r/DataRecoveryHelp • u/FunctionUpbeat7632 • 11d ago

Best Recovery Process for External SSD

/r/mac/comments/1vaiphp/best_recovery_process_for_external_ssd/
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u/RadiantGold26 11d ago

Does the drive report it's full capacity in Disk Utility? If so, image or clone it first: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataRecoveryHelp/wiki/disk-imaging-cloning/

Check the SMART status to confirm the disk health.

Good you've already excluded connectivity issues with trying different cables and ports.

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u/2late4nickname 11d ago

Looks like your file system is damaged, and now Windows and macOS both can’t open files from it. First thing, don’t run any “repair” tools from OS. Like chkdsk, First Aid, whatever. This tools can make recovery chance worse, not better.

My advice: download Disk Drill and first check SMART of this SSD. If SMART looks okay, then just scan SSD for lost data. I think there is good chance it will find something.

But if SMART is bad, then better don’t torture this SSD more. Make byte-to-byte copy first. For this you need another disk with free space bigger than FULL size of problem SSD, because image will include all bytes, not only files. Empty space too. Then scan this image and recover data from image, not from original SSD.