Can I FIX a Kingston 240GB SSD ?

In this video I attempt to fix a dead SSD (Solid-State Drive) sent in by Lee. It was in a laptop which suddenly seized and stopped working on New Years Day. It hasn't been apart before so I am the first to look inside. Will it be fixable enough to retrieve the data from it? Or will it need to be sent to a professional data recovery firm. Let's find out.
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Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series. Many thanks, Vince.

[@curtiskorb3494]

As soon as I saw your intro, I knew there was a Phison chip in there 🤬 I can confirm that Phison chip is in "Panic Mode", that's where the Satafirm comes in. The chip WORKS, but it's firmware is essentially bricked. I've successfully recovered 2 PNY CS900 drives with bricked firmware, but indeed the forced firmware flash was destructive to the data.

[@coctailrob]

Liking and replying so you comment sticks out. It is possible to chip-off data recovery from this situation but is super complicated due to the different ways the controllers and firmware organise the data blocks on the flash storage, with bad block remaps, XOR patterns, and other stuff. There’s a data recovery KZbin channel which covers this stuff, very interesting. Requires a investment in specialist hardware and software.

[@highpath4776]

can one replace the chip with a new one, and presumably the passive components to it

[@Patrik6920]

Warning!...This steps will be destructive to the drive ... ..first...replacing thes ship could make the drive working - BUT the data would be destroyed, and the data whats important...the drive itself isent... another solution is to cool the chip..it may be possibly just by adding a small heatsink/fan if ur lycky...otherwise second step would be to cool it to -70 deg celsius or so fairly slow (..to fast and it will die anyway, cooling in steps if possible)...once the data is recovered just toss it... ...if it still cant be recovered, bake the drive and or reseat the chips... if the chip still isent working thers not much to do at ur own hand... if the data was super important u would send it to a professional... ...if its important...always have ATLEAST one backup...

[@kawesu8781]

Fixed 1 PNY CS900 too with a firmware reflash.

[@laptoppakdosen3958]

where did you get the firmware from? is the firmware generic? i want it too just in case.

[@kxlleh]

Hey Vince, I've been watching your channel for couple of years now and just watched them for fun. But then I learned a lot more about electronics through your videos and just now fixed my nephews switch controller where I had to replace one analog stick. Big big thanks to you! Keep up the great content, really appreciate you! Take care.

[@pldaniels]

Hello Vince. In some ways these SSDs can be a bit depressing in how little physically seems to go wrong, leaving you with the undesirable task of either chip-off recovery + reorganisation or fighting with that controller. I've done a lot of work using ddrescue under linux and coupling it with a USB power switch that is controlled from the command line; so in situations like this you can craft a customised behaviour script that will let you do things like read 100MB, power cycle, read another 100MB etc, to save having to do the manual work you were experiencing. I suppose the "proper professional" solution here really is to have the chips removed, read off the data, and reassemble/decode it, usually things like PC3000 have all the decoding maps predefined for a lot of the controllers.

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks Paul. Probably a silly question but am I correct in thinking that even if I got an identical SSD and placed these 2 Kingston storage chips in the new SSD with a working Phison controller it still wouldn't work. The reball on the Kingston chips looks doable and the SSD are only £20-£30 on eBay, but I presume they are already connected via software together. Hope you're keeping well over there. I need to catch up on some PD vids, if you have any in mind that stand out let me know 👌👍👍👍

[@pldaniels]

@@Mymatevince I actually don't know to be honest; I suppose it would depend a lot on how the controller manages its remapped regions, ie does it keep it on the NANDs or internally in the controller. I'm sure someone with actual experience in that sort of task might weigh in.

[@Mymatevince]

@@pldaniels Thank you Paul 👌

[@northhankspin]

who gives a care. dont you have better things to do then save this garbage?

[@pldaniels]

@@northhankspin indeed - could be out making useless comments.

[@craftymulligar]

Mighty nice of you taking it easy.

[@Lardzor]

I'd be tempted to just re-flow the PHISON controller chip. Not to remove the chip, just adding flux around the edges and get it hot enough to reflow the solder under the chip while trying to protect the NAND flash from getting too hot.

[@cosmefulanito5933]

This is not the problem. But the firmware.

[@bohmandy9611]

I fixed a couple of this by reflowing,copied the data to a new one.

[@danstone_0001]

The cap and resistor is probably a write protect, if you remove the shorting resistor in a working ssd, it may be used to write protect it.

[@nelsonmendes5008]

Hi Dan, i saw your comment and i have an usb pen that is not letting me do anything with it because it has write protection on and i can´t remove it...maybe it has that resistor blown.. do you think that could be the reason?

[@buckykattnj]

I probably would have gotten a couple big old heat sinks and clamped them on either sides of the warm, larger chips with a little conductive grease. Maybe spray a little compressed air from time to time. Just see if it extends your window of good reads with the recovery software. Applying some light compression might also temporarily fix any cracked solder balls for the time being.

[@jhesski]

My though too maybe cool the heck out of that chip and see if it last longer. upside down compressed can air freeze it.

[@LegoDork]

I was struggling to recover a spinny drive that kept over heating and making me start over. it was winter and it was below freezing outside. I opened a window and stuck the exposed bottom of this particular laptop up against the screen. It took ages, but I successfully recovered the drive. Shit. I may still be using some of the remnants, and that was in, like, 2010. I still have the clone I made for sure. That was such a good win.

[@dbradford259]

We used to use a frying pan and blocks of ice during data recovery back in the day.

[@therealjammit]

Many years ago I had a spinning hard drive where the electronics kept overheating, so I got some dry ice and super cooled it while I got the data off it.

[@ligametis]

The chip itself and it's software is most likely faulty

[@hellooohowareudoing]

Great video. It also reminded me I need to do a back up...

[@Dg-zj6jo]

sometimes if theres a shinny suface it can give the impression is hot on the the thermal camera iv found great stuff vince we always get enjoyment when your on brilliant

[@Peter-yg7ze]

I got Linux Zorin and there is a disctool that easely can fix problems with "confused" memorys ,I have "repaired"USB-sticks and SSDś a few times with no problems . . 🙂

[@DataqRecovery]

Hey Vince. I've recovered a bunch of these, and it's usually the Phison controller stuck in something like safe mode or firmware update mode. Can usually recover them using the right (ie. Expensive) firmware tools without any further board repairs etc. (edited to add: Just checked my notes. In that fail mode they just return junk data or blank sectors, so the unplugging thing is probably a waste of time. Also that discolouration on the Phison controller might just be from a thermal pad inside the metal ssd shell. )

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge on these👍👍👍

[@DataqRecovery]

@@Mymatevince No problem. I'd be happy to take a look at it if you wanted to know if it can be done professionally?

[@Mymatevince]

@@DataqRecovery Thank you, it's back with it's originally owner now but I appreciate you offering 👍

[@florianoprescu2171]

hi. can you give me a quote on this? i have the same kingston drive with satafirm 11 fault

[@DataqRecovery]

@@florianoprescu2171 Hi. It would be £329 if successful. You can contact us on our website, and we'll reply with full info (link in bio) 👍

[@leenewby2563]

Hi Vince. Just watched :( .......No worries, thanks for trying ...... What brand of hard drive dock are you using? I couldn't even get it to show up at all. the video has only been up 30 minutes and there are already some program suggestions and tricks in the comments that I could try when I get the drive back. Thanks again for trying. ......

[@alltechrepairs1495]

Nicely done. Very comprehensive.

[@TheTTVert]

Vince, what FLIR camera are you using? I found the R ONE PRO LT but yours looks slightly different. Any issues w/ it thus far? Anything you don't like?

[@dangriggs617]

hi Vince, thanks for the video. I know this is a little late but I was wondering if you tried reflowing that chip.

[@gilbertbergh8980]

Nice video, which flir camera are you using? The pro?

[@frankmathieson3029]

Might be worth plugging it into the SATA ports of your motherboard. In my experience those USB-SATA adapters aren't great at dealing with dodgy disks. However, having read some of the other comments, it almost definately the SSD controller so the recovery software may not work.

[@m2aimc]

Z tkt. tttv0

[@An4gram]

Definitely, this has worked for me for spinning disks and I see the card has a sata socket

[@EngelDerVerdammnis]

Just had the opposite with a faulty 2,5 HDD. Was able to recover data from it via USB, via Sata it won't get recognised but in general direct Sata is better in most cases. Exceptions confirm the rules I guess.

[@frankmathieson3029]

@@EngelDerVerdammnis Funny how an old comment suddenly gets more attention! As an update to my previous comment, I've recently been helping a friend with a new build, his 8tb Samsung SSD (fully working) is not recognised by the motherboard Sata at all but functions fine via a USB adapter!!!

[@shadowplayer3000]

I enjoy watching your videos. I would like to see you practice reballing BGA chips. thanks for making great content.

[@Struders]

Fairly common issue with the A400 drives. The controller firmware gets corupted and make the drive unreadable. There are tools out their to reflash the firmware but this is destructive to the data! Essentially the data is gone short of sending it to a data recovery expert.

[@brake_4_cake]

The powering off thing (probably) isn't the failed drive, it's more likely to be the USB power management

[@martinthompson3940]

The disconnection issue may not a be a fault of the drive but the laptop your're using, it may need a permanent power connection like a direct connection in a Pc which is not reliant on the power from the USB only

[@nicoful86]

So what are they odds the guy who sent the ssd have a bad computer as well?

[@martinthompson3940]

@@nicoful86 You have missunderstood me, for the purpose of recovery a non USB power supply could be required, The SSD could be fine but has lost the MBR

[@michaelthomas3646]

@@nicoful86 can be pretty high, we don't know if it was pc or laptop, we don't know if the guy sent the usb connection that Vince used in this video, we don't know if it is the USB causing a boot loop with the SSD due to a lack of constant current enough to run the SSD, anything is speculation until we find out the facts.

[@michaelthomas3646]

I highly suspect you are right with your answer, sort of like using front panel usb on my fathers pc wouldn't allow my ssd in a usb dongle to work and came up with the same symptoms as this, but worked absolutely fine on my pc, and my brothers pc. hard drives/ssd's seem to need to draw more power/current than the front usb ports on a pc can handle, or I suspect the same with Vince's hand held device will allow on battery power. or could also be the usb lead itself. so too many variables rather than in a pc case using a pc case power and data cables.

[@makeitloudr]

Hi, I recently discovered your channel and it's oddly satisfying! Maybe because my dad knows his way around with soldering as well, now I come to think of it. About this SSD, isn't it possible to swap out the whole controller board with one from an equal Kingston device in order to check if that's really the problem? Or is that too easy? Marcel

[@tim9326]

@My Mate VINCE, Next time when you get to the device recovery phase where you are pulling the data off you may want to find some way to cool the chips down while under load. Not a guarantee but may aid in pulling the data off, by keeping the chips up long enough.

[@TampaTec]

Great info here, I didn't think of fixing a SSD. I do have 2 HDDs that I can't format for some reason, they're 1tb so worth keeping.

[@incandescentwithrage]

1TB HDD are pretty much worthlessness now, especially faulty. Just replace

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks Paul, shame I couldn't get the data out of them, I was hoping for a shorted capacitor 👍👍

[@samuraiedge3539]

What are you trying to format them from?

[@michaelthomas3646]

have you made sure they are the proper power supplies, and for the correct drive, because if you look at my comments you will see that it can be because of either driver related issues so needing a clean install, or by using the wrong power supply on the wrong drive. hope this helps.

[@TheSpotify95]

@@incandescentwithrage 1TB HDDs are OK but 500GB HDDs (or less) are worthless when 128GB SSDs (and 240GB SSDs) are cheap enough. 1TB SSDs are starting from about £35-£40 though so if you need 1TB, that's the way to go.

[@marcosrobertogreiner]

I also have a Kingston drive, same size (240GB) which failed just the same as the one you reviewed here. Various recovery software I tried behaved exactly the same. Curious thing: when I opened the drive after seen your video, the board is different and there isn't one of those Phison chips inside. Also, when the disk failed, one of the first things I tried was to use Kingston tools to try to repair, access or at least reflash it. To my surprise, the Kingston tools didn't even recognize that a Kingston disk was attached to the computer at all (I was not using an USB adapter, but directly attached to another SATA port).

[@dillon4813]

omg that mini pc is so nice. Its perfect for repair and diagnosics. So tiny and mobile. I need one of those.

[@Gary_Hun]

Actually that would be a nice feature, to be able to bypass the built in hardware controller with a software emulated virtual one, so if the data chip is still fine, no problem.

[@lrrromicronpersei8294]

One other thing you can try when you have a chip that is running warm is to use your compressed air upside down to freeze it or (freezer spray if you have it) and try to keep it cool I know it wasn’t running that hot but If it’s drawing enough current that can cause your pc to power off the usb supply disconnecting the drive. Then when you unplug it and plug it back in it re supplies the power. Or a 2 into one usb cable so it gets power from 2 ports But nice try anyhoo

[@sjm4306]

It's more than likely a software problem, where the controller tapped out and corrupted the table that shows all the allocations/mapping for the data. With the way data gets written and deleted it needs to keep track of segmentation of data but if that table gets trashed then deciphering what goes where and in what order is pretty much impossible.

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks for the info SJM 👍 Looking at SATAFIRM S11 problems on Google suggest it is quite a common failure on these Phison chips. Apparently you can put firmware back onto it which will allow the SSD to work again, but the data will be erased. Hope you keeping well 👍

[@sjm4306]

@@Mymatevince Thanks, hope you've been well too. Keep up the interesting repair content!

[@stevemartyn203]

@@Mymatevince Hi Vince. Bit off topic but can I ask what make/model of the pc is? It would come in handy for my workshop. Thanks 👍

[@Mymatevince]

@@stevemartyn203 That is a 'GPD Pocket' Steve. I think they have released a couple more versions since that one 👍

[@patrickday4206]

Yeah it records all the bad blocks any corruption would make notes where everything is like a map. Nsa could make sense of it 😂

[@PilzQ]

great video, I learnt a lot of new things :)

[@trovr]

hi, nice video. which tool size/name did you use to open that?

[@Lee-lm7pk]

Sometime the boot block gets corrupted, just try formatting it and then use a data recovery software to access the deleted files, they should still be pretty much intact, but some maybe damaged

[@rampak1]

Did you think about dripping freezer spray on the Fison chip while trying recovery?

[@whiteslick00]

Thanks for the videos

[@paulisthebest3uk]

Great video. I'm sure many have asked this before but what netbook is that? Got an interest in netbooks and was curious

[@summerlaverdure]

if im correct it's the first generation of the GPD Pocket

[@skipknot7389]

Great video. Thanks!

[@Hussletheamtrix]

Hi Vince Could you have tried swapping the NAND chip from this faulty SSD to a good SSD board? I have seen that work before.

[@ErrorMessageNotFound]

I've seen that kind of behavior in a flash drive with a bad controller. If you look at windows event viewer, Windows Logs, System you'll probably see a bunch of error messages that might give you a tiny bit more information. It's likely that windows disconnected the drive because it stopped responding or that it reported an error.

[@TheCalebh3]

Your thumbnail looks very Jagex-y. I'm diggin' it, Vince.

[@craftymulligar]

If you get some of those broken powered hard drives. You can always save the power supply module for other mechanical drives. But those are solid state.

[@dddvvvzzz2012]

SATAFIRM S11 happens when the firmware in the Phison controller gets corrupted. There's a software out there to reflash it but it wipes the whole drive so it might not be of any use if you want the data. I Had a Silicon Power SSD with the satafirm problem and i manage to reflash the Phison controller and make the ssd work again. I'm sure this is a firmware problem and reflowing/adding a heatsink like others are suggesting won't solve the problem.

[@phonemaniacmainyt5296]

Happy new year

[@GadgetUK164]

I think if he doesnt want to send it away and accepts risk - I would be tempted to get flux around and under that controller IC and reflow it with hot air. Nothing to lose really! The fact it keeps disconnecting makes me wonder if something is intermittant somewhere.

[@richardhalliday6469]

Interesting video Vince, unusual content this one .( I always wear an earthing band/ wrist strap when working on such projects, static can be a problem )

[@Paperghost]

Teehee.

[@enoz.j3506]

Exactly, non powered electronic repairs without anti static wrist strap or basic earthing mat ,shows, haven't got a grasp of the important basics ,youtube has made everyone an engineer LOL

[@kevinbrandwijk7146]

The ssd has had massive error and is now reporting it's controller name. The controller locked the ssd in an error state. before this happened the ssd would be named kingston + model number. I've experienced this too a few years ago when working at a pc store with a bad kingston ssd

[@tomasbergh]

Hi! Just for your knowledge. Those protection mats of siliconrubber are highly isolating and can give really high static voltages on the devices laid on them. Here my 0603 and even 0805 can thumbstone just from the static charge... /Tomas

[@swedishspymuseum]

Since allow you to read the data for some time and the chip is "heated up" (I can confirm the discoloration), I would do a "brutal" test by cooling the chip with cooling spray and see it that changes its behaviour. It is non-distructive and sometimes, these smarter chips goes into "safe mode" when the die is heated up. I know too little about the Fison chip to say for certain however, it is safe to try and the behaviour is very typical os a processor freezing for being too hot.

[@eduardos.m.8400]

I see that this SSD model appears to have some problems with the controller. So what are the best alternatives to this SSD in terms of durability? 🤔

[@mikep3134]

I wonder if you cooled the chip if it would run longer?

[@rciancia]

Vince, how do you know your friend has a Windows PC. ? It could be a MAC or Linux, etc.. the file system would be different . Just something to consider

[@dh2032]

yes, could be anything, NTFS, WIN31 WIN16,and that just if it a PC disk, and that even near a full list option?

[@PixelMaker04]

I, too, was about to mention testdisk but I see it has already been mentioned a few times.

[@80s_kid.]

i wonder if the phison ic is just gettinng hot and disconnecting, wonder if you can keep the tempreture down with freeze spray. i have an old boombox that needs fixing, it powers up and amp hisses but no power to the tape decks or tuner. i can't do it. £130 down the drain from belgium.

[@krumbopuloskarl7019]

hey this maybe a dumb thing to ask but where can i get one of them drive wires like you got. hthe one i have has a power block and it just a pain i would love one of them usb ones

[@BuyitFixit]

Great Effort Vince. I agree with you and think that the SSD controller is bad. We can't fix everything! I'm not sure if a replacement chip would need configured with the size of flash chips, type, speed, and USB descriptors etc, so even getting a replacement chip might be more involved than just a swap. edit: Just an additional thought.. The SSD controller must be slightly working, as it does show up in device manager and reports the size correctly, so wondering if its the flash that is bad?

[@MayaPosch]

Bad Flash was my thought too. That the device still shows up says a lot, so it could be that the Flash chips are at fault, with the Phison controller trying to read from it, but repeatedly failing. Kingston is known for sourcing NAND Flash from a wide variety of sources, and reliability issues are common. Hope we get to learn what the actual issue is :)

[@Retroaria]

How about buy a similarly unit and replace/put the memory chip?

[@Bwong55]

@@Retroaria 55 seconds ago wow. anyways that would be an extremely hard and risky process as there are solder joints at the bottom of the chip which you cannot get to so the only way would be with a heat gun and a crap ton of flux.

[@MayaPosch]

@@Retroaria That's not an option. One property of NAND Flash chips is that heating them up destroys the data stored in them.

[@vitor900000]

@@Retroaria Many controllers also store structural date inside themselves. This structural date is related to how the controller will allocate data on the NAND chip. A new controller chip will make/have a different structural date inside with will make the data on the NAND chips read as gibberish.

[@andrewcollins867]

Hi Vince did you apply pressure to the chip to see if it was solder ball detachment?

[@Mymatevince]

Hey Andrew, yes since the video I have tried cooling all the chips and placing pressure on each one...no difference unfortunately. Apparently I would be able to get the SSD to work again with new firmware on the Phison chip but the data would be lost. These drives are only £20ish on eBay so it was the data that was important. Thanks for commenting👍👍

[@EvilDarkHawk]

Sometimes usb chips interfere with certain data access patterns leading to disconnects. Try restore when attached via sata.

[@andrewrae2813]

What is that mini pc you are using? Must be great for travelling.

[@HoldFastFilms]

HDD Recovery Service is a great channel to learn more about data recover. At the end of his latest video which coincidentally was uploaded at the same time he shows a device you can use to read the chip if the controller is shot - kzbin.info/www/bejne/paCwfXptjtahhtk

[@Torchim49]

Hey Vince my external drives sometimes do the same things cause my usb cant provide enough power, im sure you have a powered usb hub laying around you could use

[@cheejun7719]

Nice try video . Thank you !

[@MarioKartWiiMaster1]

thank you

[@Dtr146]

Dude if he can fix this. He would revive a long forgotten trade of fixing SSDs. Because normally the nand flash or the controller goes.

[@icepee9252]

I wonder if chilling the controller chip might help the disconnection problem.

[@daves_channel1491]

Old school trick for the mechanical drives, 20 years ago I got someone's family photos from a once-in-a-lifetime family trip, they were really pleased, I made no promises, I also had the replacement hard drive for them, but the original hard drive was making a knocking sound, double bagged in a freezer, left overnight or few hours and then removed from the bags and freezer dried and wrapped in kitchen paper on top of the heating boiler and a few hours later, no condensation plugged it in and it came back to life. It was a fluke but they don't care they got the pictures back 🙂 I got the tip off the internet too!

[@paultasker7788]

Might work better if plugged into 2nd sata port of a desktop PC rather than USB?

[@davidharvey4059]

What make is the little ultrabook? Looks nice

[@walterroszko6841]

Vince don't forget to torque the brake nuts!

[@badyherz]

It would be interesting what Testdisk 7.2 would spit out. I mean the drive seems to be working. I used this program sometimes to get data from sd cards where the partition tables broke. Sometimes it can even repair the partition table, if not it can at least try to get all data off there. This will only really work if the drive is not hard formatted, after soft formatting, it will still find the old data. (Tried this for fun on multiple SD Cards).

[@Dusta]

Hi Vince, the disconnect problem maybe a power down USB sleep, you can change that in windows settings under the Computer management -> device manager -> (the correct USB hub) -> power management tab, there is an option for `Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power`, also I would recomment using a Linux distro to do it there are loads of tools that may help

[@ovalwingnut]

Good call PG. Especially on using Linux. Also, plugging it in directly to a SATA buss (removing USB from the mix) might be a option. It's best to reduce everything to it lowest common denominator i.e. cut out the middle man :) Cheers!

[@JustaGuy316]

Yeah, even Gparted is far better than anything WIndows offers. I've saved the data off about half-dozen drives using Linux.

[@michaelthomas3646]

far more likely to be a boot loop with not enough current going into the ssd to power it up.

[@InsertGame1]

Before taking it apart, try a new usb cable. A broken cable can act this way of showing you a device on the computer but not knowing what the device is. Also, try other usb ports on your computer or on another computer. If that fails, then start to look at your options for recover or repair.

[@diegotancredi3923]

Where did you get that mini laptop?

[@nxgplay6616]

I changed the format of my external ssd from mac redable to windows and I lost all my data. Is there any thing I can do to bring it back

[@SaccoBelmonte]

What about cooling down the Phison chip during the recovery operation?

[@Carl-wr1dc]

Have you tried to keep the chip chilled while trying to recover?

[@DigitalDiabloUK]

Photorec in Linux is the best tool I've found for sw recovery. But I had a similar drive that failed after a short period of time. However I managed to DD the data from it to an exact same model disk, but had to put the failing drive in a bag in the freezer during the copy, as it seemed to be a heat related issue.

[@vitor900000]

The controller is bad but there might still be a way to recover the data from the SSD. You see, because the controller is bad its most likely overheating and triggering a protection shutdown. What you can try to do is attach a heatsink with a fan to the controller to keep it from overheating and shutting down. Might give you enough time to scan the disk and extract the data.

[@MrMaxeemum]

I've had success before by putting it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

[@vitor900000]

@@MrMaxeemum The freezer would only keep it cool for a few seconds. If the data you want to recover is small and easy to access it would work but for a large data you would need constant cooling. Considering that his index date is gone he will need to do a full scan of the SSD to recover the data with will take several minutes.

[@MrMaxeemum]

@@vitor900000 It has worked for me before. It's worth a try as it can't do any harm.

[@jada1173]

Putt it in the freezer with long sata and powercable (no usb adapter) You just need a little improviced computer, maybe put together by old used parts that you can put close to the freezer..

[@jcon6734]

Great video as always. Word of advice though, with hard drives (mechanical or SSD) always try the software route first. If it's a hardware issue, recovery software failing won't prevent you from making a successful board repair. If it's something software could recover, attempting to fix a non-existent fault on the board could easily leave the drive in a state where recovery software won't work. On an unrelated note, don't tell my kid or dog that I said this, but your baby laptop might be the cutest thing I've seen all day.

[@InXsense]

Yes, and always is a good idea to try the software from the company of the ssd, I fix a ssd that work for 5 min. and then disappear for a faulty firmware, but to be able to use the software you need to use connected to sata to have the time for the firmware update, in usb was impossible.

[@tetsuoshiva]

I don't know, if the drive was showing symptoms of dying plugging it for a long time to obtain data might end up killing it for good even in the middle of obtaining it.

[@DragoNate]

the only problem with that is that, for a drive that's dying or basically dead, you have very limited time/attempts to use software as more read/write cycles can cause more damage, lowering your chances of successful recovery with each failed attempt.

[@BrianG61UK]

Why straight in to looking at the hardware? I'd be looking for a way to try and write a partition table to it and see if that worked.

[@pulancheck]

What about this : you buy same model of SSD new/sh but working, unsolder actual chip that holds data .. replace with chip from problematic SSD?

[@migsvensurfing6310]

So unplugging gets it to work a bit. Have you tried cooling down the drive ?

[@CristiNeagu]

Completely off topic, but what is that little laptop you have on your desk?

[@NeilRoy]

Oh yay... I have that exact same drive, same size and all. But I replaced it with a different brand, larger drive which I only use as a boot drive as SSDs will fail, guaranteed. Yet all my HDDs all still work. I think I had ONE HDD fail on me in my life, and that was two decades ago. So now all my data goes on one of two 4TB HDDs, Seagate which I have also done really well with. I still have old 20G Seagate drives that work. I'm curious, what is that external USB cable you used to plug the drive in? I could use one.

[@jesuslovesyou5819]

@Vince I don’t understand why you don’t buy a universal reball stencil and reballing paste? It’s only a few bucks and you can fix way more stuff.

[@Pulverrostmannen]

Trying to read the SMART data from a drive that failed is one of the first things you should do, as it most of the time shows if there is an actual fault actively affecting the drives properties. if you cannot read Smart the drive is usually bricked, If you can read smart and it have failed in sensitive attributes there is probably used up or broken, if the Smart shows good and the drive is not working it is a chance of controller issues or corrupted data on the drive or firmware

[@lockjawbob]

Did you try the power cycle method? You have to power the drive with no data connection at all, not even to an enclosure. So best way is just the SATA power connector in a PC, leave data cable off. 30 mins on, 30 secs off, then 30 mins on again. This puts a lot of SSDs into a mode where they will try to rebuild their mapping. Worked for me a couple of times.

[@bezerker]

"SATAFIRM S11" is sign of corrupted firmware of a drive (Kingstons speciality...). Without bin file for specific part number of disk (there's plenty of them in same looking casing) is nearly impossible to recover ssd to operating state.

[@randy206]

Try cooling that chip. The controller may be overheating or if it is borked, cooling it may allow it to function long enough to recover the data.

[@hosam7609]

Never recover a sata device through a usb adapter, this will reduce the possibility of data recovery + It's always worth trying to access the drive using a Linux/Mac machine

[@gbmruk123]

vince you are my fav channel :D

[@funkyfilter8895]

Hi Vince......can you try connecting it directly to a motherboard using the psu 12v connector...the USB 5v is maybe not giving it enough power that's why it's disconnecting? Good day!

[@PrawnCocktailBro]

As soon as i saw "SSD" i thought, oh boy, this isn't gonna go well. Still a good video 😃

[@WillCooke]

I had the same drive fail in the same way a couple of weeks ago.

[@oscarrodriguez-mk9lz]

Hello, can you tell me which laptop you use in the video?

[@roysigurdkarlsbakk3842]

My first thought was to mount a heat sink on that controller and perhaps use a fan to further cool it down during recovery. It won't fix the drive, obviously, but it might solve the problem so that you can get the data out of there. Also, don't use random apps on windoze. They're prone to doing all sorts of nasty stuff. Personally, I use ddrescue to retrieve the data image and then TestDisk by cgsecurity (licensed under GPL) to look for data if I just can't mount it with kpartx and then mount the partition(s). I use Linux for such tasks.

[@corona6381]

What 'random' apps did he use? They're all well known, viable recovery options. Or did you just need an excuse to use your brilliantly original 'Windoze' dig?

[@roysigurdkarlsbakk3842]

​ @corona6381 ​I just wrote "random apps" as IMHO you never know what'll happen when you download something "free(ware)" for windoze. On Linux and other unices, you can choose to only use open source software which is tested by thousands and even if a small revision comes in (like a bad code insert), that will be tracable. With closed source, you never know. So, thereby the language used above.

[@florianoprescu2171]

Hi. I have a Kingston with SATAFIRM 11 , is that fixable? i have a functional one which i can provide for parts. i just really want the data from the broken one. edit: you answered later in the video, it looks like i have a busted phison controller as well

[@jcspaziano]

I know this is an old video but that Philson chip looked like it got really hot. Too bad yout didn't have the chip spec sheet to look up the heat tolerances. I wonder if after its been on a while the thermal throttling mechanism kicks in and disconnects the drive. Could've been work trying to mount a cooler of some kind on it to keep the Philson chip cool long enough to see if the data is viable and extractable. Just a thought. Cheers.

[@compuprodurban1954]

Hi mate what sawt of camera u using mate

[@conorwalsh9360]

Heirns boot USB, boot laptop off this image and ensure SSD is plugged in at the same time, it will allow you to see what files are recoverable or not without any repairs, can do a lot more with Linux but if you are comfortable with windows use Heirns boot USB and recover anything you can then go ham :) keep up the great content, absolutely loving the RR series :)

[@jostouw4366]

Do you mean Hirens boot usb?

[@supergeekjay]

Try wrapping it with ice, that will keep the temperature down enough as it does seem to be a heat issue when it warms up under load.

[@lpoki8897]

People have mentioned Testdisk and Photorec which are both great and I'll add Linux. I find that Linux is a bit better at not refusing or getting confused about a drive that's wonky. And many awesome Linux distros are able to run from USB so you don't have to sweat about finding a PC to install it on.

[@headaega]

I agree.

[@lwcyan88]

Hello Vince, may i know the model of your mini laptop?