Devices · SSD & NVMe drives
You won't hear anything from an SSD. Your computer will shut down normally. And when the BIOS comes up next time, you'll be unable to find your drive. Most of the failures you can experience with an SSD fall into three categories: the controller died, the firmware corrupted itself (the firmware that controls how data is written and stored on the flash), or there was a power loss during a write process. From the drives we receive from Hull, the most common brands include Western Digital and Crucial. We work with the flash memory, and early beats late.
An engineer will take the details
0800 6890668
| What you see | What the fault is | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| The drive names itself SATAFIRM S11 | Only one reason: a Phison controller has returned to its ROM. | Do not use the vendor's tools. |
| You find nothing in the BIOS | Nearly always controller or firmware. Flash behind remains untouched | It requires chip-level work. |
| Reports as 0GB, or a size that can't be right | Flash translation layer (FTL) failure | Stop powering it on/off. |
| SMART health drops overnight | Real physical wear to cells, or the controller is lying | Read vendor advisory; image drive |
| Reads come back with 0x800701E3 | Fault is with hardware | Image it; do not use any repair tools |
| A firmware update, then: Boot device not found | Firmware write failed halfway through and now nothing boots. | Leave powered off |
Every piece of gear that shows up receives a case number on the very same day it arrives. An engineer examines it and determines what is really wrong with it and there is no charge for this. We give you straight language about which files we will be able to copy from the disk and which ones we won't be able to. Then we provide you with a single price quote, in writing, based upon these findings. We don't begin working on anything until you agree to the quoted price.
Each time you turn this bad drive on, it's going to cost it something. We bring it up into service mode that we have control of so the flash answers our test tools directly and firmware that has given up is excluded from it.
If the controller will not respond, we read the flash directly & rebuild the translation table in software. On its own, a raw dump doesn't tell you anything. Once we rebuild that table, your folder structure should come back.
Wear levelling puts fragments of one doc on every die. That is the point of it. Then we reconstruct those pieces, build the volume again, and check each entry against the listing you are sent.
You will not be charged while you think about this. First, you receive a list of everything that was recovered from the drive. Once you have seen the list and given us the go-ahead, the bill comes next. Files are returned to you on media purchased specifically for this job and we cover the return postage as well. Your job is kept open by us until you can view them on your personal computer.
Know this before upgrading firmware: a firmware upgrade writes the new information into the exact area of flash that records where your files reside. If the power goes during an update, the old record will be gone; there is no fallback. Almost all updates complete successfully. Make a copy of your files before upgrading. Don't even think about updating a drive that isn't functioning properly.
The system SSD on the laptop stopped working mid-firmware update. Afterwards, it could not read anything. In technical mode an engineer was able to restore the translator table for the drive. Ten years of the photographer's catalogues opened again.
Possibly. Shut down now rather than tonight. TRIM is why: an SSD will clean out the blocks behind a deleted file by itself as long as it remains powered. Hard disks didn't do this. Here, and pretty much nowhere else, cutting off the power is what needs to be done.
Rarely. Most of the time a silent drive means the controller or firmware has gone and the flash behind them is untouched. We read the chips on our bench and most of what was on there comes back.
Not harder. Different. A hard drive breaks where it moves. An SSD breaks in the controller and in the tables the controller keeps. If TRIM has not yet been through, the odds are fairly good.
No. Flash soldered to the main board of a laptop or Mac (e.g. T2 and Apple silicon Macs) is not taken on. If you're not sure which kind you have, please ring us first.
Leave it off. There are only a few start attempts left in your failing drive and each attempt uses up a little more of what remains. Our complimentary diagnosis will determine what files are readable.