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SDR / Whatever it is doing now / Deleted files and TRIM

Deleted · emptied · formatted · TRIM

Deleted from an SSD, and what TRIM is doing about it. This is the one job measured in hours.

When you delete a file on an SSD, Windows, macOS and Linux tell the drive with a TRIM command that those blocks no longer matter, and the drive erases them in the background whenever it has a moment. The guidance from the makers of the recovery equipment we use is that this takes anywhere from ten minutes to twenty-four hours. If you shut the machine down within minutes, some or all of the data may still be there. If it has been running for days, it almost certainly is not, and we will say so at the free look rather than take your money to look for it. There are exceptions, listed below, and they matter. One drive is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, and on most jobs no data means no bill.

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

Shut it down now. Not sleep, not restart: a full shutdown, and leave it off. Do not install recovery software onto the same drive. Do not open the folder to check. Every minute the drive is powered is a minute of background erasing. Then send the form, and say when the deletion happened.

Why a hard disk forgives a deletion and an SSD does not.

A hard disk marks a deleted file's space as free and leaves the data where it was until something else needs the room. That is why deleted-file recovery on a hard disk can succeed months later. An SSD cannot overwrite a page in place; it has to erase a whole block first, and erasing is slow. So the drive does it early, in the background, on any block the operating system has told it is free. That message is TRIM on SATA drives and Deallocate on NVMe, and every modern operating system sends it as soon as a file is deleted or a volume is formatted.

The drive does not erase instantly. It queues the work and runs it when idle, which is where the window comes from. Ten minutes on a busy drive, up to a day on a quiet one. A full shutdown stops the clock, because the controller cannot run garbage collection without power. Sleep and hibernate do not necessarily stop it. Every restart starts it again.

The exceptions are real. Many older USB enclosures and some current ones do not pass TRIM through, so a portable drive may hold a deleted file far longer. Hardware RAID controllers often do not pass it. macOS enables TRIM only on Apple's own drives unless trimforce was run for a third-party one. And a drive with a controller or firmware fault may never have got round to it at all. We find out at the free look, and we tell you before any charge whether there is anything worth recovering.

What you see, and what it means.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
Deleted, and the bin emptied, minutes agoTRIM queued; erasing may not have finishedShut down now; good odds if it stays off
Deleted yesterday, machine used sinceTRIM has almost certainly runTold honestly at the free look; often nothing
Formatted by mistakeA quick format TRIMs the whole volumeThe same; hours matter
Deleted from a portable SSDThe bridge may not pass TRIMOften recoverable; send it
Deleted from an SSD in a RAIDThe controller may not pass TRIMOften recoverable
Deleted from a third-party SSD in a MacTRIM is off unless trimforce was runOften recoverable

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

A deleted-file job is never powered up in a computer, because the operating system would re-send TRIM the moment it mounted the volume. The drive is imaged on our own equipment, read-only, with its own housekeeping held off, so that whatever survived stays survived.

Vendor diagnostic modeNo hopeful reboots
03

Past the fault, to the map

From the image, the file system's own records are read first: on NTFS, APFS and ext4 a deleted entry often still names the file and where it lived. Where the entries are gone, the image is carved for file signatures, and what is found is checked by opening it, not by counting it.

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 job3–5 days at the bench

From the bench

  • Recovery software on the same machine is the worst of both worlds. It keeps the drive powered while TRIM runs, and it often installs onto the very drive you are trying to save.
  • A quick format is a TRIM of the whole volume. It is not a gentle operation on an SSD, whatever it was on a hard disk.
  • Bridges and controllers are the loophole. If the drive sat behind a USB bridge or a hardware RAID, TRIM may never have reached it, and the odds change completely.
  • We say no when the answer is no. A drive that ran for a week after the deletion has usually erased the file, and the free look is where you hear that, at no cost.

Check whether TRIM was on, later, on another machine: on Windows, the command fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify reports 0 when TRIM is enabled. Do not run it on the affected drive's own system now; the answer is not worth the minutes.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDR-2026-0385JOB LOGGED ✓

A folder of client contracts deleted from a WD_BLACK SN770, with the laptop shut down inside two minutes

A solicitor deleted the wrong folder, emptied the bin, realised, and held the power button down. The laptop came here whole. The drive was imaged read-only in its diagnostic state, with its housekeeping held off, and the NTFS records still named most of the files. Eighty-six per cent of the folder came back by name; the rest had already been trimmed. The client was told which, and why.

86% of the folder recovered3 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • A full shutdown, this minute
  • Note the time the deletion happened
  • Say what was deleted and where it lived
  • Send the drive, or the laptop if the drive is soldered

What sets us back

  • Installing recovery software
  • Opening the folder to check
  • Restarting to see whether it comes back
  • Waiting until Monday

Questions answered before you commit.

I deleted something off an SSD this morning. What now?

Shut down now, fully, and leave it off. The window is hours rather than days, because TRIM is erasing the blocks in the background whenever the drive is powered. Then send the form and say when it happened.

Can deleted files be recovered from an SSD at all?

Sometimes. If the drive was powered off quickly, or if TRIM never reached it because of a bridge, a RAID controller or a Mac without trimforce, often yes. If the machine ran for days, usually no, and we say so at the free look.

Will recovery software work?

Not safely. It keeps the drive powered while TRIM runs, it often installs onto the drive it is scanning, and it can only see what the controller still presents. The bench images the drive read-only with its housekeeping held off, which software cannot do.

Does a format count as a deletion?

A quick format is worse: it TRIMs the whole volume at once. The same rule applies. Power off now.

What does it cost?

£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, and on most jobs no data means no bill. If nothing survived, you hear that at the free look and pay nothing.

Where this usually leads.

Portable SSDs, where the bridge may have saved you →Encrypted and locked →What is inside an SSD →NVMe M.2 →

Shut it down. Then send the form.

Every minute powered is a minute of erasing. The first look is free, and you are told honestly what survived before any charge.

0800 6890668

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