Has your computer, laptop or Mac stopped seeing an SSD altogether? The reassuring part is that the flash memory inside still holds your data. Firmware repair, or a chip-level read — whichever it needs, we do it on site.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/nvme0 → Device: Samsung 970 EVO · 1 TB · NVMe → Status: NOT DETECTED — controller failure → Client: confidential · Godalming, Surrey $ bdr engineer-working → NAND read: chip-off · raw flash dumped → Reconstruction: wear-levelling + ECC resolved → Imaging: 0.91 TB / 1.00 TB (91%) $ bdr verify → ✓ documents — 71,440 files → ✓ photos — 44,900 files → ✓ data reconstructed — recovered
Repeatedly plugging a dropped-offline SSD in and out can deepen a controller or firmware fault that was still recoverable. Keep repair and formatting tools away from it, and don’t try a firmware update — any of those can overwrite the mapping data we rely on. Unplug it and talk to us.
An SSD has no moving parts, unlike a hard drive — so when it disappears, the fault is electronic. These are the ones we see, and reverse, most.
Solid-state drives from every major manufacturer come through here for recovery. If your data lives on NAND flash, chances are we can help.
M.2 SATA and NVMe · 2.5" SATA · PCIe and mSATA · portable, external and internal · from the earliest SATA SSDs up to today’s high-capacity NVMe drives.
SSD recovery happens at controller, firmware and chip level. Once we have found the true fault, we either repair or bypass it, and your data is rebuilt off the flash — carefully, and in a set sequence.
Drop the SSD in or post it over. We work out whether the fault is controller, firmware, NAND or connection, then send a written quote — usually inside 48 hours.
First to be ruled out are the cable and port; with an external or portable SSD we go around the USB bridge and test the bare drive on its own.
Where the controller can be reached, specialist tools bring the SSD up in a safe mode so its firmware and mapping tables can be repaired.
Where the controller has died, the flash chips are lifted off and read directly on specialist NAND equipment.
The controller’s scrambling, error correction and wear-levelling are all unwound so your files can be rebuilt out of the raw flash.
Your data is extracted, checked against a file listing, and returned on fresh media.
Your data comes back on an external drive by insured post, or — for up to 75GB of it — as a free download.
Failed SSDs recovered at controller, firmware and chip level on site — repairing the firmware, or lifting the NAND to rebuild your data directly off the raw flash.
Tell us about your SSD and we’ll get back to you, usually within half an hour during the working day.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
No surprise charges and no pressure — a free diagnostic and a written quote come before any work starts.
A few recent SSD recoveries, all handled in-house. Identifying details removed, every result checked.
Its controller had failed completely. We lifted and read the NAND chips, rebuilt the data from the raw flash, and got most of the volume back.
A power loss had corrupted the mapping tables. Repairing the firmware at controller level and rebuilding the translator brought everything back.
The internal controller had gone. We took the drive down to chip level and rebuilt everything straight from the flash.
Send the device in for its free diagnostic and tell us briefly what happened; an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before anything starts.
Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
What people ask us most about SSDs the computer won’t detect or recognise.
Most of the time an SSD vanishes because its controller chip or firmware — the part that manages access to the flash — has failed. Your data, though, remains on the memory chips, so a drive that refuses to appear at all is often perfectly recoverable.
Usually, yes — it is simply more specialist than a hard drive. The firmware gets repaired where that is possible; where the controller is beyond help, the flash chips are read straight off the board and your files rebuilt from what is on them.
Usually not. Yes, a sudden power loss can scramble the SSD’s mapping tables and knock it off the system — but the data stays on the flash regardless. A firmware repair, then a rebuild of those tables, restores both the drive and your files.
It is what we turn to once a controller has failed outright: the NAND flash chips are physically removed from the board and read on specialist equipment, and your data is then reconstructed from the raw flash. Few recoveries we do are more advanced.
It can. On many SSDs TRIM permanently erases deleted data, and hardware encryption can make chip-level work harder. We will always give you an honest read at the diagnostic on what is realistically recoverable in your particular case.
Often it isn’t the drive at all. On external and portable units the enclosure, or the USB bridge inside it, tends to be the actual fault rather than the SSD. Wiring the bare drive in directly tells us which — and should the SSD truly have failed, controller-level or chip-level work takes over.
£300 + VAT is the flat price. The written diagnostic is free, and most jobs are no fix, no fee. Where a chip-off recovery is complex it may need a higher quote, and that always goes to you in writing before work starts.
Once you approve the quote, most SSD recoveries are finished inside three to four working days, though chip-off reconstruction can run longer. The diagnostic on its own is usually done within 48 hours.
Every major maker — Samsung, Crucial and SanDisk, plus WD, Kingston, Corsair, Seagate and ADATA, on through Micron, Intel, Sabrent, SK Hynix, Transcend, PNY, Lexar, Kioxia, Silicon Power, Team Group, OWC and Patriot — spanning 2.5-inch SATA, M.2 in both SATA and NVMe, mSATA, and external or portable units.
Either drop it at our Guildford point on a weekday between 9am and 5:30pm, or post it fully insured. Package it well and slip your details inside — name, address, phone and email — so it can be booked in. The free diagnostic starts once it lands, and a written quote follows before any work.
It is the same family, split across two tiers. Where the drive is absent in Explorer or Finder yet still listed by Disk Management or Disk Utility, you are usually looking at a drive-letter, initialisation or file-system issue — fixable with care. If it is missing from the BIOS entirely, that is the controller-level failure this page covers — the machine can’t even enumerate it, and reaching the data takes firmware work and and getting at the data calls for firmware work and chip-level reads back on our bench.
Controller, firmware and chip-level recovery, all in-house, a free written diagnostic to open, and no fix no fee on most jobs. Begin your recovery today.