Solid-state drives are becoming significantly popular, becoming a full-fledged replacement for HDDs. They are used as drives for storing OS, applications, and user files. From a technical standpoint, an SSD contains no moving parts and is less prone to failure. Instead of a hard drive, they have multiple flash memory chips embedded in a metal case.
With few internal components, an SSD is a lightweight, compact and integral storage device with significantly faster read and write speeds. A characteristic feature of the SSD is TRIM – an ATA interface command that forces the drive to clean up data blocks that store deleted information physically.
However, the issues and management required for an SSD are no less than for an HDD. We must not forget that the life of the SSD is less than that of the HDD. The lifetime of a solid-state drive is determined by the number of read/write operations.
Solid-State Drive Failures
Regarding data loss situations with SSDs, it is no different from the typical scenarios where data loss usually occurs. Users inadvertently lose or delete their essential files. The internal and external factors leading to data loss are the same on solid-state drives as on hard disk drives.
The system may crash during the boot process but works fine after pressing the reset button several times. Then the SSD drive failed. It could be bad sectors or a sign of a dying disk. Therefore, it is best to back up the data before something goes wrong.
Compared with SSD, HDD has its advantages: when files are deleted from the disk, the previously occupied space is marked as free and filled when necessary, which means that stored data is saved until overwritten.
When deleting content from an SSD drive, the TRIM command is used to physically clear blocks of data. Blocks that do not carry a payload are marked as unused and removed. This solution avoids a drop in the performance of write operations on solid-state media.
How to Secure Your SSD Hard Drive
All the steps you can take to save the correct information before data loss will be much more effective than after it.
The first is the standard SMART tool, commonly used to determine the wear and tear of storage devices. SMART is a media self-monitoring system that helps identify wear and possible future failures. The drives, SMART, whose data showed a possible future loss, failed more often than the rest. Therefore, it is beneficial to check your drive with this tool.
Since it is impossible to predict a particular disk’s failure fully, it is always advisable to create several backup copies of the necessary data. Make a backup of files and folders that are important to you, and save them to another medium, flash drive, or cloud. Now a considerable number of opportunities have been created for this, both special software and cloud data storage.
If you still experience data loss from your solid-state drive taking it to a specialized data recovery company will be much safer than trying to solve the problem yourself. Data recovery software can overwrite your vital files and make data retrieval impossible.
SSD Data Recovery Methods
PITS Global Data Recovery Services offers highly secure and confidential data restoration processes. Our highly trained engineers work in an ISO Certified Class 10 Cleanroom to not damage the sensitive parts of SSD drives. Even the smallest particle can interfere with the drive operation.
When the SSD is faulty, in order to recover data, our technicians transfer all memory chips to special hardware and take into account their contents.
This process for SSDs, as a rule, is much more complicated than for flash drives due to more complex controller algorithms and large disk volumes.
With failed filesystem, a search and analysis of all available parts of file systems are performed, and a tree of folders and files is built, with the maximum possibility of obtaining the previous directory structure.
If the SSD drive contains all the file headers and their contents. The folder structure and names are missing. Experienced specialists extract all the data and analyze files.
Submit a case by filling out the form or call us at (888) 611-0737. Our dedicated customer representative will answer all of your questions.