SSD no longer recognised - recovery software?

[richie00boy]

I'm using Linux Mint XFCE. Just come to boot up today and just get an error message about inserting a correct boot media. Tried the SSD (SATA) on a USB adaptor on a Windows laptop and it's not recognised. CystalDiskInfo reports it's fully healthy. Booted from a Linux USB and it shows up in Disks but appears totally unpartioned.

Read online about doing a quick format to reinstate the disk then using recovery software to retrieve the files. Problem is that the software I looked at I could not see them saying they would recover Linux files. Any suggestions?

I did a backup a few days ago so not a huge loss but would be nice to get the extra emails and files back if it's not too much bother.

 

[gaz1]

how old is your ssd as they only have a certain lifespan of write info as they do fail

how old in how long have you used it since it was fitted and are you a heavy user with write info

 

[Mark 5]

I'm using Linux Mint XFCE. Just come to boot up today and just get an error message about inserting a correct boot media. Tried the SSD (SATA) on a USB adaptor on a Windows laptop and it's not recognised. CystalDiskInfo reports it's fully healthy. Booted from a Linux USB and it shows up in Disks but appears totally unpartioned.

Read online about doing a quick format to reinstate the disk then using recovery software to retrieve the files. Problem is that the software I looked at I could not see them saying they would recover Linux files. Any suggestions?

I did a backup a few days ago so not a huge loss but would be nice to get the extra emails and files back if it's not too much bother.

I'm not going to be much help but great shout for doing back ups.

You could do a format and then a recovery but recovery can be so hit and miss, sometimes a file/s are only partially recovered with many overwritten.

You might be thinking can't have overwritten, the SSD don't work but you don't know what was the cause of the failure.

As @gaz1 states, they do fail with age.

Also, even if you got SSD working, could you trust it again?

As for emails can't you download them from whomever hosts your email address?

 

[gaz1]

you can try this if you want

if you do get it working make a back up of what you can

if you want the o/s sometimes you can save it and it will still run as an image backup

dont forget your back up of firefox bookmarks

 

[tigdlo]

If you are comfortable in the terminal I have used testdisk to recover files from formatted HDDs and a couple of failing USB sticks.

Is your drive encryted?

Tried the SSD (SATA) on a USB adaptor on a Windows laptop and it's not recognised.

Linux file systems are incompatible with almost all versions of windows so your best bet will be something in linux.

 

[gaz1]

If you are comfortable in the terminal I have used testdisk to recover files from formatted HDDs and a couple of failing USB sticks.

Is your drive encryted?

Linux file systems are incompatible with almost all versions of windows so your best bet will be something in linux.

there fine with a live cd/dvd

or hirens boot cd/dvd

 

[richie00boy]

I suspected an issue with the boot area or partition table as the drive reports healthy smart values.

I downloaded Disk Drill which seemed like it might be able to deal with Linux filesystems. Initially I installed it on a little laptop, but the drive kept dropping out, felt like it was a current limiting issue on the USB port so I installed it on the computer in the garage and that worked. It took 2 hours to scan the disk. The way it presented the file structure was a bit confusing but I managed to extract all files since the 11th which was my last backup.

Luckily I didn't follow the recommendation I had seen on a website about doing a quick format, also I was running the drive from a USB adaptor which turned out the right thing to do as connected by SATA would have changed the TRIM values and maybe lost data (according to a better website I came across).

I looked up Testdisk and it seemed promising given my assessment of what the problem could be. Was fairly easy to use with the bootable USB I used to install Linux with in the first place. It fixed the partition table and I was able to boot the drive again. I then ran my backup program again to ensure I hadn't missed anything when I tried Disk Drill.

I'm getting an "environment block too small" error on boot, but when I press any key I am able to continue. I will probably reformat this disk and relegate it to temporary storage or something. As it happens I've got parts arriving at the moment to build a new PC anyway.

 

[Mark 5]

I suspected an issue with the boot area or partition table as the drive reports healthy smart values.

I am reading this issue with interest and clearly you have managed to resolve the most important thing, getting your files back.

But do you know why the issue suddenly appeared or things got corrupted?

 

[richie00boy]

No I'm totally stumped why it happened. Power on hours is about 2400 so not that high I think? But lifetime raw value is at 1% and I'm not sure if that is remaining life or life used up. Total sectors written is 3,732,194,940 but I'm not sure what the unit is or how that relates to terabytes written.

 

[richie00boy]

Looks like a sector contains 4096 bytes, so I have almost 15.3TBW. The drive is a Crucial MX100 128GB and I'm not sure on the rating for that drive as Crucial just give 72TBW which could be the range topping 512GB model, so potentially my drive has a life of 18TBW which is getting close.

 

[Mark 5]

Looks like a sector contains 4096 bytes, so I have almost 15.3TBW. The drive is a Crucial MX100 128GB and I'm not sure on the rating for that drive as Crucial just give 72TBW which could be the range topping 512GB model, so potentially my drive has a life of 18TBW which is getting close.

So in affect your Crucial is around 120gb in capacity so possibly even closer then you think but that doesn't really explain why the corruption, unable to read files.

I rate Crucial although most of my SSDs are Samsung or WD.

You mentioning Crucial clicked a grey cell, checked my Amazon back orders and three years ago I returned in succession 2 x Crucial MX500 250gb, the first one failed within 3 months, its replacement lasted not much longer, like you I back up, so no real loss, from there on in I stuck to Samsung but I purchased a 2TB Crucial for my grandson about two years ago, given him no issues and he has that pretty much loaded.

 

[Ed.]

If you have access to a Windows PC you could try this program:
https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/ (It appears that it can "read only" the files on the linux disk, not sure if it can copy them as I have never used it.

Alternatively download Knoppix Linux which is available as a live CD or else GParted Live both are supposed to be able to recover/repair Linux partitions/files.

 

[carbon]

Ive used rescuepro to recover data from an m.2 ssd that wasn't recognized. It seemed to recover all the files, it saved it as an img file, I then used 7zip to extract the files from the img.

 

[ukracer]

No I'm totally stumped why it happened. Power on hours is about 2400 so not that high I think? But lifetime raw value is at 1% and I'm not sure if that is remaining life or life used up. Total sectors written is 3,732,194,940 but I'm not sure what the unit is or how that relates to terabytes written.

Hopefully you are back to where you started now. At least you had a working back up. what program do you use.

I have used Acronis true image but they dont have one off payments for new versions. Its pay per year now. https://www.acronis.com/en-gb/products/true-image/purchasing/

I wonder if anyone has a better product to recommend in 2024 my old software was 2019.

 

[gaz1]

net isnt used when rebooting from an image

its only if your backing up often that acronis and others use

i just self back up and use an image instead for quick rebooting and back online again so a boot cd is all i need for creating an image and also rebooting said image back onto a hard drive again

 

[richie00boy]

I reformatted the SSD and installed Windows 10 just to run some particular software for a bit. It's still working fine at the moment but I back up after every little session.

The new computer is almost built at which point I'm not sure what I will do with the old SSD (I have an NVME one for the new computer).

I just back up my data as I'd rather do a fresh install of o/s and applications each time to ensure no glitches or rubbish left behind. It's quick and easy enough to do with Linux Mint anyway. Just backing up changes in data takes like 5 seconds with a USB stick anyway so I'm not put off doing it all the time. I use FreeFileSync which works equally well on Windows and Linux.

 

[gaz1]

i just use a spare ssd hard drive and back up to that then transfer that to another pc and then its fully backed up and saved

 

[ukracer]

i just use a spare ssd hard drive and back up to that then transfer that to another pc and then its fully backed up and saved

My worry is other than verifying a backup how do we know they will work when we need to do a full restore?

 

[gaz1]

My worry is other than verifying a backup how do we know they will work when we need to do a full restore?

you have to remember im used to having 9 pcs at my disposal so after verifying a back up id install it onto another hard drive just to further test that back up image

hard drives are peanuts compared to what they was so installing an image of an operating system on a cheap ssd 120gb or even a 240gb is nothing

15.00 for a spare 128gb ssd is peanuts
19.00 for a spare 240gb ssd is still peanuts

after test stick it in a cupboard it really makes no difference or use for passing backups between the pcs

its literally is about 6 mins to fully install a back up image onto a brand new ssd and have that backup fully working its alot better than 25-45 mins on a normal or to actually create a brand new os and install all of your programs onto it

 

[ukracer]

you have to remember im used to having 9 pcs at my disposal so after verifying a back up id install it onto another hard drive just to further test that back up image

what we need is the ability to restore to a new PC or laptop and then be able to update drivers.

its literally is about 6 mins to fully install a back up image onto a brand new ssd and have that backup fully working its alot better than 25-45 mins on a normal or to actually create a brand new os and install all of your programs onto it

hasleo backup suite I used the other day and also true image 2019 because I paid for it already.

But nothing came close to 6 mins.

Are you cloning the drive?