While Samsung manufactures some of the fastest, best selling SSDs available, they also suffer from sudden failure similar to all other solid state devices. However, depending upon the type of failure, recovery may still be possible using specialised equipment and techniques that involve opening the SSD to perform chip level repairs.
A "bricked" Samsung solid-state drive (SSD) should still retain your files on the NAND. Avoid using the drive, do not attempt to re-format it or perform a firmware update and seek assistance for an expert diagnostic.
Samsung produces many of the top-rated and most popular SSDs available today (both on SATA and NVMe interfaces), including the 860 & 870 EVO, 970, 980 & 990 series, and the T5, T7 & T9 portable versions. What separates Samsung from nearly every other manufacturer in terms of recovery: while virtually every other manufacturer uses third-party designed controllers, Samsung designs its own controllers internally. Therefore, each Samsung SSD has a unique firmware structure and tends to follow its own failure pattern. To recover your data from a failed Samsung SSD you will require a tool developed specifically for Samsung. They are high-quality products; however, like all SSDs, they will generally fail electronically, leaving your data intact on the flash storage behind a dead controller.
Most faults that occur on Samsung SSDs can be grouped into several categories. In most cases, the flash memory and your data remain intact.
This represents one of the most common ways a Samsung SSD may die suddenly. It was working properly yesterday; today the BIOS cannot detect the drive at all. The V-NAND remains intact and retains your data; unfortunately, the controller responsible for reading and decoding your data is now dead, commonly due to a surge, overheating or faulty circuitry.
Following either a power loss event or after attempting to run a Samsung Magician software update, a Samsung SSD can appear as “Unknown”, indicate 0 bytes or simply disappear altogether. Your data remains intact; the firmware which communicates this information to you is broken.
Samsung's TLC & QLC flash memory will ultimately "die" after writing a certain number of times. Once you've written that many times (the manufacturer specifies this), your solid-state drive may build up bad blocks and go into a protective "read-only" mode.
The 970 EVO Plus and 980 PRO SSDs specifically produce a lot of heat when placed inside small enclosures. When a device produces too much heat for an extended period of time, it will damage the memory itself and place excessive stress on the controller.
Starting with the 850 series, all Samsung SSDs come encrypted as standard. This encryption is managed through the controller. In the event that the controller fails, it may not be possible to obtain the key used to unlock your data.
There are two major issues with Samsung SSDs that have become well-documented. First was the 840 EVO SSD which could experience slow reading speeds on files that had been untouched for several weeks due to the drifting charge in its TLC cells. Samsung then published an updated firmware package that refreshed the data. However, some older drives will continue to slow and, at some point, lose their data completely. Second, some versions of the first batch of 980 PRO SSDs experienced a serious bug that rapidly decreased the health rating from 100 per cent to 0 per cent in a matter of weeks. Afterwards, these SSDs either dropped into a permanent read-only state or simply disappeared entirely. Fortunately, Samsung has since made available an updated firmware version that prevents this issue on all current and previously unaffected drives, so it's worth checking yours is updated. Unfortunately, however, the update cannot revive a previously affected model, although a read-only drive can often still be read, and even a dead one usually has its data intact on the NAND.
On any type of SSD the danger comes with writing (writes); your goal should be to prevent any type of writing from taking place until it is safe.
If the drive still works, write down your model number and firmware version of the drives. In case of a 980 PRO, updating the firmware may be all that is needed to keep a healthy drive healthy.
Is this a power cut, a Magician update, did the drive gradually slow down, or did it just vanish into thin air? Each point will lead us to a different possible cause.
Send it by insured post or drop it off and we'll let you know if it is possible to recover the data before you spend a single penny!
Samsung provides their own controller technology; therefore, any type of Samsung specific work is done in-house by us. The method of recovering a Samsung drive varies depending on whether the controller is reachable/recoverable.
We identify where the problem lies (controller, firmware, NAND or encryption) so that you are given a definitive answer and a written, fixed price quotation first.
Using Samsung specific tools we go under what Magician or any other "consumer" tool will allow, to reach the controller level and build translation tables to read the surrounding data from the area of failure.
If the controller has died we restore the power parts on the board to bring back the original controller (this is what keeps your encryption key and decryptor active).
In cases when we cannot recover the original controller, we use our tools to directly access/decode/read the V-NAND memory and create it again. All items are imaged in read-only format and we provide a full file listing prior to completion.
Commonly asked questions regarding Samsung SSDs.
Typically not. This type of failure would be due to controller issues/firmware failure and the V-NAND and your data should still be good inside of it. We like to think of these types of failures as some of the easiest for us to restore, though (due to encryption) we work to revive the original controller instead of trying to extract each chip individually.
This is the known 980 PRO firmware bug. If your SSD is healthy, then you should download and install Samsung's current firmware immediately to prevent this from happening again. If your SSD has been rendered read-only, do not attempt to write to it. The majority of the time, even when an SSD is read-only, we are able to copy all or part of your files and assist you in recovering them.
Generally not: internal SSDs use TRIM. Once a file is deleted, TRIM deletes the associated blocks on the drive almost instantaneously. In other words, generally speaking, once deleted, your deleted files no longer exist. However, if your entire SSD fails as opposed to deleting a single file, then your chances for successful recovery are greatly enhanced since your data remains on the flash.
It's the same type of flash and controller, in a USB-C case with a bridge chip that could also become overheated and fail. We will go around the bridge and access your SSD directly. If it is a T7 Touch with a lost password, however, your hardware encryption will prohibit us from successfully recovering your data.
Prices begin at £300 + VAT. There is no charge for diagnostics. In most cases, you would only pay if we recover your data. When it comes to jobs that require chip-level repair service, we would need a 50% down payment towards the cost of the specialised bench time and the remainder only upon successful recovery of your data.
Regardless of whether your drive has vanished from the BIOS or been set to read-only status, stop using it now and send it in: we will use our Samsung-specific tools to troubleshoot it for free and give you an honest assessment as to what may be recovered.