Help Recovering SSD Please

kuroneko808 · 1 Sep 2015 at 23:02

The SATA cable connected to my SSD got a bit frazzelled and now the part of the SATA connector on my SSD has melted plastic on it. Does anyone have any tips in cleaning the connectors so that I can recover the data on the drive? Or is it beyond rescuing?

ED209 · 2 Sep 2015 at 10:01

never came across the issue before.

can you post a picture of the damage on the SSD?

how badly melted is it and is the drive still under warranty?

if the connecter itself is ok and the plastic housing has melted if you can clear that away you maybe able to get the cable in to try and get the data with it, just take your time and take care but this depends on the damage done already.

kuroneko808 · 2 Sep 2015 at 13:50

Thanks for the reply.

I've now posted a picture of the damage in my opening post.

I suspect the drive is out of warranty, but I'll check.

ED209 · 2 Sep 2015 at 15:07

looking at the picture I don't think there is going to be anything you can do to get the data from it.

it looks like there is about 4-5 metal connections missing or damaged where the black part is on the SSD.

what make SSD is it? some come with 3-5 years warranty on it so that's the route I would take as you may get the SSD back repaired rather than replaced

Armageus · 2 Sep 2015 at 15:15

kuroneko808 said:
Or is it beyond rescuing?

Depends on the value of the data on it.

ED209 said:
looking at the picture I don't think there is going to be anything you can do to get the data from it.

it looks like there is about 4-5 metal connections missing or damaged where the black part is on the SSD.

The data is still on the drive, so 99% it can be recovered - just depends if the cost is worth it.

In theory if you open the case up and look at the SSD circuit board the SATA connector is probably soldered on and could be replaced.

If you are not confident in doing it yourself (especially if the data is important), then get in touch with a data recovery firm, as it's likely to be a fairly easy job for most of them (as opposed to some hard drive recoveries that involve dismantling hard drive platters etc.)

If it is important data then make sure you learn at least one lesson out of this - make sure you backup your data.

kuroneko808 · 2 Sep 2015 at 19:39

Most of my important data (photos and the like) are stored on another drive, which oddly enough was backed up the day before this happened. The damaged SSD only had the OS and some game saves on it. It's certainly not worth spending much money on to recover the data. Whilst I'd like the game saves back (I had been a touch lax in backing those up) it's not the end of the world if they're gone.

I guess I was kind of hoping there may be some technique or doodad that might clean the melted plastic off the connectors.

armed_gorilla · 2 Sep 2015 at 20:07

I may be looking at it wrong but is that just plastic that's melted on top of the metal parts of the power connector? If so I'd be looking to use a Stanley blade to try and get it back to the metal connections. Just take it slowly.

pete910 · 2 Sep 2015 at 20:29

armed_gorilla said:
I may be looking at it wrong but is that just plastic that's melted on top of the metal parts of the power connector? If so I'd be looking to use a Stanley blade to try and get it back to the metal connections. Just take it slowly.

Am with you on that, looks as if the plastic on top of the pins is whats melted off the connector .

Have to ask, How it happen?

bledd · 2 Sep 2015 at 20:54

Any idea what caused this? Was it lighting in the case or something?

kuroneko808 · 2 Sep 2015 at 22:59

It's definitely melted plastic on the pins. I'll give the Stanley knife a go at the weekend and see how I get on.

As to how it happened, I have no idea. I switched the computer on and after about 5 minutes it switched itself off and then I saw smoke and smelt burning plastic. I quickly unplugged everything. The only visible damage was to the end of the SATA cable and obviously the resultant damage to the SSD connectors. I'd had the PC nearly 5 years with no issues. The SSD was probably 2-3 years old. If anyone has any theories I'd be interested to know so as to avoid something like this happening again (assuming it's not just plain ol' bad luck).

armed_gorilla · 5 Sep 2015 at 14:56

Did you manage to get this sorted in the end?

PDW · 5 Sep 2015 at 15:49

Is the SATA connector straight from the PSU or have you used a cable convertor ?
If straight from the PSU what PSU is it ?

Looks like the 12v line has shorted to the ground line inside the connector, got hot and melted the plastic onto the SSD pins. Would expect the SSD to still work if you manage to clean the plastic off so the new cable can make a good connection.

Cheap cable convertors are the most likely cause, if straight from your PSU then not expecting to hear that it is a good brand.

kuroneko808 · 5 Sep 2015 at 22:32

PDW said:
Is the SATA connector straight from the PSU or have you used a cable convertor ?
If straight from the PSU what PSU is it ?

Looks like the 12v line has shorted to the ground line inside the connector, got hot and melted the plastic onto the SSD pins. Would expect the SSD to still work if you manage to clean the plastic off so the new cable can make a good connection.

Cheap cable convertors are the most likely cause, if straight from your PSU then not expecting to hear that it is a good brand.

The PSU is an OCZ StealthXStream. As for the cables, the SATA cable is connected directly to a power cable that goes into the PSU.

I've used a craft knife to scrape as much of the melted plastic as I can from the pins. I'll probably give it another once over before I try to connect it again.

PDW · 6 Sep 2015 at 19:50

Never had an OCZ, no idea how they rate either, doing a search brings up others that have had similar problems to you but am sure that would be true for other makes if I looked.

I'd suggest emailing OCZ just to let them know it happened, I wouldn't expect a replacement but at least make them aware of the problem and leave it up to them. If few people ever tell them they go bang out of warranty they may not realise the scale of problem their products have. At least you can judge from their response whether you would ever want to buy one of their products again.

Have you managed to get the SSD to turn on yet ?

kuroneko808 · 8 Sep 2015 at 20:29

Good news. The drive seems to be fine. I scraped the melted plastic off the connectors with a craft knife and used a nail file to gently smooth off the slightly melted end of the SATA connector/PCB. I've just popped the drive into a cady and have it hooked up to an old nettop PC and all seems to be fine... So far.

Hope this solution helps anyone else with a similar problem. Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys.

If anyone has any thoughts as to what caused this I'd be interested, especially if it can help me avoid it happening again. Of course it could just be one of those things that happens occasionally and I was just unlucky that it happened to me.