LOGICAL or FILE SYTEM ISSUES – SSD Data Recovery begins with creating an image or mirror of the entire SSD onto a target hard drive. If this is not possible, the SSD must have PHYSICAL problems and this must be addressed first, see below. Assuming we have been able to obtain an image of the SSD, we would than use our standard and time proven utilities to automatically and sometimes manually discover what critical file system structures are damaged. We would then proceed to repair the damaged structures, whether physically on our image, or virtually using specialized software.

PHYSICAL ISSUES – SSD Data Recovery where the SSD or Solid State Drive is defective is one of the most time consuming and complicated recovery scenarios we encounter. In these cases we typically must remove each memory chip physically from the solid state device. Once the individual memory chips are removed we use a memory chip programmer/reader to dump the memory contents to another storage device where we can then analyze and reconstruct the data to a useable form. There can easily be 16 or more memory chips and the schemes used internally by each device’s controller to manage the flash memory are very complicated and unique. The controller attempts to equalize the writing of data across all the memory devices and at the same time avoid using areas previously found defective. Most Solid State Drives use RAID like striping techniques to store and access data much faster than sequential methods. SSDs may also use RAID redundancy techniques to further ensure the integrity of the data. To determine the striping scheme across dozens of memory chips and to put the data back together in a useable format is a challenge equal to or greater than the most complicated RAID array.