SSD partition and data recovery software - Windows 10

[jingars]

My mother-in-law's Windows 10 desktop PC is a paperweight. Info is that it got stuck with a spinning wheel on screen during a Windows update and so it was switched off...

I had set up a desktop icon to permit a data backup be run to a portable external drive. This was last run in August 2020.

Attaching the boot SSD to a caddy and seeking to run the trial version of AOMEI Partition Manager doesn't get going; it sits at 0%:


A Windows-based view of the SSD:


Q1: Am I flogging a dead horse here?

Q2: Has anyone had any positive experience of a similar circumstance and been able to successfully resurrect any data using recovery software?

The 2020 backup and the wider family can reinstate images, which is my M-I-L's key concern.

More recent documents would be a "nice to have", but not to the extent (cost) of sending the disk to a professional DR company.

Any advice or experiences gratefully received.

[xeny]

I'd start by pointing https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec at it - it recovers any files/fragments it recognises any part of to another device.

Doesn't do anything to the disk, is reasonably fast and free. Despite the name, it looks for a wide range of formats

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/File_Formats_Recov...

If that doesn't find anything, I suspect that the drive is a lost cause. What is the underlying make/model?

[jingars]

Thanks for the response, xeny - will have a go.

The drive is a "Drevo X1" 480GB SSD.

The PC is a rather old "bitsa" which had the old spinning drive upgraded to a SSD.

As a replacement I have acquired a refurbed Dell Optiplex from Amazon for £144 (via Prime).

[eeLee]

SpinRite might help you recover the surface of the drive, do you know someone with a copy since it's $90?

[TonyRPH]

In my experience, once an SSD dies, that's it - game over (at an amateur level).

Not sure if any professional companies can recover data though - but I would imagine it's not cheap.

As for the suggestion of using SpinRite on an SSD - I would advise reading this thread on the GRC forums.

[jingars]

Thanks all for taking the time to reply.

PhotoRec hasn't found anything after 1.75 hours, so will knock it off.


I am sure that TonyRPH has accurately summarised the state of affairs:


Not the end of the world - and hopefully some valuable lessons learned.

Whilst prepping the replacement PC over the BH weekend I found out that the MS Office 365 account my M-I-L uses (part of her son's family account) provides her with a bucketload of OneDrive storage, so the situation could have been avoided at zero additional cost...

[xeny]

jingars said:

The drive is a "Drevo X1" 480GB SSD.

I guess that was the brand of the enclosure the drive was in. Looks an ideal product for a MiL's PC.

There's little more galling than what would have been a useful backup arrangement that has failed for a trivial reason.