
What's wrongWhat it usually meansStep one
This was an active drive when it went missing, and it won't come backIt's either a controller lockup or just plain old wear on the NAND (classic problems for both the 860 and 870 series of EVO drives).Power down; we can do the testing from here. This is bench time.
It's been detected, but it reports 0MB capacity.The firmware has entered a safe mode protecting your data.We'd need to get inside the firmware level.
Unfortunately, the T7 was dropped and the USB-C port snapped off.There is damage to the connector area (not to the actual memory). In most cases, there is no harm done to the memory itself.High chances that your data will be recovered
Files are hanging, it's getting slower and freezing at randomIt's at the start of a cycle of slow-downs before it stops entirely, due to worn-out cells that cause retriesImage it before it completely fails to read anything
Can deleted files be recovered from an SSD?TRIM deletes the freed space on your SSD within minutes. Honestly, the answer is often no.Do not use this unit. Talk to us after you've stopped.
You are being told by Samsung Magician that your drive is failing.Magician determines the diagnosis: it can't get the information back after you've lost accessCopy your files off now, and go ahead and skip the re-tests
Posting it to us: get a quote first, by phone or with the form, then please use a traceable (tracked) and insured postal delivery method to send your device to our intake lab in Bristol; the return is paid for by us. Alternatively you can drop your item off there yourself, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, with no appointment needed. An engineer will talk you through how to pack your unit when you call to obtain the quote. More information about sending your items can be found on the contact page.

The Samsung line-up, as it reaches the bench.

860 & 870 EVOA pair of SATA workhorses which have been found in many a laptop and desktop computer. In typical fashion they perform well for many years and then all of a sudden either develop locked firmware or wear out their NAND storage, causing the BIOS to no longer show the device. Fortunately the data is generally intact, but the device is now unusable due to the lock-up.
T5, T7 and T9 portablesQuick and reliable Samsung pocket drives; however, a bump, a broken USB-C connector or corruption within the controller will stop these from mounting. The internal flash memory should be able to survive these issues, although a password-protected device needs that password to be entered prior to beginning recovery operations.
970, 980 and 990 NVMeThose M.2 sticks found in gaming systems and ultra-portable laptops. Same for NVMe speeds: the controller stops talking back (and the system boots up fine without those sticks).
Magician, TRIM and encryptionThree honest boundaries. Magician tracks the drive and keeps it current, however it does not recover anything. Also, the TRIM command means that deleted files are generally destroyed in a matter of minutes. And, since the portable units use hardware encryption, without the password there's absolutely no way to obtain your data, regardless of who may be receiving the unit.

The recovery, one stage at a time.

01

Booked in, assessed for nothing Free

Your device will be logged under its own case number on the day it comes into our lab. The engineer who works on your device identifies the problem with it, clearly states what we think has a good chance of coming back and provides you with one fixed quote. There are no charges for this assessment; there is no obligation for you to do anything; and paid work does not begin until you authorise us to start.

The look is freeA single quote, in writingNo obligation
02

Find where the failure lives

The drive comes off USB and goes straight into a native SATA or NVMe system so the controller can be questioned directly, distinguishing between locked firmware, worn NAND or a broken connector. Something a standard PC can't do.

Controller read on the bench rigThe precise fault pinned down
03

Get past the locked controller

Firmware failures can be circumvented through the service mode of the controller, but when this does not succeed, the NAND flash memory will be read a single chip at a time and rebuilt. For a hardware-encrypted T-series, you need your password before any lab can do any work.

Locked firmware reopenedPassword applied if encrypted
04

Copy everything the flash yields

After obtaining access it may not remain as such, therefore lab imaging runs gently: cool, short sessions. Weak cells will be revisited patiently. The freshest copy will be banked at each step prior to asking for more from the drive.

Flash imaged in short passesWeakest blocks saved for last
05

Watched back, verified, returned

You have access to a complete list of every item recovered from your device, which you approve prior to any fees being applied. The files will be returned via new media (brand new) with the return postage paid by us, and the case remains open for as long as it takes to confirm that all the files open properly on your own machine.

You approve the file listReturned on new mediaWe pay return postage

Opening checks at the bench

  • A 'dead' Samsung is usually locked, not empty: an 860 or 870 EVO that drops off the bus has usually had its firmware seize mid-housekeeping. Everything is still stored in the NAND flash memory. The work is unblocking the route.
  • TRIM changes the deletion story: empty your recycle bin, and the SSD will be cleaning out those blocks in just a few minutes. The undeletion software that really shines on spinning media is all but useless here; better you hear it now.
  • T5, T7 and T9 live in pockets: cracked USB-C ports and drop damage (both of which usually leave the flash alone) make up most of their casebook. Password-locked ones remain locked until the correct password is entered, regardless of whether or not this is done by a lab.
  • Samsung Magician is a temperature gauge, not a treatment: it shows the state of the drive's health, allows you to update the firmware, and runs benchmark tests. What it does not allow is for data to be retrieved from a drive that is no longer responding; no downloads can.

Why Samsung's failures all fall into one pattern: these are quality drives, which is why so many show up as being the only copy in existence for their owner; they were trusted enough by the owner to never make a back-up. The two ways we've seen Samsung fail are when the NAND has worn to the point where the firmware can't manage it anymore, and when controllers simply lock up with no warning. In both cases, all of your installed software won't be able to fix anything, because the data on the chip(s) is still there but invisible to the computer; therefore, there is no 'drive' that you can point your new software at. Access comes from beneath: service-mode commands, controller work, or reading the NAND raw.

Fresh from the casebook.

EX · EDR-2026-2841VERIFIED ✓

The 870 EVO that vanished overnight — with the accounts on board

It had been working fine for years when, one morning, the laptop suddenly failed to boot, with an error indicating a missing drive. We placed the drive on a bench rig. The controller responded correctly to service-mode commands. After stepping past the firmware lock-up, we used short, cool sessions (slower where the cells were weak) to image the flash. All of the data from the original bookkeeping remained intact; all files and directories were still there.

100% imaged3 days in the lab

Before it leaves your hands.

Do

  • Take note of what last happened: it vanished, froze, or is showing as 0MB
  • You will need your password for this if your portable was encrypted
  • Turn it off and keep it off
  • Get a quote first, before posting a T-series with its original cable

Steer clear

  • Flash the firmware on it in the hope that you may be able to revive it
  • Continue power-cycling a dead disk to see whether it shows up again
  • Allow full tests (benchmarks) or full scans to continue chewing away at a weak disk
  • Open up a T7 so you can get at the circuit board inside

Straight answers from the bench.

My Samsung SSD has vanished from the BIOS — what does that mean?

Almost always, the controller or its firmware has hung, which is the most common end to an 860 or 870 EVO. At this point the controller will no longer answer the host, therefore the BIOS will show you have no drive installed; however, all of the data in the NAND chips connected to the controller are still intact. Apps can't be run on a drive that the computer can't even "see"; we get control back over the drive in the lab using service-mode commands, or if those don't work, we read the chips directly. Shut it down now and let it stay shut down.

It's detected, but the capacity reads 0MB — is anything left?

Typically, everything. A Samsung showing 0MB has dropped into a safe state: the firmware crashed in the middle of housekeeping and now boots just far enough to tell you its model number, with no capacity behind it. The data remains intact beyond that barrier. Any formatting, initialising or re-flashing at this time will only compound additional problems onto existing ones: what your drive requires is firmware-level access on a bench rig, and as failure types go, the odds are generally favourable.

My T7 was password-protected — can you still recover it?

Yes, with the password. Your data is encrypted within the drive's own hardware; once the fault (usually a broken USB-C port or an unresponsive controller) has been resolved, your data will be opened as before by your password. No, without the password, and this is the same for all labs across the nation: there are no back doors to get into these portable drives. Once you have a quote, dig out the password prior to posting the drive, and let us know whether a password was ever created.

Can Samsung Magician repair the drive or fetch my files back?

No, and it never claims to. The Magician tool checks your drives for overall health (drive health) and provides benchmarking for performance, as well as firmware updates, but it does not have any form of recovery capability. Even worse than that, there are two things it could potentially do to a failing or otherwise problematic drive (run some additional diagnostic testing, which would cause additional stress to the drive, and reflash the firmware of the drive), and those are the exact last things you want to do to a failing drive. So if you see warning messages in the Magician tool, pull off anything that still opens, shut down, get a quote first and let a bench take over.

More like this in the casebook.

Internal disks → Clicking & beeping → Not detected → What we take in →

Whatever the fault, leave the power off.

Every time a failing hardware component is powered back up, there is additional lost data. First open a case with us: the inspection (look over) is always at no cost, whichever way it goes.

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