|
|
| . |
 |
| . |
Recalibrating Consumer
Assumptions about SSD Data Recovery
Editor:- December 7, 2009 -
this is an update on the theme of
Data Recovery for
flash SSDs.
The ability to recover data (or not) from a damaged
flash SSD could become an important way of segmenting SSD products. In this
context (as always) an
SSD is
defined as a device which has internal
wear-leveling - as
opposed to simpler flash
drives which don't. The loss of data which maps logical to physical
addresses inside the SSD
controller presents a tough challenge for recovery.
SSD Data
Recoverability segments can be broadly defined as
- easily recoverable. This includes devices which have internal
support to facilitate data recovery - designed into the controller architecture.
Although such products are in the design stage - they are not yet widely
available. This type of SSD could be as economic to recover as a current
notebook hard drive.
- recoverable at high cost. This is the case for nearly all flash
SSDs currently shipping. (See comments from a
data recovery expert
below.)
- non recoverable (unlucky). This is one step beyond the category
above. Most flash SSDs with internal encryption would not be economic to recover
- if the internal translation tables were corrupted. This includes many new
notebook SSDs
- and will come as an unwelcome surprise to their owners should they be unlucky
enough to need data recovery services.
- non recoverable (intrinsic). These are SSDs which have been
specifically designed
to thwart any prospects for data recovery. In these SSDs - data destruction
circuits are part of the product design - and you pay more for this feature.
I've
been talking to data recovery experts about SSD recovery for many years - but
it's only recently that the market has reached the size where this is starting
to become part of their daily experience.
Andy Butler, founder
of ABC Data Recovery
today told me - "I have 3 technicians who all trained on NAND
readers. On average we do about 30 per week but can handle more. It gets
more time consuming - therefore costly - as you move into larger SSDs. A
64GB PCIe SSD unit
could take a technician over a week of nonstop work.
" It's more complex than a
RAID recovery, but consumers
assume their data is safe and a recovery will be cheap because it's not a
mechanical repair. As the recovery tools / technology develops we should be
able to speed the process up, but for the time being any SSD over 8GB are
charged on a case by case basis. Anyone with an encrypted SSD should be
warned to backup, if the
controller gets damaged, it's most likely we would only recover encrypted data."
| |
| . |
|
Data Recovery
for flash SSDs? - don't count on it |
Editor:-
September 24, 2007 - if the
flash SSD market
reaches the levels of penetration predicted by many
analysts - then in a
handful of years nearly half of all new
notebook
PCs will use flash SSDs instead of
hard disk drives.
What
happens when those SSDs inevitably fail - and there's no
backup?
Most
consumers don't do regular backups - and most small businesses don't either.
When
hard drives fail, get
submerged in
water or get damaged in fires - the solution of last resort - is to call a
data recovery company.
These superheroes can often recover a lot of data - even if the pcbs
and chips in the disk drive have been damaged. Superheroes don't come cheap.
The cost for a difficult recovery can run into thousands of dollars (for a
single disk) but for many satisfied customers that's a much better result than
being left with no business or months of lost time rewriting reports, novels
etc.
Although flash SSDs are new to the consumer market - they've been
around for many
years in markets which absolutely needed their levels of ruggedness (and
could bear the high cost). So you may be thinking that there's a well
established industry already out there ready to process your flash SSD - if you
are unlucky enough to need a data recovery service today.
You would be
wrong.
The reason is that the biggest traditional customers of flash
SSDs have been the military
or industrial users who didn't want enemies / competitors stealing their
secrets.
Erstwhile flash SSD manufacturers like
Adtron,
BiTMICRO and
STEC specialised in
having on-board
disk sanitization
of various forms to make sure that that the data is never recovered by the wrong
people.
So there isn't an established data recovery market track
record for flash SSDs in those applications which have been around the
longest.
The nearest that the market has to offer - is experience
with recovering data from simple
flash memory storage
(like USB keyring style
devices or camera memory cards). Unlike SSDs - those devices aren't designed for
intensive write applications - and there is nothing very complicated between the
interface controller and the flash chips themselves. So if the controller gets
zapped by static - or crunched by your car driving over it - the data is
relatively easy for experts to recover from the flash chips.
That isn't
the case with most flash SSDs - which use complicated
controller technology
to extend the reliability
and speed of storage. The architecture inside a high performance SSD is more
complicated than that in most
RAID systems. The
algorithms which map addresses to physical media locations vary from
manufacturer to manufacturer - and in many cases - like the
formula for making
Coke or Pepsi - the details are closely guarded commercial secrets.
Look
at the server market and data recovery (at the single SSD level) is not a
burning issue for datacenter applications - because most often the SSDs operate
in some kind of RAID
protected array - and are also backed up (internally or externally) to other
disks.
One thing
missing in the consumer
notebook SSD
market is a clear signal by oems - that data in their devices can be easily
recovered - if there is no backup - or the backup failed. Maybe the next
generation of products will address that issue. It would be another way of
segmenting the consumer flash SSD market - and a market need and opportunity
which hasn't been understood by SSD product marketers at the close of 2008.
Although
flash SSDs are inherently much more
reliable than hard
drives - that's no consolation for the customers who will be the pioneers in SSD
data recovery. | |
| |
|
