Need help copying and recovering data from SSD

My computer boots from an SSD. The SSD stopped working. I put it in an enclosure and plugged it into another computer.

It does not show up in Disk Management or File Explorer. It does show up in Device Manager, but it has problems.



I'd like to copy it / image it, then use recovery software on the copy. Is that going to be possible?

I also need advice on what to use. I hope free software will be enough. I will be grateful for any advice!

That's the important part. For the curious, here's more info on what happened - I have a Lenovo Legion Y540. It had trouble powering down one day. When I tried to turn it back on, I got an error message. I went into BIOS and it didn't detect the SSD.

I searched and other people have had this problem. Some of them fixed it with power cycling, or changing BIOS options. That didn't work for me.

The computer is only 4 months old and is still under warranty. I want to get my data before I ask them to repair it.

(Windows version number on old computer - unknown. On computer I'm using - 1809)

Member Jumanji is the guy you have to hope sees this.

Advice for right now:

Don't write anything to the disk as that will lower your chances for recovery.

You may need partition recovery or you may need data recovery. If you can recover the partition, the data may well be easily recovered. If the partition is unrecoverable, you would be forced to data recovery, which is quite iffy.

There are free tools that do a pretty good job such as Minitool Partition Wizard and Testdisk, but I'm not qualified on either.

Thanks for the fast reply! I'm glad to hear there may be hope. (Also I love Ignatz.)

Is the disk in question the 970 Pro? If so, does the external enclosure support NVME drives?

That is a good question. Actually I wanted to check about Samsung 970 Pro, but forgot. Thanks @jonnied12 for bringing it.

I see that 970 Pro Interface is PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 with form factor M.2 (2280). I hope OP rainyday is using a compatible external enclosure. He may please confirm.

Thanks for the replies, I was afraid it would be bad news.

I think the enclosure is compatible, it's this:

Robot Check

I can't test it with another SSD, I don't have another NVME ssd. I plugged it in to another computer, and disk management didn't see it on that computer, either.

I checked last night and I do have a backup of my pictures, so that's good. That was the main thing I was worried about.

For some reason I can't get MiniTool Partition Wizard to install. The install starts and I select language, then it just disappears.

But thanks again for the help, now I can begin the process of getting it repaired.

rainyday said:

But thanks again for the help, now I can begin the process of getting it repaired.

Do not say anything to the manufacturer about your attempts to retrieve files from the SSD by removing it from the computer. That action may have voided your warranty.

NavyLCDR said:

Do not say anything to the manufacturer about your attempts to retrieve files from the SSD by removing it from the computer. That action may have voided your warranty.

Thanks, that's good advice.