What Makes SSD Data Recovery Complex?

Summary: Are you using an SSD drive and wondering what makes it different from a traditional hard disk drive? What makes it different also makes data recovery from an SSD a complicated process. In this blog, we’ll try to understand what makes SSD data recovery complex and the possible solutions for SSD recovery. Get FREE Quote

Table of Content:

You will get to know in this article:

1. What is SSD?
2. Common Causes of Data Loss from SSD Or Flash Memory
3. Challenges in SSD Recovery
4. Case Study: Recovered Deleted Data From SSD
5. Solution for Solid State Drive Data Recovery

What is SSD?

Solid State Disks (SSD), also known as Solid State Drives, are storage devices like hard disk drives but laced with more advanced features. SSDs have increasingly been used in mobile phones, laptops, tablets, digital cameras, etc.

SSDs are more durable compared to HDDs. This is because HDDs consist of various moving parts/components (motor/spindle, read/write head, etc.) making them susceptible to shock and damage. SSDs use integrated flash memory assemblies (no moving components) for storing and accessing data. This is an added advantage making them more reliable, faster, lighter, and silent. The SSD also has a type of Non-Volatile Memory, i.e., it saves your data while the system is off or booting.

With nearly 30 years of development, SSD drives have become innovative and are now used in almost all media devices for storage purposes. Initially, these drives were developed for mobile platforms, but now they are widely used in other storage devices and have become the preferred alternative for hard disk drives.

However, even the SSDs are not perfect as they are prone to errors and failures. Since the SSDs don’t have moveable components, the risk of mechanical or hardware damage is eliminated. However, the user should not forget that the electronic components of the SSD can go bad. These drives can have a technical glitch from time to time leading to data loss.

Additional Reading: Recover Data from SSD which is Not Booting

Let’s look at some of the common causes of data loss from SSD

Common Causes of Data Loss from SSD Or Flash Memory

1. The Solid State Disks use a motionless technology called NAND that stores data in cells. Damage to flash chips is one reason for data loss in SSDs.
2. Except for mechanical failures, SSDs can suffer the same cause of data loss as traditional devices, such as hardware failure, human error, power surges, software corruption, physical disasters, etc.
3. Faulty physical parts in SSD can lead to malfunction or electronic failure and result in data loss.
4. Data corruption due to bad sectors, virus attacks, etc. can also cause the SSD drive to fail.
5. Damage to SSD via water damage or short circuits: Water can cause extensive damage to the solder joints leading to malfunction of the drive.
6. Although rare, sometimes a firmware upgrade can also cause SSD failure.
7. Data loss on SSD can also happen as a result of Controller failure.

Challenges in SSD Recovery:

Unlike hard disk drives, SSDs and Flash Memory have diverse challenges in terms of data recovery. SSDs have complex data structures that vary from individual brands to specialized controller chips and other SSD-specific parameters. Here are a few points that present a challenge for SSD recovery:

• Address line complexity
• Memory chip density
• Error correction code variables
• Encryption and Encoding variations

These make SSD data recovery a complex and time-consuming process.  And, only trained and experienced professionals can help you in recovering data from damaged/corrupt SSD.

Additional Reading: SSD vs HDD

Case Study: Recovered Deleted Data From SSD

Client: Company

Objective: Recovery of deleted data from an SSD laptop drive

Approach: Stellar Data Recovery was able to effectively recover the client’s data from the SSD.

Challenge Faced

• A 512 GB Samsung MZ-VLQ5120 SSD drive that belonged to the client has been deleted.
• The client was not able to access his personal data from the SSD.

Stellar Data Recovery’s Process

• Initial analysis revealed that the SSD was detecting partition showing.
• A deep examination by Stellar Data Recovery discovered that the client’s required data is available in deleted areas.
• After scanning the data, Stellar discovered that the majority of data is still functional.

Client Responses

The client was happy with Stellar Data Recovery’s service. The fact that their crucial personal files had been successfully restored made them happy. The data deletion from an SSD drive need not result in total data loss. By Stellar’s professional data recovery services, you can increase your chances of successfully recovering of your crucial files.

Solution for Solid State Drive Data Recovery

SSDs are normal electronic devices and there’s nothing magical about them. As the device ages, its components wear out and fail. Unlike the hard disk, SSDs don’t give out signals of damage, and when an SSD goes silent, it’s bad news.

TRIM in SSDs makes it worse. It functions to keep the data on an SSD organized and make it easily and quickly accessible. However, in addition to making the SSD faster, TRIM also deletes files in the process, making data recovery impossible.

SSD is an extremely powerful device that has enormous capacity, easy access, and fast performance. But recovering data from SSD is complex and it is required to be handled by experienced professionals. The SSD Data Recovery Cost varies from case to case.

SSD Data recovery is the last option when all tricks and formulas fail. To prevent sudden data loss due to SSD failure, we advise you to keep backups regularly.

Think Data, Think Stellar!