A data recovery clean room.
Data can often be recovered from a self-encrypting drive (SED), but the can be complex. Successful recovery rarely involves “breaking” the encryption, which is — by design — virtually impossible.
Instead, engineers must repair the underlying issue that is preventing the drive from decrypting its own data. In this article, we’ll explain how SED encryption works and how it impacts data recovery.
Datarecovery.com provides professional resources for hard drive and solid-state drive data recovery. With risk-free evaluations, industry-leading success rates, and a comprehensive no data, no charge guarantee, we provide our clients with peace of mind. To get started, call 1-800-237-4200 or open a ticket online.
Hardware Encryption on an SED: An Overview
As the name implies, the encryption on an SED is handled directly by the drive’s hardware. Every piece of data written to the drive is automatically and transparently encrypted by a dedicated chip on the drive’s controller board.
Here’s a simplified breakdown of the components involved:
- Data Encryption Key (DEK): This is the key that directly encrypts and decrypts your data. The DEK is generated and stored securely within the drive itself and never leaves the hardware.
- Key Encryption Key (KEK): This is the key that locks and unlocks the DEK. Your password or authentication method is used to create or grant access to the KEK.
- The Encryption Engine: A physical processor built into the drive’s controller that performs the real-time encryption and decryption of data as it is written and read from the NAND memory chips.
When you power on your computer and enter your password, you are providing the KEK. The drive’s controller uses the KEK to unlock the DEK. Once the DEK is unlocked, the encryption engine can decrypt data on the fly as you access it.
The whole process is seamless (and extremely fast), which is why SEDs are common in both consumer-grade and enterprise-level solid-state drives (SSDs).
All the data on the platters or NAND chips is permanently encrypted by default. Without a functional controller, a healthy encryption engine, and the correct key, the raw data is completely unintelligible — and from a data recovery perspective, that matters.
Data Recovery and Hardware Encryption
Hardware encryption introduces a point of failure that can lead to permanent data loss. If you’ve got a drive that uses SED, you need a good data backup strategy (though that’s always the case, regardless of the technologies you’re using to store your files).
Recovery is often impossible without the original, intact encryption key because the algorithms used are mathematically unbreakable by any current public or commercial technology. The only way to decrypt the data is to use the exact key that was used to encrypt it.
Data can become permanently inaccessible in a few key scenarios:
- Key Corruption: If the area of the drive where the DEK is stored becomes corrupted or is electronically damaged, the key is lost forever.
- Controller Damage: If the encryption engine on the controller chip fails, the drive loses its ability to perform the decryption, even if the key is technically intact.
- Forgotten Password: If you lose the password (or whatever other authentication method you’re using), you lose the KEK and the ability to unlock the DEK. There are no backdoors to this process — otherwise, SED would be a much less useful technology.
For encrypted drives, a successful recovery is one where we can get the drive’s own internal systems working again. While we provide services that attempt to get around certain types of encryption, that’s not really feasible for most SEDs — our goal is to restore the hardware and firmware that manages that encryption.
Data Recovery Techniques for SED Recovery
Here’s an overview of our action plan for recovery:
Electronics and Firmware Analysis
We use specialized hardware tools to communicate directly with the drive’s controller at a low level. This allows us to bypass the standard computer interface and assess the health of the drive’s internal components.
Most SED failures are caused by:
- Firmware Corruption: The drive’s internal operating software has become corrupted, preventing it from booting up properly and loading the encryption keys.
- Electronic Failure: A component on the printed circuit board (PCB) has failed, cutting power to the controller or other critical systems.
In an ideal case, the drive’s controller will have issues but the SED components will be intact. In those scenarios, the prognosis for a full data recovery is excellent.
Targeted Repairs and Workarounds
If the issue is firmware-related, our engineers use proprietary tools to load a correct version of the firmware into the drive’s RAM or to patch the corrupted modules on the service area of the drive.
It’s important to note that SSD firmware is complex, even for consumer models: Two drives with the exact same model number may have key differences in their firmware, so some degree of reverse-engineering is almost always necessary.
If the issue is electronic, we perform micro-soldering to replace failed components on the PCB. Once power and data lines are restored, the drive can often power on and function normally.
What About Chip-Off Recovery?
For traditional, non-encrypted drives, a last-resort technique is a chip-off recovery, where we physically remove the NAND memory chips and read them with a special device.
This isn’t always practical for SED drives, since the unique encryption key and decryption engine from the original controller are essential. Successful recovery depends on repairing the original controller, not bypassing it.
Data Recovery Solutions for SED Drives
All data recovery cases start with an evaluation for a simple reason: Until our engineers assess your case, they can’t effectively determine which components are functional.
A drive that appears completely dead to your computer may have a simple electronic fault. Firmware issues that lock you out of your data can frequently be resolved with appropriate tools and expertise.
Datarecovery.com utilizes purpose-built systems and decades of experience to diagnose failures in a non-destructive manner. If you’ve lost access to data on a self-encrypting drive, contact our experts for a free consultation.
Contact Datarecovery.com at 1-800-237-4200 or submit a case online to start your risk-free evaluation.
