Sydney · Australia-wide
An SSD erases deleted files on its own.
The drive does it in the background, often within minutes. That sorts SSD losses into deletions, which are mostly beyond anyone once housekeeping has run, and failures, where the data is often intact.
Before you do anything else
Protect the only copy.
- 01
Power it down
Every minute a failing drive runs can overwrite the bytes you need.
- 02
Skip consumer scanners
Desktop recovery apps write as they scan. That is the opposite of imaging a dying disk.
- 03
No repair, no format
chkdsk, First Aid and reinstall fix the disk; they do not preserve what was on it.
- 04
Call, then decide
Free triage: lab job, cleanroom referral, or Recovery Studio.
When / stop
Power it off, then read on.
Housekeeping runs whenever the drive has power, even at the login screen. Do not reinstall, initialise, or accept a format prompt. A drive that asks to be formatted has a damaged filesystem, and that is one of the recoverable cases.
Skip manufacturer tools and firmware updates on a failing SSD. If it is slowing, erroring or vanishing under load, stop using it. SSDs go from slow to absent without the warning noises a hard drive gives.
What we do
Tell deletion from failure, then image.
Image when the device enumerates. Note TRIM zero ranges and encryption. Do not call those empty success.
NVMe and SATA SSDs, including drives the firmware no longer presents cleanly when still readable at a lower level. External enclosures often fail at the USB bridge; the drive behind can still read once connected directly.
Where keys are missing, money does not decrypt the media. You hear that at assessment, before any quote.
We do not run a cleanroom. Mechanical failures (clicking, non-spinning, head crash) are referred after free assessment. We will not open the drive on a bench and make it worse.
What it costs
Published band, then a fixed quote.
SSD, NVMe and flash work from $399 after free assessment and a fixed quote. No recovery, no fee. If TRIM has already erased the deleted data, you hear it at assessment and pay nothing. Assessment is free. The figure you agree is fixed before recovery starts. Full lab bands and Recovery Studio licences are on Pricing.
FAQ
Common questions.
Can deleted files be recovered from an SSD?
From a modern internal SSD, usually no. TRIM tells the drive the space is free and the controller erases it. External SSDs over USB, and cases where the filesystem broke rather than files being deleted, are frequently recoverable. Assessment is free.
My external SSD is not detected. Is the data gone?
Often not. The USB bridge fails more often than the drive behind it. Exceptions are portables built as a single board, or ones that encrypt on the bridge. Which kind you own is established at assessment.
Windows says I need to format the drive. Should I?
No. That message reports an unreadable filesystem. Formatting replaces the damaged structures a recovery would work from. Power the machine down and have the drive assessed as it is.
Next step
Tell us what failed.
Free assessment. Fixed quote before recovery starts. No recovery, no fee. Sydney drop-off or Australia-wide by tracked post.