CS900 · CS3030 · CS3140 · XLR8 · Elite
PNY SSD data recovery. Budget SATA and Phison NVMe.
PNY's CS900 is one of the most common budget SATA drives in Britain and, in some revisions, a Phison S11 drive, with the SATAFIRM S11 failure that goes with it. The NVMe range, the CS2130 and CS3030 through to the CS3140 and the XLR8 lines, is largely Phison E-series, and the Elite portables are a PNY drive behind a USB bridge. No PNY-specific fault was documented in our research; the failures are the ones the controllers inside are known for. One PNY SSD 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 |
|---|---|---|
| SATA | CS900 (SSD7CS900), CS1311, CS2211, CS1030 M.2 SATA | Phison S11 · Silicon Motion, by revision |
| NVMe | CS1030, CS2130, CS2140, CS2230, CS3030, CS3040, CS3140, CS3150, XLR8 CS3030 and CS3140, XLR8 Gaming Kit | Phison E12, E13T, E16, E18, E26 |
| Portable | Elite, Elite-X, Pro Elite, RP60, Duo-Link | PNY drive behind a USB bridge |
What tends to go wrong on a PNY.
PNY symptoms, and how long each gives you.
Not listed? Describe it on the form →What the message means on a PNY.
Describe yours to us →| What you see | The usual reason | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| It now reports as SATAFIRM S11 | A Phison S11 controller running from ROM; the map is still on the flash | Recoverable on the bench; keep well away from the factory tool |
| 0GB, or a small placeholder size | Fallback firmware, translation table not loaded | Loader in RAM; map rebuilt |
| Not detected at all | Firmware will not load, or the power stage has failed | Diagnostic-state work, or board repair |
| Full size but empty after a tool was run | The drive was regenerated | Only a carve of unreferenced pages is possible |
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
- Two CS900s can be two different drives. The revision decides the controller, and the name on the screen when it fails tells us which.
- The forum fix ends the recovery. The Phison mass-production tools regenerate the drive and discard the map. If one has already been run, say so; a carve may still find a great deal.
- No DRAM means an exposed map. The S11 keeps its whole translation table on the flash and rewrites parts of it constantly, which is why a bad shutdown so often leaves it in ROM mode.
- One controller, a dozen badges. The method is the same whatever the label, which is why the name on the screen matters more than the name on the drive.
What helps, and what harms.
Do this much first
- Unplug it and leave it unplugged
- Note the badge and the model number
- Tell us if a tool has already been run
- Send the bare drive in an anti-static bag
What sets us back
- Running MPTool or any factory tool
- Flashing firmware from the maker's site
- Letting Windows initialise it
- Trying it in one machine after another
Questions answered before you commit.
My CS900 says SATAFIRM S11. What happened?
Its Phison S11 controller could not validate its firmware and has fallen back to its ROM. The data is still on the flash. Unplug it, do not download a fix, and send the form.
Which controller does a PNY 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.