Aura Pro X2 · Aura N2 · Envoy Pro FX · Express 1M2
OWC SSD data recovery. The Mac upgrade specialists, and the blades they fitted.
OWC's Aura blades replaced Apple's original SSDs in 2010 to 2017 Macs, and that is where we see the name most: an Aura Pro X2 or Aura N2 in a MacBook Air or Pro that has stopped. They come out like the Apple original and are read on an adapter. The Envoy portables and the Express 1M2 hold an NVMe drive behind USB-C or Thunderbolt bridges, and the Mercury Extreme SATA drives are older SandForce designs. No OWC-specific fault was documented in our research. One OWC SSD, an Aura blade included, is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, 3–5 days at the bench.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668
Models we see, family by family.
Which kind of drive is it →| Family | Models | Controller commonly reported |
|---|---|---|
| Aura blades | Aura (SATA), Aura Pro, Aura Pro X, Aura Pro X2, Aura N, Aura N2 (PCIe blades for 2013–2017 Macs), Aura P12, P13 (M.2) | Silicon Motion · Phison E12 · Marvell, by generation |
| Envoy and Express | Envoy Pro, Envoy Pro EX, Envoy Pro FX, Envoy Pro Elektron, Envoy Pro SX, Express 1M2 (USB4) | Phison NVMe behind USB-C, Thunderbolt and USB4 bridges |
| Mercury SATA | Mercury Extreme Pro 6G, Mercury Electra 6G, Mercury Accelsior PCIe | SandForce SF-2281 · Marvell |
What tends to go wrong on a OWC.
OWC symptoms, and how long each gives you.
Not listed? Describe it on the form →What the message means on a OWC.
Describe yours to us →| What you see | The usual reason | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| "The disk you attached was not readable", or asks to format | File system damaged by a disconnect, or a bridge fault | Do not initialise; recoverable in most cases |
| Mounts, then vanishes | Bridge solder, cable or controller crash | Stop using it; image it |
| No light at all | Bridge or power stage | Often a quick bypass |
| Reads as 0 bytes or the wrong size | The SSD behind the bridge is in ROM mode | SSD work, as for an internal drive |
From the box arriving to your files going back.
Work we have closed →Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free
A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. The drive is read on our own equipment, never in a computer that might send it a TRIM command. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
Powered on our terms
Every power-on gives a failing SSD another chance to run its own housekeeping. Here the drive is brought up in the controller's diagnostic state instead, which lets the bench speak to the flash directly and keeps damaged firmware out of the conversation.
Past the fault, to the map
Working code is loaded into the controller's memory rather than onto the flash, the service area is read, and the translation table is rebuilt from what is there. Where the controller itself is dead, the chips are read one by one and the controller's scrambling and error correction are undone in software.
A full image, then the volume
Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, weak pages retried in their own passes, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the key you supply, and never on the original.
You see the file list before you pay
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
From the bench
- Send the cable it came with. A drive that disconnects on one cable and not another is telling us where the fault is.
- Never let Disk Utility repair or erase it. First Aid on a damaged volume can make a bad situation permanent.
- Bridges may or may not pass TRIM. A deleted file on a portable drive may survive far longer than on an internal one, or may not. Power it off either way.
What helps, and what harms.
Do this much first
- Keep the original cable and send it
- Note the exact model and capacity
- Photograph any error message
- Send it in a padded bag
What sets us back
- Clicking Initialise, Format or Erase
- Running First Aid on a damaged volume
- Updating its firmware now
- Opening the case yourself
Questions answered before you commit.
Can you recover an OWC Aura Pro X2 from my MacBook Pro?
Yes. It comes out like Apple's original blade and is read on an adapter for the connector. The Mac stays at home, and the deleted-file odds are often better than on an internal drive because TRIM is off on third-party Mac SSDs unless it was turned on deliberately.
Which controller does a OWC SSD use?
More than one, depending on the model and the year. The free look identifies the controller family before anything is attempted, and that decides the route in: a Phison drive, a Silicon Motion drive and an in-house design are each recovered differently.
What does it cost?
£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing before any chargeable work. On most jobs no data means no bill.
How long does it take?
3–5 days at the bench after the free look. Priority handling is quoted separately when you ask for it.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Nothing gets worse while the power is off.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the drive switched off.