mSATA · 30 × 50mm · the laptops of ten years ago

mSATA SSD data recovery. The small card from the laptops of about ten years ago.

mSATA was the compact SSD before M.2 took over: a small card in a slot shaped like mini-PCIe, carrying the SATA protocol. It turns up in older ThinkPads and Dell Latitudes, in small PCs and industrial boxes, and in the Samsung 840 and 850 EVO and Crucial M500 mSATA models. The controllers are older, the flash is often planar MLC or early TLC, and the failures are ones we know well. The Samsung 840 EVO mSATA shared the 840 EVO's slow-reads-of-old-data fault and was the last variant to get its firmware fix, in October 2015. One drive is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, 3–5 days at the bench.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668

mSATA symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →

Not detected at allController or firmware. The flash, older and often MLC, is usually the healthiest part.Do not delay

Shows 0GB or a controller nameROM mode; the map is not loaded.Do not delay

Painfully slow to read old filesOn an 840 EVO mSATA, the documented read-degradation fault. Readable, slowly.Everyday job

Errors on copy, uncorrectable counts risingWorn or weak flash. Image it now.Everyday job

The laptop is deadThe card comes out with one screw. Send the card.Everyday job

Packing it and posting it: a bare SSD travels in an anti-static bag inside a small padded box, with nothing able to move. Insure it for what the files are worth rather than the price of the drive, and use a tracked service. The posting address is not printed anywhere on this site; it arrives by email in reply to the form, with a booking sheet to print; the sheet inside the parcel is what matches it to your enquiry when it is opened. Or hand the sealed parcel in at the nearest of ten drop-off points, your name on the outside and the sheet inside; say where you are on the form and it comes by email. We pay the postage home either way. The whole of it is written up on the guide to packing and posting.

Brand by brand, and what tends to go wrong.

Samsung 840 EVO and 850 EVO mSATASamsung's own controllers. The 840 EVO's slow reads of old data were fixed by firmware EXT43B6Q on the mSATA version in October 2015, a year after the 2.5-inch drive.

Crucial M500 and M550 mSATAMarvell controllers on Micron flash, from the same family as the m4 that had the 5,184-hour bug.

Intel 525 and 530 mSATASandForce-based, with the SandForce family's own habits under power loss.

Industrial and embedded mSATAInnodisk, Swissbit, Transcend and others, often SLC or pSLC with proprietary firmware. Recovered case by case.

What the message actually means.

Describe yours to us →

What is going on	The usual reason for it	Where that leaves you
The BIOS lists nothing	Controller or firmware not starting	Bench work; the flash is usually fine
0GB, or a strange name	Firmware in ROM mode	Map rebuild
Old files read at 30MB/s, new ones at full speed	The 840 EVO read-degradation fault	Readable; a slow image rather than a recovery
Uncorrectable errors climbing	Weak or worn flash	Image now
Won't fit an M.2 slot	It is not M.2	Compatibility; an mSATA-to-SATA adapter exists for healthy drives

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.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo TRIM, no writes

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.

Vendor diagnostic modeNo hopeful reboots

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.

Loader in RAM, never on the flashMapping tables put back together

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.

One careful imageThe volume verified end to end

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.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job3–5 days at the bench

What arrives most often

mSATA and M.2 are different connectors. An mSATA card will not fit an M.2 slot, and a healthy mSATA card can be read through a simple mSATA-to-SATA adapter because there is no bridge chip involved, only a change of shape.
Older flash, often two bits per cell, tends to hold data well over time. It is the controller and firmware on these drives that fail.
Some industrial mSATA cards carry proprietary firmware with no public diagnostic state. Those are quoted after the free look, honestly, including when the answer is no.
The laptop is rarely the problem. A ten-year-old machine that has died usually has a healthy card inside it. Take the card out and post the card.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDR-2026-0361JOB LOGGED ✓

An 840 EVO mSATA out of a ThinkPad, and a decade of a small firm's accounts

The ThinkPad had slowed to a crawl over a year and then would not boot. The card came out and here it read, slowly, with the old data in the documented degraded state. It was imaged in one long pass rather than repaired, because a firmware update on a failing drive is a risk we do not take with somebody's only copy. Every ledger and every VAT return opened.

100% of it recovered4 days here, and back by post

Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

Take the card out of the laptop and post the card
Keep the single screw with it
Note the model number on the label
Tell us the operating system it ran

What sets us back

Trying it in an M.2 slot — it does not fit
Running a firmware update on it
Leaving it powered in a slow machine for days
Formatting it to make it boot

Questions answered before you commit.

Is mSATA the same as M.2?

No. They are different connectors and different shapes. mSATA is the older, squarer card; M.2 is the long thin stick. Neither fits the other's slot.

Can I read it with a USB adapter?

A healthy card reads through an mSATA-to-SATA adapter or a USB enclosure. A failing card should not be tried through either; send it in bare.

What does it cost?

£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing before any chargeable work.

How long does it take?

3–5 days at the bench after the free look.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

M.2 SATA →SATA 2.5-inch →Samsung →Crucial →The laptop is dead →

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.

0800 6890668

Price my job Packing and posting

Every kind of SSD

Manufacturers

Whatever it is doing now

What it costs, and what follows