SSD Read-Only Mode: Why It Happens and How to Fix It

You attempt to save a document or transfer a file, and your computer throws an error: The drive is “Write Protected” or you’ve got a “Read-Only File System.”  If this isn’t a permissions error, it’s an issue with your storage...
December 8, 2025

Percussive Maintenance: Why You Should Never Hit a Hard Drive (Or SSD)

Hitting a failing hard drive or SSD will not fix it — it’ll make the problem worse. There, we’re done with the article.  What’s that? You need proof that percussive maintenance doesn’t work on data storage devices with extremely narrow...
November 17, 2025

SSD Failure Symptoms: 7 Signs a Solid-State Drive is Dying

Failing hard drives tend to make noises (though not always, as we’ve discussed in other articles). Solid-state drives are more subtle: They may not give any indication whatsoever that they’re near the end of their operational lifespans.  The most...
November 6, 2025

How Important is Ventilation for Hard Drive and SSD Longevity?

Electronic components generate heat, and ventilation is certainly a factor in the long-term health of your computer. Most modern computer cases are designed with adequate airflow, but a failure in ventilation can lead to catastrophic data loss.  When internal fans...
October 27, 2025

Signs Your SSD Is About to Fail: 4 Warning Signals to Watch For

Yes, your Solid-State Drive (SSD) can and will eventually fail. No storage device is perfect — and while SSDs don’t have any moving parts (depending on how you define “moving parts,” if you want to get technical), it’s still susceptible...
October 23, 2025

How to Securely Wipe a Hard Drive Before Selling or Recycling It

The most reliable way to securely wipe a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) is to perform a single-pass overwrite, which writes a pattern of zeros over the entire drive. That’s sufficient to make the original data unrecoverable by even the...
September 25, 2025

Should You Use the ATA Secure Erase Command on a USB SSD?

No, you should not rely on the ATA Secure Erase command to wipe a USB-connected solid-state drive (SSD). The ATA Secure Erase command is a powerful, built-in function for sanitizing internal drives, and it’s perfectly sufficient for sanitizing internal SSDs....
September 24, 2025

SSD vs. HDD Data Recovery: Key Differences and Techniques

While Datarecovery.com provides services for all digital storage devices, the vast majority of the cases we receive involve solid-state drives (SSDs) or hard disk drives (HDDs).  The prognosis for data recovery is strong for both device types, provided the work...
September 23, 2025

Can You Recover Data from a Water-Damaged SSD?

Yes, in many cases, data can be recovered from a water-damaged Solid-State Drive (SSD). The success of the recovery depends heavily on the type of water exposure (e.g., a minor spill versus full submersion in saltwater). The most important factor,...
September 19, 2025

How SSD Data Recovery Differs for Enterprise vs. Consumer Drives

Unless you’ve purposely purchased a solid-state drive (SSD) built for an enterprise server, you’ve got a consumer SSD — and given that enterprise SSDs are significantly more expensive than consumer models, that’s a safe bet for the vast majority of...
September 18, 2025