Current state of SSD recovery?

Diggs

Diggs

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Could only find threads that were 2-3 years old......

I have a failed combo SSD (Seagate 500 GB - 8GB FLASH with standard SATA drive). Windows can see the two partitions and eventually asks to format (- not only no, but hell no!) Linux doesn't see the drive at all but maybe I'm not being patient enough and I haven't tried it with an eSATA dock yet. If I mount it in a USB dock, it just beeps for awhile and eventually goes silent. Let me dig around for my stethoscope and see if the drive is even turning. I'm not sure where to go with this.
 
Agreed @Larry Sabo and that is what I need to find out. I guess I meant to ask is how recoverable are SSDs and is customer data usually kept on the platters where recovery may be more easily done with this type of hybred? Guess I should give a shout out to @lcoughey for some insight.
 
I believe it's very recoverable, with the right equipment. I haven't tried it with a hybrid drive, although I was reading just this morning of the detailed steps involved. The data is on the platters but you can't get to the platters because of the corrupted cache. Luke could do it, for sure (assuming it's what I think it is).
 
I assumed the ssd cache on a hybrid drive was simply a copy of the data, am i incorrect? does it actually remove the data from the reg drive while its in the ssd cache?
 
First off, stop powering on the drive. Every time you power it on your chance of recovery is dropping.

SSHDs are different than traditional HDDs in that they will pretty much always show full ID and capacity in BIOS/UEFI even when they are totally failed. It's just reading the ID from the SSD portion.

Recovery from SSHDs is pretty much the same as for hard drives in most cases, unless the PCB which includes the SSD is the issue. However, if it's ID'ing and beeping, then your issue is definitely inside the hard drive portion. If it's just head stuck (not actually spinning up) and the heads can be safely freed up, we'd charge $450 for the recovery. If the heads have failed then it'd be $650 plus the cost of part (read/write heads donor). That's all assuming the PCB is fine, which it almost certainly is.
 
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If the drive truly beeps, then likely the SSHD has a mechanical failure. Obviously pro help is the best route. Further powering on and tinkering will cause more damage, increasing the number of bad sectors, causing more firmware damage, etc, and, well, increasing the quote.
 
I haven't powered it up since the beginning of this thread to confirm the platters were not spinning. Discussed with the client and am waiting for an answer.
Appreciate the input.
 
ComputerRepairTech said:
I assumed the ssd cache on a hybrid drive was simply a copy of the data, am i incorrect? does it actually remove the data from the reg drive while its in the ssd cache?
Click to expand...
The cache SSD part holds a partial amount of data from the platter, in theory, the most used files, with the goal to decrease the delay in file availability based on user's use.
 
Diggs said:
I haven't powered it up since the beginning of this thread to confirm the platters were not spinning. Discussed with the client and am waiting for an answer.
Appreciate the input.
Click to expand...
You are welcome.
You have very good options in lcoughey, data-medics, us (see my signature) if preferring any of us closer over the expensive big guys in your state.
 
These fusion drives may actually have the OS plus extra stuff on the SSD. A lot depends on how it's actually configured. Some will span the SSD and spindle. Others the SSD part is invisible to normal techniques. I've seen some comment that the two are RAID 1. If they want to spend money then, as mentioned, talk to pro's around here. If it's a fishing expedition then have at it.

It is interesting that M$ sees two partitions but Linux sees nothing. Did you try booting from something like partedmagic? I'd see if R-Studio in Windoze can actually scan both partitions. Have you researched the particular model number to see how it's configured?
 
Markverhyden said:
It is interesting that M$ sees two partitions but Linux sees nothing. Did you try booting from something like partedmagic? I'd see if R-Studio in Windoze can actually scan both partitions. Have you researched the particular model number to see how it's configured?
Click to expand...

I didn't push things any further (not knowing how valuable the data is to the customer) until discussing with the customer and he is still "thinking" about it. He mentioned he sees the drive in Windows as two separate partitions C: and D: and he can choose where to put his stuff. He stated all his data is on D: (the platters) while the OS is on C:.

Since the platters aren't spinning I figured there is no sense pushing the drive.
 
labtech said:
The cache SSD part holds a partial amount of data from the platter, in theory, the most used files, with the goal to decrease the delay in file availability based on user's use.
Click to expand...

I know but the data thats on the SSD is a copy of the data from the platter isnt it? I mean recovery wise if you manage to recover all the data from the platters you won't be missing out on data if you can't access the ssd portion right? Thats how I always assumed it worked.
 
The SSHD drives can be pretty tricky to recover in some cases. You definitely want to use a outsource to a data recovery pro that you trust.
 
Markverhyden said:
These fusion drives may actually have the OS plus extra stuff on the SSD. A lot depends on how it's actually configured. Some will span the SSD and spindle. Others the SSD part is invisible to normal techniques. I've seen some comment that the two are RAID 1. If they want to spend money then, as mentioned, talk to pro's around here. If it's a fishing expedition then have at it.

It is interesting that M$ sees two partitions but Linux sees nothing. Did you try booting from something like partedmagic? I'd see if R-Studio in Windoze can actually scan both partitions. Have you researched the particular model number to see how it's configured?
Click to expand...

The SSD part is just a cache really. It's not in any sort of RAID or span configuration at all. All data is stored on the platters. The SSD part just keeps a cached second copy of blocks of sectors that are frequently accessed for faster access w/o having to read the platters for those. Over time it switches in/out which blocks it considers the frequent ones based on usage. It also houses a write cache for faster writes, which can later be written to the platters during idle time. The whole process is completely handled by the drive and the OS is oblivious to it.

The tricky part with recovery really comes down to when the SSD malfunctions and the drive is trying to read from there instead of just letting you access the data on the platters. It's still a learning process for handling these cases even for those in pro data recovery. For some drives we already have solutions to disable the NAND completely, while others are still works in progress.
 
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