M2 SSD Toast?

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carmen617

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Client dropped of an Acer laptop today complaining it wouldn't boot. Per our phone conversation, he was OK with the idea that he might need a new drive, but asked me to recover data if I can. System dropped off, and doesn't boot to Windows.

So, I booted into BIOS, which shows a Hynix M2 SSD installed. I booted with my Hiren's USB to see if I could access the drive, and the file manager in Hiren's Win10 PE doesn't show the drive. Just wondering, I don't have much experience with M2 SSD's. Should I consider this drive toast and tell the client he has to send it to a data recovery expert to see if they can get anything off of it? Or is there a possibility I can access the drive (since the BIOS sees it) in a different environment, even if the Win10 PE in Hiren's doesn't see a drive there?
 
Adapters don't cost that much. But if they really want the data and are willing to pay don't mess around with it anymore. Unlike spindles, when SSD's fail it's usually catastrophic. At least a DR pro might have a chance at grabbing something.

But if it's a fishing expedition knock yourself out. First thing I'd do is see if it W10 Pro and if they are using an MS account. If it is fair chance that that bit locker maybe involved as well. Either way I'd get Parted Magic boot from that and image to a USB drive. Or wait for an adapter and do it to a SATA/SSD which will be faster.
 
Markverhyden said:
Adapters don't cost that much. But if they really want the data and are willing to pay don't mess around with it anymore. Unlike spindles, when SSD's fail it's usually catastrophic. At least a DR pro might have a chance at grabbing something.

But if it's a fishing expedition knock yourself out. First thing I'd do is see if it W10 Pro and if they are using an MS account. If it is fair chance that that bit locker maybe involved as well. Either way I'd get Parted Magic boot from that and image to a USB drive. Or wait for an adapter and do it to a SATA/SSD which will be faster.
Click to expand...

I don't think a Microsoft acount/bitlocker is involved. The client told me the system has Windows 8 and is his home system, and when I asked for the password he told me there was none. Since I can't access the drive, I can't verify, but I doubt a system protected with bitlocker boots to windows without a password. He also told me most of his data was on Dropbox but he "hadn't transferred all of it over yet".

I actually have a suitable replacement M2 drive on hand, so I can replace the drive and clean install Win 10 if he wants. I don't plan to take any drastic measures, I was just wondering whether there are any boot options as easy as my Hirens disk to check, prior to telling the client his lack of backup strategy bit him in the butt, and he will have to send the disk to a recovery pro and pay top dollar if he wants to get those missing files. I'm happy to get an adapter (should probably have one already) if people think it will make a difference, but if an adapter is the issue, doesn't that indicate a failure with the connection of the drive to the mother board, which can be ruled out by a successful drive replacement?
 
Side note, there are several m.2 adapters on Amazon I know that some only read SATA m.2 and some only read NVme m.2 drives which one are you all using? Please quote me in response so I make sure to see this :D
 
carmen617 said:
I don't think a Microsoft acount/bitlocker is involved. The client told me the system has Windows 8 and is his home system, and when I asked for the password he told me there was none. Since I can't access the drive, I can't verify, but I doubt a system protected with bitlocker boots to windows without a password. He also told me most of his data was on Dropbox but he "hadn't transferred all of it over yet".

I actually have a suitable replacement M2 drive on hand, so I can replace the drive and clean install Win 10 if he wants. I don't plan to take any drastic measures, I was just wondering whether there are any boot options as easy as my Hirens disk to check, prior to telling the client his lack of backup strategy bit him in the butt, and he will have to send the disk to a recovery pro and pay top dollar if he wants to get those missing files. I'm happy to get an adapter (should probably have one already) if people think it will make a difference, but if an adapter is the issue, doesn't that indicate a failure with the connection of the drive to the mother board, which can be ruled out by a successful drive replacement?
Click to expand...

If it was me, with a replacement on hand, I'd just do the repair so they can get back in business and tell them that I'd work on the data recovery.

On the adapters. They keep on cropping with different ones. In the past I've bought them as a "just in case" and haven't touched them since. Of course I don't push break/fix but I have a feeling if I did it still would be nothing unless I had a store front.
 
I misworded my post, I know I need both, I'd like to know who has successfully used both and if they can link that product. Last time I looked I was looking at a lot of 3-3.5* products on amazon.
 
Markverhyden said:
If it was me, with a replacement on hand, I'd just do the repair so they can get back in business and tell them that I'd work on the data recovery.

On the adapters. They keep on cropping with different ones. In the past I've bought them as a "just in case" and haven't touched them since. Of course I don't push break/fix but I have a feeling if I did it still would be nothing unless I had a store front.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's my general plan - will call client tomorrow and tell him the bad news, plunk in the new drive and get him running again. Was just curious if someone thought something other than Win 10 PE might be able to read the drive internally.

I am with you, Mark - I've been holding off buying adapters because things change. I actually have a PCIe adapter, but this is a SATA drive. I have a personal laptop in house that will take the drive, so I can check it out in that if I feel like putting that much effort in. But I think if I put another drive into this computer and it works, it's the drive not the adapter.
 
M.2 NVMe drives do NOT show up when booting from Hirens, Parted Magic, or even a full portable Windows install. I don't know the specifics as to why, but if you want to diagnose the drive and get data off of it, you need a USB adapter that will allow the drive to report SMART data through (when you plug it in, it should say "Brand of SSD" rather than "Jmicron Adapter" or whatever the brand of the USB adapter is). I had to buy quite a few before I found one that did this. Unfortunately the adapter I bought off Amazon no longer exists. Thankfully I bought a bunch of them. You'll have to do what I did and start buying them randomly. Remember that there's a difference between M.2 SATA (which WILL show up under bootable software like Hirens and requires a different adapter), and NVMe M.2.
 
sapphirescales said:
M.2 NVMe drives do NOT show up when booting from Hirens, Parted Magic, or even a full portable Windows install. I don't know the specifics as to why, but if you want to diagnose the drive and get data off of it, you need a USB adapter that will allow the drive to report SMART data through (when you plug it in, it should say "Brand of SSD" rather than "Jmicron Adapter" or whatever the brand of the USB adapter is). I had to buy quite a few before I found one that did this. Unfortunately the adapter I bought off Amazon no longer exists. Thankfully I bought a bunch of them. You'll have to do what I did and start buying them randomly. Remember that there's a difference between M.2 SATA (which WILL show up under bootable software like Hirens and requires a different adapter), and NVMe M.2.
Click to expand...
It's an M.2 SATA drive (according to the model number I pulled from the BIOS, that is, I haven't taken the system apart yet). Does that make a difference with Hiren's?
 
carmen617 said:
It's an M.2 SATA drive (according to the model number I pulled from the BIOS, that is, I haven't taken the system apart yet). Does that make a difference with Hiren's?
Click to expand...
Depends. Are you using the ancient version of Hirens from like 6+ years ago with all the unlicensed software or the new version of Hirens which is basically just a version of WinPE? I've never used the newer version of Hirens because there are better options out there nowadays, but I know the old version would probably have issues with an M.2 drive (even if it's a SATA drive). Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of Parted Magic. It's much better than WinPE for running drive diagnostics.
 
I'm using the new version of Hirens, which is basically Win10 PE and a few free built in tools, and I actually love the way it works most of the time. Best thing for me is that I can boot an unbootable system and run Fabs from within that Win10 PE environment, that's saved my bacon a number of times.

I also booted simply with a Win 10 boot disk into the recovery environment, and that didn't see the drive either. I have some old Linux boot disks I can try, as well as Mini Power Tool Data Recovery, which is usually quite good at reading damaged disks Windows tells me needs to be formatted.

I'm about to invest $11.00 in Parted Magic, just because I should anyway. I'll report back if it finds anything.
 
Well, Parted Magic found the drive in it's "drive health" applet and reported it as "failed". That seems pretty final. Thanks for pointing me to buy Parted Magic, btw, looks like a useful tool.
 
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