Question SSD seemingly dead, possible to recover data on it?

[morpheus6677]

Hey I've been using a self built PC with 2*2TB Sasmung 980 Pros for a bit over a year now. I've been mostly using one SSD for now, about 1.8TB of 2TB of data including the OS were on that one SSD. Few days ago when starting the PC I ran into a SMART error and I couldn't boot into Windows even when disabling the SMART-test in bios. The SSD seems not to be working at all or maybe it might have gone into read-only mode. I've heard that some 980 Pros had some firmware issues and I might have been affected by that: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-980-pro-ssd-failures-firmware-update Eitherway I'm not able to start up Windows and thus not able to backup my data this way.

Are there any other options to retrieve and backup my data from the SSD or even clone it onto another SSD? Thanks for your help



My System:

Intel i9 12900K | Gigabyte RTX 3080Ti | 2 × 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB | ASUS ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi | 2 × 2TB Samsung 980 PRO | Corsair RM1000x (1000W)

 

[Aeacus]

Are there any other options to retrieve and backup my data from the SSD or even clone it onto another SSD?

If given that the M.2 NVMe SSD is in read-only mode, you need 2nd empty drive, where to install Win. Once you have Win installed and can boot into the system, connect the "dead" drive back and it should show up as data drive. After which, it's just copy/paste the data over.

Another option would be using bootable GNU/Linux distro on USB thumb drive, to get access to PC (boot into GNU/Linux, while it is loaded into RAM). But it does little in terms of data recovery since USB thumb drives don't have the same capacity as system drives. Still, you could use it to copy/paste few GB over (to the GNU/Linux distro partition).

 

[USAFRet]

If it is 'read only', you can probably clone it to some other drive, or at least open it and copy some data.

If it is indeed dead and inaccessible, then you are out of luck.

This is what backups are for.

 

[morpheus6677]

If given that the M.2 NVMe SSD is in read-only mode, you need 2nd empty drive, where to install Win. Once you have Win installed and can boot into the system, connect the "dead" drive back

You mean I have to disconnect the "dead" SSD first and after boot up Windows reconnect the "dead" SSD?

and it should show up as data drive. After which, it's just copy/paste the data over.

I don't have to get a key to activate Windows in order to access the drive and copy/paste the data over, right?

Another option would be using bootable GNU/Linux distro on USB thumb drive, to get access to PC (boot into GNU/Linux, while it is loaded into RAM). But it does little in terms of data recovery since USB thumb drives don't have the same capacity as system drives. Still, you could use it to copy/paste few GB over (to the GNU/Linux distro partition).

 

[Aeacus]

You mean I have to disconnect the "dead" SSD first and after boot up Windows reconnect the "dead" SSD?

If you go with 2nd drive option:
* disconnect all other drives, except new empty drive
* install Win on new drive
* make sure you can boot to OS
* shut down your PC (power off), and connect the dead drive back
* once you boot back to OS, you should see the dead drive as 2nd drive
* if you do, copy/paste the data over

I don't have to get a key to activate Windows in order to access the drive and copy/paste the data over, right?

Nowadays, Win10/11 doesn't have a key to activate, instead, Win license lives with your Micro$oft account, that you can disable on one system, so that you can use the same license on another system.

 

[USAFRet]

You mean I have to disconnect the "dead" SSD first and after boot up Windows reconnect the "dead" SSD?

I don't have to get a key to activate Windows in order to access the drive and copy/paste the data over, right?

A new install on a different drive needs no license key.
Just install.

After, power off, reconnect this potentially dead SSD, and power up. See if you can read it.

 

[morpheus6677]

If you go with 2nd drive option:
* disconnect all other drives, except new empty drive
* install Win on new drive
* make sure you can boot to OS
* shut down your PC (power off), and connect the dead drive back
* once you boot back to OS, you should see the dead drive as 2nd drive
* if you do, copy/paste the data over


Nowadays, Win10/11 doesn't have a key to activate, instead, Win license lives with your Micro$oft account, that you can disable on one system, so that you can use the same license on another system.

Thank you, I'll try

 

[morpheus6677]

The new drive isn't completely empty, 6gbs have been used before. When trying to install Windows, it says that 'Windows Cannot Be Installed to This Disk as it has a MBR partition table. On EFI systems Windows can only be installedo n GPT disks'. How can I fix the issue?

 

[USAFRet]

The new drive isn't completely empty, 6gbs have been used before. When trying to install Windows, it says that 'Windows Cannot Be Installed to This Disk as it has a MBR partition table. On EFI systems Windows can only be installedo n GPT disks'. How can I fix the issue?

During the install, DELETE ALL partitions on the new drive.
Reformat the empty space as GPT.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[morpheus6677]

During the install, DELETE ALL partitions on the new drive.

Ok, when choosing the 'format' option, doesn't it hurt my SSD?

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[USAFRet]

"Ok, when choosing the 'format' option, doesn't it hurt my SSD?"

No.

 

[morpheus6677]

How do I go from there? Where can I reformat the drive to GPT?

https://imgur.com/a/0AdEwbp

View: https://imgur.com/a/0AdEwbp

 

[USAFRet]

How do I go from there? Where can I reformat the drive to GPT?

https://imgur.com/a/0AdEwbp

View: https://imgur.com/a/0AdEwbp

You need to delete that partition as well.

 

[morpheus6677]

You need to delete that partition as well.

doesn't work :/, when pressing on 'format' it stays the same

 

[USAFRet]

doesn't work :/, when pressing on 'format' it stays the same

Did you delete Partition 1?
It should then say "Unallocated"

 

[morpheus6677]

my bad I'm dumb, didn't understand the 'delete' term until now. should be working now, thanks

 

[morpheus6677]

If you go with 2nd drive option:
* disconnect all other drives, except new empty drive
* install Win on new drive
* make sure you can boot to OS
* shut down your PC (power off), and connect the dead drive back
* once you boot back to OS, you should see the dead drive as 2nd drive
* if you do, copy/paste the data over


Nowadays, Win10/11 doesn't have a key to activate, instead, Win license lives with your Micro$oft account, that you can disable on one system, so that you can use the same license on another system.

Now, the drive shows up but when trying to access the folder "User" and then "Morpheus6677" I can't access that folder with all the "download"-folder, "videos", "prictures" etc. from the old drive in it. It seems like I dont have the permission to do so (which makes sense from another standpoint as there should be a security mechanism that prevents accessing data that easily from any connected drive) Any solutions?

 

[USAFRet]

Any solutions?

Take Ownership

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[Dilberp]

Hey I've been using a self built PC with 2*2TB Sasmung 980 Pros for a bit over a year now. I've been mostly using one SSD for now, about 1.8TB of 2TB of data including the OS were on that one SSD. Few days ago when starting the PC I ran into a SMART error and I couldn't boot into Windows even when disabling the SMART-test in bios. The SSD seems not to be working at all or maybe it might have gone into read-only mode. I've heard that some 980 Pros had some firmware issues and I might have been affected by that: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-980-pro-ssd-failures-firmware-update Eitherway I'm not able to start up Windows and thus not able to backup my data this way.

Are there any other options to retrieve and backup my data from the SSD or even clone it onto another SSD? Thanks for your help



My System:

Intel i9 12900K | Gigabyte RTX 3080Ti | 2 × 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB | ASUS ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi | 2 × 2TB Samsung 980 PRO | Corsair RM1000x (1000W)

Reinstall the firmware!! no select Prestet