How to Recover Data from a Dead SSD? How to Fix a Dead SSD?

What If an SSD Becomes Dead/Failed/Crashed

The full name of SSD is Solid State Drive. Compared with Hard Disk Drive (HDD), SSD has more advantages. For example, an SSD doesn’t have movable mechanical components, so it doesn’t make noise when running. An SSD’s read and write speeds are much faster than an HDD. Besides, an SSD is consuming less energy and it is more durable. An SSD is a better choice for gaming. (See SSD vs. HDD).

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Nowadays, more and more users choose to use SSDs as their storage devices. SSD is a good choice, but this doesn’t mean it will have no issue forever. An SSD can become dead unexpectedly. In most cases, there are many useful files on the SSD and you want to recover data from a dead SSD.

Can you recover data from a dead SSD?

Of course, yes, you can use professional data recovery software like MiniTool Power Data Recovery to rescue your files. When your data is safe, you can take steps to repair the failed SSD.

Here is how to recover data from a dead SSD and how to fix a dead/failed/crashed SSD using different methods.

Dead SSD Data Recovery: How to Recover Data from a Dead SSD via MiniTool Data Recovery Service

About MiniTool Power Data Recovery

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a professional file recovery tool. It is designed to recover files from both internal hard drives and external hard drives, SSDs, memory cards, SD cards, USB flash drives.

This software can not only recover lost and deleted files on a storage drive but also recover data from SSD not detected or inaccessible. So, it fully meets your need to perform an SSD failure recovery.

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Dead SSD Data Recovery via MiniTool Power Data Recovery

This software has a free edition, which allows you to recover 1 GB of files for free. If you are not sure if this program is the one you want to use, you can try this free edition in advance.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

To recover files from a dead SSD using this MiniTool data recovery software, you can use these steps:

Step 1: Download and install this software on your PC.

Step 2: Launch this software to enter its main interface. Then, you can see all drives this software can detect under Logical Drives.

Step 3: If this software can also detect the dead SSD, you can hover over it and click the Scan button to start scanning it. The scanning process will last for seconds. You should wait until the whole process ends to get the best SSD data recovery effect.

Step 4: By default, all scanned files are categorized by the path. You can access each path and find your needed files. If there are so many scanned files, you can switch to the Type tab to make this software show files by the file type. Then, you can find your needed file based on the file type. Besides, you can also use the Filter, Search, and Preview features to help you quickly find your needed files.

Step 5: Select the files you want to restore. You are allowed to select files from different folders. Then, click the Save button to continue.

Step 6: Choose a location to save the selected files. The destination folder should not be the original SSD. One reason is that the drive is failed, the other reason is that any new written data could overwrite the missing files on the drive (when the drive is normal).

Step 7: Click OK to start saving the selected files.

Step 8: When the data recovery process ends, you can click the View Recovered button to directly access the destination folder and use the recovered files.

You see it is easy to recover data from a failed SSD by using MiniTool Power Data Recovery.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

If you want to use this data restore tool to remove more files (more than 1 GB), you need to use a full edition. MiniTool Software offers both personal editions and business editions for personal users and business users. You can go to MiniTool’s official store to select a suitable edition according to your situation. If you are a personal user, the Personal Ultimate edition can fully meet your needs.

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Recover Data when Your PC Won’t Boot due to the Internal SSD Is Dead/Failed/Crashed

If your internal SSD is crashed, you will be unable to boot your computer normally. Don’t worry. MiniTool Power Data Recovery Bootable Edition can help you recover files from an unbootable computer.

You can use the MiniTool bootable media builder to create a bootable USB drive, then set your computer to boot from the bootable USB drive. After that, you can see the MiniTool Power Data Recovery main interface, then you can scan the dead SSD and recover data using the universal steps (introduced in the above section).

Here is a tutorial: How to Recover Data When PC Won’t Boot.

How to Fix a Dead SSD?

Now, your data on the SSD is safe. You can use the following methods to fix the dead SSD. These methods are for different situations. If you do not know the reason for your SSD issue, you can just try all these methods until your find the suitable one.

Possible Symptoms of a Dead SSD

If you encounter one of the following situations, it usually means your SSD is dead, failed, or crashed. You need to do something to try to fix the drive:

• The SSD turns to RAW.
• You can’t access the SSD successfully.
• The SSD runs slowly while reading and writing.
• Your PC won’t boot normally.
• Your PC runs slowly.
• The apps installed on the SSD are crashed.

If you cannot start your computer normally, you need to do the following things in Safe Mode or Windows Recovery Environment (RE).

• See how to boot your computer into Safe Mode.
• See how to enter Windows Recovery Environment.

A Quick Fix if Your SSD Is Not Detected or Showing up in File Explorer

All drives shown up in File Explorer must have drive letters. If the drive has no a drive letter, it can only be visible in Disk Management. So, if your SSD is not detected in File Explorer, you can go to Disk Management and see if it has a drive letter. If not, you can add a drive letter to it.

How to add a drive letter for an SSD in Disk Management?

You can add a drive letter for your SSD in Disk Management (a Windows built-in disk manager).

Step 1: Press Windows + X to open the WinX menu. Then select Computer Management to continue.

Step 2: Select Disk Management from the left menu.

Step 3: Check if you can see the SSD. If you can see it, you can right-click it and select Change Drive Letter and Path.

Step 4: Click Add and assign a drive letter for it.

Step 5: Click OK to save the change.

Now, you should be able to see the SSD in File Explorer.

How to add a drive letter for an SSD using MiniTool Partition Wizard?

In addition, you can also use a third-party partition manager like MiniTool Partition Wizard to add a drive letter for the SSD. This software has a Change Letter feature that can help you change a drive letter or add a drive letter.

The Change Letter feature is available in MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition. You can download and install this freeware on your PC and then try this feature.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

This software also has many other useful features. For example, you can use it to extend partitions, merge partitions, migrate OS to a new drive, etc.

Way 1: Update the SSD Firmware

If the SSD firmware is not up-to-date, your SSD might not work properly. You can use the following steps to update the SSD firmware:

Step 1: Press Windows + X to open the WinX menu, then select Device Manager to open it.

Step 2: Expand Disk drives, then right-click the target SSD and select Properties to continue.

Step 3: Switch to Details, then expand Property and select Hardware Ids. Note one value for the SSD.

Step 4: Open your web browser like Chrome or Edge and search for the hardware ID you get. Then open the firmware update page from the official site.

Step 5: Download the firmware and run the setup to get the latest firmware for that SSD.

After these steps, you can check if the SSD is normal.

If there are no changes, you can update the driver for the SSD to have a shot.

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Way 2: Update the Driver for the SSD

Step 1: Press Windows + X to open the WinX menu, then select Device Manager to open it.

Step 2: Expand Disk drives, then right-click the target SSD and select Update driver to continue.

Step 3: On the pop-up interface, you need to click Search automatically for drivers and follow the on-screen guides to complete the driver update.

After updating the SSD driver, you can check if the drive can run normally. If not, you can try the next solution.

Way 3: Run CHKDSK

If there are errors or bad sectors on the SSD, you can easily encounter issues when using the drive. But you can run CHKDSK to find and fix found errors, or block bad sectors and recover readable information.

Here is a guide:

Step 1: Run Command Prompt as administrator. You can click Start, search for cmd using search, right-click Command Prompt from the search results, and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Run this command: “chkdsk /f /x *:”. You should replace * with the drive letter of the SSD.

Step 3: Wait until the whole process ends. This tool can find and automatically fix the found issues.

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Way 4: Format the SSD to Normal

If the above method cannot help you solve the SSD problem, you will need to format the SSD to normal.

Format an SSD in File Explorer

It is easy to format an SSD: you can just do this job in File Explorer.

Step 1: Press Windows + E to open File Explorer.

Step 2: Click This PC from the left menu.

Step 3: Find the target SSD, then right-click it and select Format.

Step 4: Assign the parameters like file system and volume label based on your requirements.

Step 5: Deselect Quick Format if you want to perform a deep format. But here you should know that all files will be removed and unrecoverable after a deep format. If there are important files on it, you should use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to rescue the files in it.

Step 6: Click the Start button to start formatting the SSD.

Format an SSD using MiniTool Partition Wizard

You can also use the Format Partition feature in MiniTool Partition Wizard to format your SSD. This feature is also free. This software allows you to preview the format effect before you apply the changes.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Wrapping Things up

When your SSD is dead, failed, or crashed, you can first try MiniTool Power Data Recovery to rescue your files. After that, you can use the solutions in this article to fix the SSD. There should be a suitable method for you.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

If you encounter issues when using MiniTool software, you can contact us via [email protected].