First off, thanks for this great thread. This is easily the most informative stuff I've found about the BAD_CTX error on the internet so far (at least as far as self-fixing goes).
I have recently encountered the same error with the code 00000150 in one of my 320 series and am thinking about investing in a PC-3000 Flash SSD Edition since I work with multiple SSDs and could imagine having to use it again in the future. Sadly, the company website says nothing about the price, or whether they ship outside of the U.S. Does anyone have some info on that?

you just contact them for a quote.

Didn't think there'd be a "quote", since it's a single package with a fixed list of items, but allright then.
Also, @bubaleh: Is your offer to fix drives still valid? I'd write you a PM but the forum system doesn't let me without a certain number of posts.

I didnt strictly mean a quote, I could have said "You contact them telling them you want to buy, and find out what you have to do to make that happen."
the "order now" page is what I believe the first contact is, though I also hate not seeing a price on the website of companies, normally I choose a different company if possible, as I dont want to wait to be able to compare all relevant data about a product.

If a company does not tell you a price, they have a reason. Usually that reason is no in the consumer interest, but their own.

To Knicklicht: My offer was not to fix the drive but to recover the data. So the offer is - you present me this drive and i recover you data. In the case i cant recover the data, i will bring your drive back, of course
I will send you pm with my contacts.

Considering that a clean wipe restores the drive, it seems like a software issue? If yes, is there a solution available? Any update? Data is important but cost of recovery services are prohibitive at the moment.

Thanks.

Yes, there is now an official solution at Ace Lab, but this is NOT DIY ! So, not that important...

If I were you and data is really important, I'll wait until I got enough money...

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Lemmy

I disagree that it is informative as far as self fixing goes, unless you include buying ACE, or get additional info from another user by PM.

Good to know it is recoverable from though.

Take note that you need to use both PC3K UDMA+DE+PC3K-Flash in order to work with SSD...it is very slow and locks use of those tools for the several weeks to complete the project.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

I do not keep an eye on the news about similar software, but I doubt that.
When you see things like Serial Number: BAD_CTX 00000136 or BAD_CTX 00000130 or BAD_CTX 0000015A, etc. it means either a translator problem or a problem interpreted as a translator one.
You need to enter the technological mode to work with the drive. SSDs and related technologies are booming and developing rapidly, but for now I haven't heard about possibilities to do that at home without losing the data.



Then wait and earn some money for recovery. Price isn't stratospheric, but at the same time it isn't dirt cheap, because besides skills and equipment it requires time.


I'll double what lcoughey said:
120 GB Intel SSD with failed translator we've had recently took about three weeks to have the data recovered because utility keeps translator in memory and performs all the transformations on a software level.

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• Remote RAID, NAS, SAN, VMware, DVR (CCTV), flash and tape recovery. Data recovery support.

There is a lab in Czech (Europe), they can recover data from Intel 320 SSD with BAD_CTX issue, price is around 600EUR. http://www.data112.cz/clanky/100-uspesn ... 20-series/

Quite few things have changed for the good since May...

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

I just experienced the Intel firmware bug on an old machine used for email. I have come to accept the data is gone but since I see it is recoverable I am taking this on as a challenge. Intel's secure erase can repair the drive, but I'm really not worried about the drive since it is so old I could replace it with a better, cheaper model. I'm more looking to get the data back. I've heard I could us PC 3000, but my DOS version doesn't seem to be able to repair it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

What?
You need PC3K SSD edition.

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

Do you know where I could get a copy of PC3K SSD? I emailed the company but didn't get a response.

Why not pay the fee hundred bucks for a lab to recover your files, rather than ten grand for a tool that is not as simple as you think?

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

I didn't know it was ten grand! lol! I was just interested in a challenge since I felt it was strange that it is possible to recover the data yet intel's only solution was to wipe the drive. The data isn't worth the fee to recover. Are there any other tools I could use? I'm not sure how low a level is needed to recover this drive. Winhex maybe?

Need to be able to access the firmware on the drive and no traditional tool can do that. Your only realistic option is a professional with the right tool.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

This is your lucky day.
One of our employees is doing a thesis which involves analysis of various firmware problems on different manufacturers and Intel's BAD_CTX is one of them.
If you're willing to pay shipping back and forth we'll recover it for free.
You will have to leave your drive with us too.
Let me know if you're interested

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