formatted Samsung SSD twice. Is data recoverable?

[whatifwe]

Hi, I wanted to ask if data is recoverable from a formatted Samsung SSD drive from a macbook pro 2014. It's been formatted twice but never overwritten. I asked a couple of businesses and the answer has been negative. What do you think?
Thank you.

[Lardman]

Nope - Trim and garbage collection.

You can check by opening the drive in a hex editor and confirming it's largely full of 00.

[whatifwe]

no hope at all?

[Lardman]

You can check by opening the drive in a hex editor and confirming it's largely full of 00.

[fzabkar]

Launch DMDE.

https://dmde.com/

Select your physical device and then OK.

Check the Advanced box. You will see your hexadecimal/text sector data on the right.

Drag the vertical scrollbar from LBA 0 all the way down to the end of the drive. If you see mostly zeros, then your data are gone.

[whatifwe]

Launch DMDE.

https://dmde.com/

Select your physical device and then OK.

Check the Advanced box. You will see your hexadecimal/text sector data on the right.

Drag the vertical scrollbar from LBA 0 all the way down to the end of the drive. If you see mostly zeros, then your data are gone.

How about Disk Drill?

[fzabkar]

Do you think Disk Drill can turn zeros into data? That would be the holy grail of data recovery.

[whatifwe]

Launch DMDE.

https://dmde.com/

Select your physical device and then OK.

Check the Advanced box. You will see your hexadecimal/text sector data on the right.

Drag the vertical scrollbar from LBA 0 all the way down to the end of the drive. If you see mostly zeros, then your data are gone.

Is it a program that even non experts can use? Or it's mainly for professionals?

[fzabkar]

You could have already answered your own question.

[northwind]

mate, fzabkar has given you so simplified yet detailed guidance what to do, you don't even have to be 'non expert' to follow it. You just need to own a computer and have a web browser.
My son could do it, and he's 2.

[whatifwe]

Has the TRIM function been enabled for sure you all say?

[whatifwe]

Since when the TRIM function was enabled on macbooks. I checked mine now and it is activated and I wonder if it was enabled a few years ago when a different OS was in place.

[northwind]

TRIM is drive-relevant, not OS relevant.
So, since most SSDs have TRIM enabled, if your computer has an SSD installed, TRIM is there.
And then, when you format it, TRIM detonates and you end up seeing 00's.

Did you see 00's all over the place?

[Arch Stanton]

Launch DMDE.


How about Disk Drill?

[sflx]

I think you'll need to desolder nand chips and read them directly to be sure everything was trimmed off. Even reading all zeroes might be a result of unmapped sectors.
You can be pretty sure the data is gone only If that drive was secure erased. Otherwise, a tiny possibility to recover the data is still there.

[whatifwe]

I think you'll need to desolder nand chips and read them directly to be sure everything was trimmed off. Even reading all zeroes might be a result of unmapped sectors.
You can be pretty sure the data is gone only If that drive was secure erased. Otherwise, a tiny possibility to recover the data is still there.

Do you know of anyone who uses this method?

[whatifwe]

I think you'll need to desolder nand chips and read them directly to be sure everything was trimmed off. Even reading all zeroes might be a result of unmapped sectors.
You can be pretty sure the data is gone only If that drive was secure erased. Otherwise, a tiny possibility to recover the data is still there.

Do you know of anyone who uses this method?

Anyone?

[Lardman]

Anyone?

No one does this to mac's it's just not applicable. sflx is confusing other types of nand recovery.

[Amelia]

Hi,
What sort of formatting you have done. There are two types of formatting quick formatting and Full formatting.
Quick format
NTFS & FAT32 are the two most popular file systems formats that are widely used. When you ‘Quick Format’ a drive (which is the default selected option), it only replaces the existing file system table (directory table) or index with a new one. It doesn’t actually destroy the data on the drive. Thus, the data from a quick formatted drive can be recovered with the help of a data recovery tool.
Full Format
Unlike Quick Formatting, Full Format erases the data (overwrites existing data with zeros), rebuilds the file structure, and also scans the hard drive to check if everything is working fine. It basically scrubs the hard drive from scratch. It also repairs the soft bad sectors and marks hard bad sectors (caused by physical damage). As a result, full format takes much longer to format your hard drive or other storage devices.

Can you please tell me you have done quick format or full format. If you have done quick format then you can recover your lost data, but if you have full format then chances is low.

[NikolayIslentev]

Amelia, That's not how SSDs work.