Question Can’t read removed laptop ssd

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May 11, 2022
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Hi, my laptop popped recently. Sounded like a capacitor exploded and some funky smell came out of it. The entire power rail died to the point where nothing works at all anymore. No visible damage on the ssd but what do I know…
So I removed the ssd to recover my data but I can’t seem to read the data. I put it in one of those USB to m2 Amazon adapters and plugged into another computer. Windows won’t recognise it at all. It didn’t show up in the partition manager. Ubuntu’s disk manager is able to see it fully including all of the partitions but it refuses to mount any of them.
Does anyone know how I can access my data?

thank you!!

UPDATE: Another Windows computer sees it. In This PC when you click it it says "the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable". In Disk Manager it recognizes the partitions as Healthy and can see all of the partitions. Is there any recourse here or is it the end of the line for this SSD given the message?

UPDATE_2: I ran a disk check on it using chkdsk /f ..... I then changed the permission to my current computer and now it's saying that the drive has 932GB free of 952GB but I never erased it... and why does it have a Windows OS file structure on there and it's showing no other files... super weird.
 
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A lot of recent Windows laptops (probably within the last 2-3 years) have device encryption enabled by default. If this is the case, then the SSD can't be read as-is. The only workaround I know is to use a recovery key in a different system that supports device encryption, but this requires having the original device registered to a Microsoft account (if not found some other way on the original device itself).
 
May 11, 2022
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what the m.2 type? nvme or sata?
could be that the usb to m.2 doesn't work with that type.

From the computer website it says that its's an nvme m2. It appears to be the same as the little adapter I bought from Amazon.

Is this drive encrypted? (Symantec, BitLocker etc.)

Not by me. I did some searching to see if it's enabled by default but I don't think so (at least, I don't see other people complaining about this happening... I just assumed it was never on so I don't know why they'd make it this way). Is this the behavior to expect from bitlocker though? Windows doesn't even see the drive.


A lot of recent Windows laptops (probably within the last 2-3 years) have device encryption enabled by default. If this is the case, then the SSD can't be read as-is. The only workaround I know is to use a recovery key in a different system that supports device encryption, but this requires having the original device registered to a Microsoft account (if not found some other way on the original device itself).

I believe it was registered to a Microsoft account but I never went into Bitlocker and saved the key if that's what you mean.
 

punkncat

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In the case where you had a power surge or fluctuation, it may have damaged the hardware. Unfortunate thing about SSD is that they have no real way of knowing if they work aside from plugging in to see what it does.

Even if the drive were encrypted I would suspect you would see some sign of it within disk manager/etc.
 
May 11, 2022
6
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10
In the case where you had a power surge or fluctuation, it may have damaged the hardware. Unfortunate thing about SSD is that they have no real way of knowing if they work aside from plugging in to see what it does.

Even if the drive were encrypted I would suspect you would see some sign of it within disk manager/etc.

It's not visible in Windows but Ubuntu sees all of the partitions and knows their names (Windows OS/Recovery/Etc). Which is why I don't think it was damaged in the surge. But who knows I guess. w
 
May 11, 2022
6
0
10
UPDATE: Another Windows computer sees it. In This PC when you click it it says "the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable". In Disk Manager it recognizes the partitions as Healthy and can see all of the partitions. Is there any recourse here or is it the end of the line for this SSD given the message?
 
May 11, 2022
6
0
10
UPDATE 2: I ran a disk check on it using chkdsk /f ..... I then changed the permission to my current computer and now it's saying that the drive has 932GB free of 952GB but I never erased it... and why does it have a Windows OS file structure on there and it's showing no other files... super weird.
 
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