PNY CS900. What measurements are needed?

The drive is a PNY CS900 with a Phison controller (Not Sandforce). Is this better or worse for recovery?

note - pic of the pcb board is pending moderator approval.

According to this review ...

https://i2hard.ru/reviews/obzor-ssd-pny-cs900-120-gb.html

... the controller is a PHISON PS3111-S11.

This controller is not specifically listed here:

PC-3000 SSD. Phison Utility (05/30/2017):
http://blog.acelaboratory.com/pc-3000-ssd-phison-utility.html

... nor here:

PC-3000 SSD. List of supported SSD drives (regularly updated) v2.5.8:
http://blog.acelaboratory.com/pc-3000-ssd-list-of-supported-ssd-drives-regularly-updated.html

I expect that Ace will probably add support at some time, in which case any suitably equipped DR shop should be able to handle the job.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

According to the following URLs, the PS3111-S11 controller has no AES Support, ie no encryption:

http://www.phison.com/English/ICSpeed.asp?SortID=63
http://www.phison.com/English/newProductView.asp?ID=259&SortID=63

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

PS3111-S11 is new one form Phison. Assembler is not developed yet, but I think soon will be done. Data is not crypted.

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Flash Killer - everyday new resources (pinout, XOR, ECC,config) for flash devices

does the assembler allow access to the data on a SSD with a faulty controller?

if i sent this into ACE would they be able to recover the data? or do i have to wait for the assembler to be developed?

This page shows the shorting test points for safe mode:

http://new.qq.com/omn/20171219/20171219A0J1K0.html

If the SSD's controller is alive, it will identify as a PS3111 20MB.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

"Third party hosting has been temporarily disabled."

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Why not just add the image the normal way on the forum? seems clunky to upload to 3rd party first and you are "making a garden in someone elses backyard" and are at the whim of them

front of pcb board. when i plug the drive into a computer it install the drivers, but does not show up under My Computer. However, it does show in disk utility and is asking to be initialized (which i didn't of-course). This is what OnTrack DR told me:

They stated that the drive has "hardware failure" specifically "has faulty controller or NAND failure"

They also said "Raw Data Extraction from internal chips is not an option for this model" and that "We can’t pull the chipsets and image separate from the board so we don’t have an option "

Is the data still there? Can ACE recovery the data? Any est. on cost?

Are you accessing your SSD via a SATA port or via USB? What does CrystalDiskInfo say about the drive? (You can capture the output as text, to avoid moderation delays.)

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I used a usb to sata converter in an attempt access the drive on another computer. The drive is out of my hands now and on way to DR.

Ace says

The test results for your failed SSD storage are in and have shown that the device is physically damaged. There are missing SMT capacitors from the PCB wherein it looks like they were purposely removed. This has rendered the device completely dead. The quotation below is for repair and raw data dump and reassembly of the raw data into a logical format.

Why did OnTrack remove the capacitors from the PCB? If they didn't do this would the recovery be cheaper?

Ace wants $3,550. I thought it was going to be under 3g since the controller not encrypted (not a SandForce)?

How much to recover data if I wait for the assembler to be developed for this controller? Idea on cost? Would trying to recover with this assembler further degrade the data or recovery chances in anyway? Ty

Good grief! I have even less respect for the DR business now.

I would not let them do a "chip-off" without more investigation. I could help you carry out some basic tests. You would only need a US$5 digital multimeter.

I would need a photo of the other side of the PCB as well. If you have a CCD scanner (not CIS), that would be better than any camera.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

It is a Phison controller, nor a SandForce one ?

That brown material around the controller wouldn´t suggest that someone already tried to replace it ? Also, if this was tried, couldn´t what Ace calls removed capacitors to be just empty pads that were fluxed and messed with when attempting to replace the controller chip ?

without before / after pictures, it is difficult to say for certain what happened.

I would assume if it was easy to get at OnTrack would glady charge me the $1,000 estimate they gave for recovery. I don't want to do anything myself if it can jeopardize the data in any way. Maybe price will come down in future. I appreciate the work everyone does here and I hope the price is fair market value, but maybe I should wait to do the recovery years down the road and get it done for a cheaper price. I need to get at the data sometime, but I don't mind waiting.

Any thoughts? Advice? Thank you

Here is an example for comparison:

PNY CS900 240G:
https://www.pixpo.net/technology/0IHuoP6d.html
https://img1.pixpo.net/img/1e/d/0ihuopuywl/sg_0IHuoPuYwl.jpg (controller)
https://img1.pixpo.net/img/a7/c/0ihuopb2lh/sg_0IHuoPb2lh.jpg (flash)
https://img1.pixpo.net/img/ad/3/0ihuoplmxq/sg_0IHuoPlmXq.jpg (PCB - component side)

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

you've been here since 2009. appreciate the help! cheers

i know HD's come bad right out of the box, but this baby was only 3 or 4 months old. I bought 2 of them and the one for my buddy is running just fine. I got the bad one... I backup a ton all the time and was missing one file that I thought I had backed up. When my drive failed I was even happy that I was doing my backups, yet to find this one file not there : /

Doesnt look like anything is missing to me. match up with: http://ssd.zol.com.cn/673/6732205_all.html I can't see anywhere you state the capacity of the disk. Most SSD drives have a lot of unpopulated pads

probably Kroll just fluxed it and heated Controller to see if any balls might have been unsoldered, and might resolder. perfectly legitamate thing to try if you dont have support for regular DR tools or chip off. HIGHLY unlikely anyone that attempts SSD DR will replace a controller.

Whats under the sticker on the memory chip, is it Micron 3D NAND or Toshiba BiCS2 TLC?

I take it the other side of the board doesnt have much on it?

This controller supports compression, and in my experience make things a whole lot worse for DR.
When you see things like:
SmartECC
SmartFlush
SmartZip
Built in Static and Dynamic Wear levelling

the controller is doing so much with the data, unless it is working you are pretty much SOL

*edit, sorry had the post composed for so long, created a double up of Francs link.

Ace are saying that someone physically damaged your SSD, rendering it inoperable. If you didn't do this, then it must have been Ontrack. If they didn't do it, then Ace have misdiagnosed your drive. Who can you trust?

You need to understand the nature of data recovery. Very few, if any, players have any understanding of component level electronics. When these people were recovering HDDs, they either swapped PCBs outright, or transferred the ROM chip from patient to donor. Now these same people are applying this "skill" set to SSDs. Essentially this means that, in the event of a physical fault, their only remedy is "chip-off" recovery. Ask yourself, if Ace has determined that the "missing SMT capacitors" are the cause of your "dead" drive, did they attempt to replace these capacitors before deciding on a chip-off approach? If not, why not?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.