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SDR / Every kind of SSD / U.2 and U.3

U.2 · U.3 · EDSFF · data centre

U.2 and U.3 enterprise NVMe recovery. Server drives, usually one of several, quoted as the set they belong to.

U.2 is enterprise NVMe in a 2.5-inch shell, usually 15mm thick, on an SFF-8639 connector. U.3 uses the same shell on a tri-mode backplane that can carry SAS, SATA or NVMe. The newer EDSFF rulers, E1.S and E3.S, are appearing in current servers. Samsung PM9A3 and PM1733, Micron 7450 and 9400, Kioxia CD6, CD8, CM6 and CM7, Solidigm D5 and D7, and WD Ultrastar DC SN-series are the drives we see. They carry power-loss protection and strong error correction, so when one fails it is usually the controller or its firmware. Most often, though, the drive is one member of an array. A lone enterprise drive is quoted after the free look; multi-drive sets start at £500 + VAT, and enterprise SAN and storage work at £1,250 + VAT.

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
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Enterprise NVMe symptoms, and what each means for the array.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
One drive dropped out of the arrayImage it first, before any rebuild is attempted. The array is recoverable while its other members are untouched.Do not delay
A rebuild started and failedStop. Label every slot. Nothing further until every member is imaged.Do not delay
The drive is not enumerating on the backplaneController or firmware; the flash is protected and usually intact.Do not delay
Firmware assert or a health warning in the management toolBack up now; if the drive has stopped, send it.Everyday job
The drive is self-encrypting and the key store has goneRecovery needs the key management details; we say so first.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 PM9A3, PM1733, PM1735Samsung enterprise controllers on Samsung flash; hardware encryption means the original controller is needed.
Micron 7450 and 9400Micron's own controllers; the 7450 is the drive in a great many current servers.
Kioxia CD6, CD8, CM6, CM7Kioxia controllers on BiCS flash; the CM series is dual-ported for storage arrays.
Solidigm D5-P5336 and D7-P5520; WD Ultrastar DC SN640, SN650, SN840Ex-Intel and WD enterprise lines, often under HPE, Dell, Cisco or NetApp part numbers with their own firmware.

What the message actually means.

Describe yours to us →
What is going on The usual reason for it Where that leaves you
A member shows failed or missing in the array managerThe drive has stopped enumeratingImage it before any rebuild
The array is degraded and a rebuild was startedData at risk while the rebuild writesStop the rebuild; image every member
The drive appears with OEM firmware the retail tools do not recogniseHPE, Dell, Cisco or NetApp part with vendor firmwareNormal; tell us the storage system
SMART shows a critical warningMedia wear or a firmware conditionBack up now
The pool will not import (ZFS, vSAN, Storage Spaces)Metadata on the missing memberSend every member, labelled

From the box arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

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
02

Powered on our terms

Enterprise drives are imaged before anything else, member by member, on their own interface. A drive that has stopped enumerating goes into its controller's diagnostic state; a drive that is merely degraded is imaged in careful passes with weak pages retried separately.

Vendor diagnostic modeNo hopeful reboots
03

Past the fault, to the map

With every member imaged, the array is reassembled in software from the images and the array's own metadata, whether that is a RAID controller's configuration, a ZFS pool, vSAN, Storage Spaces or a hypervisor's datastore, and the volumes and virtual disks are mounted from the reassembled set.

Loader in RAM, never on the flashMapping tables put back together
04

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
05

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 jobQuoted with the figure

What arrives most often

  • Label every slot before a single drive comes out. The order matters to the reassembly, and working it out from scratch adds days.
  • A rebuild is the most dangerous thing that can happen to a degraded array. It writes across every remaining member. Stop it and image first.
  • OEM firmware is normal. An HPE or Dell part number on a Samsung or Kioxia drive means vendor firmware and sometimes an unusual sector format. Tell us the storage system it came from.
  • Self-encrypting enterprise drives need their keys. If the array used drive-level encryption managed by the controller or a key server, we need those details before any work can begin.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDR-2026-0339JOB LOGGED ✓

A six-drive NVMe ZFS pool that would not import after a failed member

A small hosting firm's pool lost one Micron 7450 and, in the scramble, a second was pulled from the wrong slot. Every drive came here labelled, the quiet one was imaged in its controller's diagnostic state, and the pool was imported from the six images with the slot order reconstructed from the ZFS labels. The datasets mounted and the virtual machines started.

100% of the pool imported6 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Stop any rebuild immediately
  • Label each drive with its slot number
  • Send every member, not just the failed one
  • Tell us the storage system and any encryption

What sets us back

  • Replacing the failed drive and rebuilding
  • Re-creating the array or the pool
  • Re-ordering drives to see what happens
  • Flashing firmware to make a drive appear

Questions answered before you commit.

Can you recover a single U.2 drive from a vSAN or ZFS pool?

The pool needs the other members. Send them all, labelled with slot numbers, and the pool is reassembled from the images. A lone drive from a striped set holds only fragments.

Are these drives self-encrypting?

Many are. If the array used drive-level encryption, we need the key management details before work can begin, and we say so first.

Can I plug a U.2 drive into a PC?

Only with a U.2 adapter or a compatible backplane, and only if it is healthy. A failed drive should not be tried anywhere; send it.

What does it cost?

A set of drives starts at £500 + VAT and enterprise storage at £1,250 + VAT. One figure is written down after the free look.

How long does it take?

Quoted with the figure. A set is typically five to ten days at the bench.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

SAS SSDs →SSD RAID and NAS →PCIe add-in cards →Samsung →Kioxia →Solidigm →

Stop the rebuild, label the slots, and send the form.

Every member imaged before anything is put back together. The first look is free, and the figure for the set is written down before any chargeable work.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting