From a data recovery technician’s perspective, this is exciting, but problematic. To understand why, it’s helpful to understand a bit (pun intended) about how the new solid-state drives work.

Samsung’s QLC V-NAND Technology: Cheap, Fast, and Fragile

The new drives use a quad-level, 4-bit V-NAND technology, which Samsung refers to as QLC NAND.

The main advantage of QLC NAND is speed. By packing more capacity into its cells than other technologies like triple-level (TLC) NAND, QLC obtains blazing fast read/write speeds; the new drive will reportedly read at up to 540 MB/s and write at up to 520 MB/s.

But more density per cell comes at a cost. QLC storage can withstand fewer write cycles than other SSD technologies before become unreliable. This occurs because each erasure causes slight damage to the tunnelling oxide of the flash memory cells; over time, this results in errors as flash memory cells become unreadable.

To put that another way, QLC NAND has a shorter endurance than TLC NAND or other SSD technologies. On an extremely large drive, that might not be a big deal, provided that write cycles are relatively rare—but for heavy-write applications, QLC NAND has serious drawbacks.

What Does That Mean for Consumers?

For the average computer users, these concerns are minor, but notable. Samsung’s QLC solid-state drives will offer consumers a substantial upgrade over traditional hard drives in terms of speed, and when they’re affordable, they’ll likely become the obvious go-to choice for mobile computing. Flash technology is more resistant to physical shocks than hard drive technology, and the massive speed upgrade will allow for some pretty interesting applications; as Engadget noted, the new Samsung drives will be theoretically fast enough to capture and playback RAW 4K videos.

But consumers should understand that SSD technology still has significant drawbacks in terms of reliability. If you regularly back up your data—and, as we always note on this blog, check your backups—you can enjoy the coming QLC SSD revolution without major concerns.

If you don’t back up, recognize that SSD data recovery is currently much more difficult than hard drive data recovery. SSDs also have a ways to go before they’re a viable option for serious server applications in terms of affordability and reliability, and they’re not as dependable as hard drives when subjected to extensive read/write cycles.

We’re excited to get our hands on Samsung’s new solid-state drive technology to learn more. It’s okay to get excited—just realize that, in the world of storage, every new breakthrough comes with a few caveats.

The post Samsung’s 4TB SSD Is A Breakthrough, But There’s A Problem appeared first on Datarecovery.com.

If you’re having trouble understanding the concept of the TRIM operation, it’s helpful to know that solid-state drives don’t store data like hard drives. SSDs store data as blocks, which are divided into individual pages.

When data is deleted, however, the SSD must delete an entire block, then rewrite any pages of data that are not intended for deletion. When tasked with the same operation, a hard drive would simply overwrite the entire block.

To put this another way, NAND flash technologies can only write to a completely blank block. NAND can’t directly overwrite data in the way that a hard drive can, and for consumer applications, that creates a serious efficiency issue called write amplification — basically, the drive is writing more than it theoretically needs to write.

Fortunately, the TRIM command was developed to counteract this phenomenon. The operating system marks unimportant pages, then executes the TRIM command, essentially sending the NAND media a message saying “the user wants these pages deleted.”

After the command is sent, the SSD won’t maintain any of the trimmed data when it writes a new page.  This makes the drive more efficient. As all flash media is susceptible to wear, the TRIM command also extends the life of the device when combined with modern wear leveling techniques. TRIM was introduced with the first consumer solid-state drives, and it’s now in common use. However, the process has several drawbacks: it’s permanent, and actual performance improvements will vary depending on the implementation of the command.

Is the TRIM Command the Same for Every Drive?

No, not at all. The execution of the command will vary by operating system and by NAND device. Most major operating systems support the TRIM command, including Windows (Microsoft added the feature in a Windows 7 update known as KB2990941) and Mac OS X (although initially, Apple only supported the operation on its own branded solid-state drives). All newer solid-state drives support the operation, although some old drives may not use TRIM without firmware upgrades.

Can I Recover Deleted Data from a Solid-State Drive After a TRIM Operation?

No. The TRIM command irreversibly deletes data, regardless of operating system or other factors.

However, the operating system won’t always execute the command immediately, so if you delete data from a solid-state drive, there’s potentially some hope. As with all data deletion scenarios, time is of the essence.

What’s the Data Recovery Process for Files Deleted with the TRIM Command?

Immediately shut down the drive by unplugging its power source. Do not restart the computer, as this typically runs the command, eliminating the data forever.

If your solid-state drive has operated for days, the chances of a successful data recovery are extremely low. Datarecovery.com’s engineers will an image of the drive, then attempt to rebuild the affected data, but due to the nature of the command, recovery possibilities are limited. Nevertheless, our team has successfully recovered files from solid-state drives in past cases, and because every situation is unique, we recommend obtaining a professional evaluation. We encourage you to call 1-800-237-4200 to speak with a data recovery engineer regarding your solid-state drive.

The post What is the TRIM Command on Solid State Drives? appeared first on Datarecovery.com.

Datarecovery.com is well versed in the RAID levels RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, and 10 that OWC’s ThunderBay 4 and Elite Pro QX2 enclosures support, and of course the RAID 0 and RAID 1 of the Elite Pro and Elite Pro Dual. These options include both software and hardware RAID. If you’ve suffered one too many disk failures in your RAID system, or some other malfunction, chances are that we can help get you and your data back on your feet in no time.

OWC’s SSDs offer great upgrade options to improve speed and durability of your laptop, but despite their durability, SSDs can fail as well. Datarecovery.com has the best SSD and flash capabilities in the industry, and we can recover your SSD’s data whether there is a firmware or corruption issue, or electronic damage that requires us to remove the NAND chips and piece together the data. We have a proven track record in the most difficult of SSD recoveries.

The Mercury Rack Pro 4-bay includes connectivity via eSATA, FireWire, and USB 3.0 so it acts like an external drive despite it being rack mounted, and fits well with serious audio and video production workloads. The device can be configured as Span, RAID 0, 1, 3, 5 or 10, which pose no problems at all for Datarecovery.com’s engineers.

Whether you’ve encountered a failure of your RAID or SSD – maximize recoverability and minimize downtime by trusting your Other World Computing storage unit to Datarecovery.com’s experienced engineers, stellar customer support staff, and fully equipped recovery labs. Call 1.800.237.4200 to speak with a data recovery expert.

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In recent years, many personal computer users have moved from hard drives to solid-state drives in order to benefit from the new technology’s fast read/write speeds and superior durability. Solid-state drives do not have moving components, and their failure rates are generally lower than the failure rates for similar hard disk drives (HDDs).

However, DataRecovery.com has received a large number of solid-state drives through the last several years. DataRecovery.com President Ben Carmitchel says that many computer users do not back up their files because they believe that SSD offers complete protection from data loss.

“Solid-state drives can fail, and while they improve on hard drive technology in some ways, they’re far from infallible,” says Carmitchel “you still need to backup that QuickBooks file or Bitcoin wallet.”

Carmitchel notes that SSD technology has an inherently limited number of write cycles (commonly referred to as P/E cycles for Program-Erase).

“Many consumers don’t realize that solid-state drives can only write data a finite amount of times before losing integrity,” said Carmitchel. “Current wear-leveling technology allows for years of dependable functionality, but it’s still important to note that every SSD will eventually fail.”

While media wear is not a major cause of data loss at this point, Carmitchel notes that DataRecovery.com regularly receives solid-state drives that have failed for other reasons. For instance, SSD technology does not provide protection from power surges, fires, floods, or other physical events. Other common sources of data loss on solid-state drives include file corruption and user error.

“Your data is never safe without a backup,” said Carmitchel. “SSD technology is revolutionizing our industry, but we want computer owners to know that there’s no such thing as a perfect data storage medium.”

Datarecovery.com is a world leader in data recovery and computer forensics. With four locations in California, Illinois, Arizona, and Toronto, the company provides a variety of services to thousands of clients each year. Visit www.datarecovery.com for more information.

Contact Information

Datarecovery.com, Inc.
Ben Carmitchel
1-618-635-2020
www.datarecovery.com
Ph. 800.237.4200 ext. 269

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