I have a PNY SSD that came back from data recovery deemed unrecoverable. https://www.krollontrack.com/

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 "

A few questions if anyone here would be kind and help me.

1. Is the data still there on the chips? Since they said "hardware failure"
2. Should I have another recovery company take a look?
3. In the future do you think there would be a way to overcome this hardware limitation that is present and find a way to read the raw data off the chipset without having to remove the chips?
4. Would 'baking' my ssd in the oven help fix this type of hardware issue? Some users have revived dead electronics, such as ssd's and graphic cards through the oven as last resort.

Thanks a bunch!! I need to do whatever it takes to get my data back off this drive

I've had some good luck with PNY SSDs (Sandforce SF-2281VB4-SPC controller) that are stuck at BSY.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Are you saying my drive is stuck at BSY? What does BSY stand for and do you think my data is still good?

What do you advise

I don't go as far as Northwind or ACE, but if my methods work, the cost is under $1000USD. I haven't tested Northwind, yet, but thus far, the only lab who has claimed that they can do SandForce SSDs that has actually done so with a case that I couldn't do was ACE. Ontrack, DriveSavers and Seagate all quoted like they could do it, even went so far as to say that they were working on it in their clean room and then eventually reported back that it is unrecoverable. The test case that was unrecoverable by DriveSavers is the test case that was 100% recovered by ACE.

Anyway, if your data is worth thousands of dollars and time is an issue, send it directly to ACE or Northwind. If you want to take a chance of time and the cost of shipping to see if I can pull a rabbit out the hat first, I'd be happy to give a try.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

It is based on the status registers and is more of a behind the scenes thing that data recovery professionals see when we are connecting drives to our equipment.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Thank you for the advice.

If you upload detailed photos of both sides of your PCB, I can help you measure the voltage test points. Sometimes the "hardware failure" is a lot less complex than others believe it to be.

BTW, "BSY" means that the drive is stuck in the BUSY state, possibly due to a firmware fault. I would expect that Ontrack would be able to distinguish between this kind of fault and a genuine hardware fault.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Yes, assuming NAND chips are OK, we can do it.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

1. Most probably yes
2. Definitely YES
3. You don't need future, it's possible now
4. NO, unless you want to say goodbye to your data.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Even if the controller is dead?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Depends on the controller itself. Sometimes it is possible.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

I think this article by Roman of Ace Labs will help shed some light on what is likely the root issue here.

So, when Ontrack is making their diagnosis about a "dead controller", what they are really saying is that the controller is stuck in a BSY state that cannot be bypassed through techno mode, thanks to Sandforce's extra layer of encryption. Most labs openly admit that they have no solution or work around for such cases, yet the larger labs with huge sales teams have sales reps who are trained to always say that they can recover from any situation, either hoping that they get lucky with an easy case or unaware that they don't actually have any in-house abilities to solve such cases.

I recently discovered a method which allowed me to work around the BSY issue on some SandForce based SSDs. When I went back through a bin of unrecoverable SandForce SSDs that clients left with us for R&D when they declined the prices of the labs who claim to do more, I was able to recover several of them, two of which were PNY (240GB and 480GB).
That said, in most cases where the Sandforce controller gets stuck in a BSY state, there is no alternative than to use a service who actually has real in-house methods to recover the data. Of the 4 labs here in North America who claim that they have special methods to recover SandForce SSDs, the only lab that was actually able to produce results in my test cases is ACE. I've heard from others that Northwind is equally as good and perhaps more affordable.

The next time I get a case that I cannot recover and the client is able/willing to pay the higher rate (which is justified by the complexity of what is needed to be done), I hope to send it off to Northwind.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

northwind,

if i sent you pics of the board could you tell me if data is recoverable?

what would your price quote be? i only need one text file

thanks

If you have Sandforece i must say this one file will be very very very expensive

_________________
Odzyskiwanie danych

Thanks Luke.
We'll do our best to not let you down.

I have to agree, some of the big guys have sale reps that will tell you anything just to get you to send in jobs. Most of them don't even know what "Controller" means, let alone what SF means.
Also, I have a feeling that indeed, when Ontrack says "dead controller" they could mean that it's just glitching to BSY.



Unfortunately I can't say anything by looking at pictures. We need to evaluate the drive, thus we need to have the drive in our hands in order to tell you more.
Also unfortunately, in order to recover even one single file off the drive we need to solve the issue with the drive, so the price remains the same.
And as arvika said, it's not cheap.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Are you able to PM me an estimate ? Any cost for evaluation?

Is there any data degradation on a SSD that is not in use? Like are the chances the same whether I do it today or lets say in 5 years.

I appreciate all of posts and advice from this community. These are some quality forums.

Cheers : )

@retrogamer, would you please indulge my curiosity by taking some photos and measurements? At least tell us the model number. I'm curious as to what Ontrack means by "hardware failure". I recall one thread in this forum where the failure was due to a shorted capacitor. The simple fix in that case was to remove it. You might be lucky.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

fzabkar is right.
Follow his advice and take some simple measurements. It won't harm you and you could be lucky. It's a long shot but you never know.

I will PM you with a price estimation.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

I can now personally vouch for Luke's (RecoveryForce) method for these PNY with Sandforce controller. He did one remotely for me where the SSD showed max lba 63 and no serial/model etc. and it worked like a charm.

So there's definitely a percentage of these that we can recover now.

_________________
Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company