A pocket SSD stopped being recognised — the flash was intact, reached by rebuilding the controller's map.
An external SSD that had turned unreadable after being unplugged mid-write, with a working photographer’s catalogue on it.
On our equipment the drive either failed to present at all or showed an invalid identity — the pattern of a controller fault. As with any solid-state device, the flash itself was most likely intact; the trouble was that the controller managing it had stopped responding properly, leaving the data unreachable through the normal interface.
Using the PC3000 we reached the controller in its technical mode, cleared the fault condition and read its internal structures. The translator — the table that maps the logical drive the computer sees onto the physical flash — had gone inconsistent, so we rebuilt it; with that corrected the drive's data became addressable again and we imaged it to a copy. A small number of flash blocks had worn beyond use, as happens on any working solid-state drive over time, which cost a little data at the margins.
From the image we rebuilt the file system and opened a representative spread of the libraries to check the files were whole, then wrote everything to fresh media.
We recovered the SSD's data — effectively all of the libraries — over five working days. Solid-state drives give very little warning before they fail, so they're best treated as fast working storage with a separate backup behind them, not as the only copy of anything irreplaceable.
PC3000 — imaging and recovery carried out in-house. Every job is imaged before any recovery work begins, and the original media is never written to.
Send us your device for a free diagnostic, and tell us a little about what happened — an engineer will review it and confirm your exact quote in writing before any work begins.
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. For anything urgent, call 0191 406 1051.
Yes. When the controller fails the flash is usually intact — we reach it with the PC3000 or by reading the NAND chip directly, then rebuild the data.
USB sticks and memory cards are from £250 plus VAT, and portable SSDs from £300 plus VAT. No fix, no fee on most jobs.
No. That usually means the controller has lost its tables, not that the data is gone. Do not format it — bring it in.
Start with an instant online quote, or call and talk it through with us first. You'll have a clear, fixed price before any work begins.