I received this unresponsive Samsung 850 Pro as a mail-in for our SSD data recovery service. The client mailed the 512GB solid state drive in from Michigan to my lab here in Kansas. They needed the data from the hard drive, but it was not mounting on their computer at all. In fact, the computer would not recognize the SSD when connected.
The client had already tried connecting the drive to other computers and had troubleshot the issue until they were certain the drive itself was the issue.
The customer had discussed their Samsung 850 Pro with other recovery companies before deciding on us to attempt the recovery. They liked our affordable flat rate recovery service as well as the fact I was able to discuss what the issue might be for this particular Samsung SSD data recovery.
Firmware Samsung SSD Data Recovery
The problem with this drive ended up being a firmware-based issue. These Samsung 850 PRO drives have a common firmware issue that you can address using the PC-3000 by ACE Laboratories. Thanks to the options offered by the PC-3000, I have been able to recover quite a few of these Samsung SSDs that are not responding. Unfortunately, the very popular Samsung EVO series also have firmware issues but are still not supported by the PC-3000 at this time. Hopefully, the tools necessary to recover the EVO drives will be available soon.
Rebuilding the translator
For this drive, the first step in the data recovery process was to connect the proper points on the PCB to the terminal adapter. Then I had to short a couple of pins on the PCB as part of the process of rebuilding the translator. Once that rebuild was complete, I had access to the data on the drive.
As with all data recoveries, you want to complete an image of the drive rather than accessing the data on the drive with a computer, even after the drive is working again.
Imaging the Samsung SSD
Imaging this solid state drive was completed without any issues and I was able to get 100% of the data recovered on this project. These drives are quite fast, so the imaging process didn’t take long at all. A single pass was all that was needed so it was done in just a few hours with the imaging stage.
The important data was Thunderbird email archives. It is not super common that we get asked to recover Thunderbird archives, but in this case, the files were fully intact and the client was pleased to get the information back. While those email archives were the only files the client didn’t have a backup of, I still went ahead and recovered all the data on the drive. It is safer to get back more than needed than realize there was another file that is needed after the recovery process is complete.
SSD data recovery service available nationwide
While we are physically located in Kansas, we provide data recovery all over the country via our mail-in recovery service. Our affordable Samsung SSD data recovery service is covered under our Standard pricing tier. If you have a Samsung SSD, or any hard drive, that you need to get the data off of, please contact me to ask any questions you have, or feel free to fill out my quote form and I will get back to you regarding your drive right away.
Drive info: Samsung SSD 850 PRO, 512GB, P/N: MZ7KE512HMHA, Model: MZ-7KE512, WWN: 50025388A078C7F0
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