SDR / Whatever it is doing now / Shows 0GB or the wrong size

0GB · 1GB · 2MB · 8MB · a size that cannot be right

The SSD shows 0GB, 1GB or the wrong size. The controller is up, and its map is not.

A capacity of 0GB, 1GB, 2MB or 8MB means the controller has started, failed to load its firmware or its translation table, and fallen back to a built-in ROM that knows how to talk to a computer and nothing else. The Intel 320 made 8MB famous; many Silicon Motion drives show the controller's own name alongside the wrong size; Phison drives call themselves SATAFIRM S11. Whatever the number, do not partition it, format it or run a tool that promises to fix it. The map is what we need, and every one of those actions writes over where it lives. 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

Why the size is wrong, and why the data is not gone.

Your computer never sees the flash directly. It sees whatever the controller presents, and the controller presents a drive only after it has loaded its firmware and the flash translation layer, the table that says which physical page holds which logical address. Lose either and the controller has nothing to present, so it falls back to a minimal ROM that reports a placeholder: 0GB on most controllers, 8MB on the Intel 320 after its documented power-loss fault, 2MB on some NVMe drives, and sometimes the controller's own part number as the model name.

Everything you wrote is still physically on the flash. What has gone is the index, and the index lives in a service area that the bench can read once the controller is in its diagnostic state and running a temporary loader. From the service area, or from the flash itself where the service area is damaged, the map is rebuilt. That is the job.

The one way to turn this from a recoverable fault into an unrecoverable one is to let anything write to the drive. Windows offers to initialise it; Disk Utility offers to erase it; the maker's tool or a factory tool offers to regenerate it. All three destroy the map they would need to keep. Say no to each, and send it.

What you see, and what it means.

Describe yours to us →

What you see	The usual reason	Where that leaves you
0GB, and a name like SM2258AB or SM2262	A Silicon Motion controller in ROM mode	Bench work; do not initialise
SATAFIRM S11	A Phison S11 in ROM mode	As above; never the factory tool
8MB, serial BAD_CTX (Intel 320)	The documented firmware fault after power loss	Firmware-level recovery; the flash is intact
2MB on an NVMe drive	Firmware not loaded	Diagnostic-state work
Windows: You need to initialise the disk	The controller presents no partition table	Say no

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

From the bench

The maker's tool is not a recovery tool. It can update firmware on a healthy drive. On a drive in ROM mode it either does nothing or initialises, and initialising is the end of the data.
A drive that suddenly shows its full size but is empty has been regenerated. Somebody ran the factory tool. The old map is gone, and what is left is a deep carve of unreferenced pages, which recovers far less.
Power loss mid-write is the usual cause on consumer drives, which have no capacitors to finish the write. Enterprise drives do, which is why they rarely show this.
DRAM-less budget drives are over-represented here. Their map lives on the same flash as your files and is more exposed to a bad shutdown.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDR-2026-0398JOB LOGGED ✓

A Silicon Power A55 from an office PC, showing 0GB and a strange name

The PC lost power during a print job and came back with a drive called SM2258XT at 0GB. The owner declined the initialise prompt, which was the right call. In the diagnostic state the controller took a loader, the service area read back with its map partly damaged, and the rest was rebuilt from the flash. Every document came back; two temporary files did not.

99% of it recovered3 days here, and back by post

Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

Say no to Initialise, Erase or Format
Power it off and leave it off
Note the exact name and size it shows
Send the bare drive in an anti-static bag

What sets us back

Running the maker's tool or a factory tool
Creating a partition to see whether it works
Running recovery software against the 0GB device
Restarting it repeatedly

Questions answered before you commit.

Why does my SSD show 0GB?

The controller has fallen back to its built-in ROM because it could not load its firmware or its translation table. The data is still on the flash; what is missing is the index. Bench work rebuilds it.

Windows wants to initialise it. Should I?

No. Initialising writes a new partition table over the area we need. Close the prompt, power off, and send the form.

Can recovery software help?

Not on a drive that presents 0GB. There is nothing for the software to scan. Time spent trying is time the drive spends powered.

What does it cost?

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

How long does it take?

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

Where this usually leads.

SATAFIRM S11 →Not detected at all →Firmware and controller failure →Intel and Solidigm →SATA 2.5-inch →

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. Until that list reaches you, leave the drive switched off.

0800 6890668

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