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Ratler
Asked: 2021-10-07 15:18:24 +0800 CST

Cannot read SSD inserted into USB enclosure

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Summary

I inserted an old internal SSD (which should have been in good health / not corrupted) into a USB enclosure, but I can't get any data from it.

Background

My old Kubuntu laptop with an encrypted (LUKS) SSD (Samsung MZ-VLV5120 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe 2280) stopped working. I took it into a shop, and they figured that some power-related component was destroyed. They replaced it, and the laptop came back on and booted up to the point of needing to unlock the encrypted SSD, so the SSD seems to have been OK.

Now, because the component they used was not the right size, they couldn't close it up properly, and they've been delaying for weeks. In the meantime, I got a new laptop, so I finally asked them to just give me the SSD, and I inserted it into a Sabrent USB 3.2 Type-C Enclosure for M.2 PCIe NVMe and SATA SSDs to move my data to my new laptop.

There's a fresh install of Kubuntu 20.04 on the new laptop.

Problem

When I connect the enclosure to the laptop, it comes on (enclosure LED comes on), and it shows up as /dev/sda, but I don't seem to be able to do anything with it. For example, it's not detected by KDE Partition Manager.

Also, I tried to take a backup image of it with gddrescue before trying anything else, just to be safe, but that doesn't seem to work either. By the way, I used to back up the SSD when it was still inside the ruined laptop with gddrescue, and it worked fine. But now, the process terminates immediately without doing anything:

GNU ddrescue 1.23
Press Ctrl-C to interrupt
     ipos:        0 B, non-trimmed:        0 B,  current rate:       0 B/s
     opos:        0 B, non-scraped:        0 B,  average rate:       0 B/s
non-tried:        0 B,  bad-sector:        0 B,    error rate:       0 B/s
  rescued:        0 B,   bad areas:        0,        run time:          0s
pct rescued:    0.00%, read errors:        0,  remaining time:         n/a
                              time since last successful read:         n/a
Finished

Questions

  1. Is there something else I would need to do in order to access the data in a case like this?
  2. Does what I'm seeing mean the drive might now be damaged? To be honest, one of the reasons I asked the shop to give it to me is that I started worrying that they might have been causing additional damage which is why they've been having delays/problems.
  3. Is there a chance the enclosure itself is showing up as /dev/sda, but the actual drive is not being read at all?
  4. Would there be a point trying to insert it into a different (compatible) PC, rather than trying to access from a USB enclosure?

Any help/suggestions appreciated.

P.S.: The most obvious comment would be: "why don't you just get the data from the backups you've mentioned". Unfortunately, I've lost the most recent backups of the drive, and the ones I do have are missing a lot of valuable information/work.

ssd

0 Answers