A missing SSD (i.e. no drive letter, missing from Disk Management, not even showing up in BIOS) gives you 60 seconds of legitimate DIY time. This article will cover those 60 seconds first. All subsequent experiments will trade off recovery odds for reassurance that you will not get. The flash memory is almost certainly still holding all of your data. The controller at the front of it is simply not answering.
First check: the connection. Try reseating the SATA cable &/or try reseating the stick into an M.2 slot. Loose happens. Second check: another port or machine, once. This rules out the computer accusing the drive. Third check: BIOS. If the drive shows up in BIOS but not in Windows then the problem is software-shaped and less severe. One attempt each and three checks and you're done: repetition adds power cycles and power cycles are exactly what a faltering controller does not need.
The following will never be on any list: initialising the disk when Windows offers to do so, firmware updates on a misbehaving drive, or simply leaving it plugged in "to see if it comes back".
Most of the time when you lose total visibility it is either because the controller is totally broken (dead) or in panic mode due to some type of internal corruption that the controller detects. In addition, a similar problem may occur where the drive appears but states 0 GB or an odd "factory" name; the controller simply responded with its default/backup identity since its firmware was damaged, but it is still talking. In both cases, the NAND flash behind the controller still holds your files, byte for byte, and just needs a working path out.
The path you take will be technical, rather than through a piece of software. There are engineering modes which allow for direct communication with a damaged controller. If the controller is completely dead, then there is another option to consider: reading the NAND chips themselves and building your files back from the raw dump.
There are two time-related reasons why you should act quickly. A controller that seems to be switching between showing up and disappearing may continue to run some form of background housekeeping (garbage collection), which could clean up/erase recoverable data with each short-lived appearance. The other reason to power down and have your SSD evaluated as soon as possible is because even when powered off, heavily used/worn flash gradually discharges over longer periods. Neither of these is an emergency: they simply indicate that this week's schedule takes precedence over this quarter's.
If one single drive is affected it costs a fixed £300 + VAT regardless of the type or extent of failure. The rare chip-level exception is quoted in writing first. We offer a free diagnostic before any work begins and quote all costs in writing before proceeding. Most jobs will cost nothing if your files don't come back. There are no hourly rates, evaluation fees, or percentages of file value charged.
When a previously usable SSD suddenly vanishes, it often announces itself as no bootable device found upon restarting. The boot-error guide describes how to accurately interpret that error.
Comparatively, yes. If the BIOS can see it, the controller is alive and the problem lies in partitioning/file systems/drivers: those are logical issues to recover from an image, without surgery. Do not initialise (when asked) because initialising will overwrite the data needed for recovery. Those should mostly all be recoverable and complete once imaged/rebuilt.
This type of situation indicates a classic "controller failure" or "panic lock", which is where the drive has encountered some sort of internal error/failure and completely pulled itself off the bus, causing the machine to crash. Typically this looks like a "catastrophic" event but in reality the flash memory is probably still good; the controller simply no longer communicates with the host. Leave it turned off; repeatedly turning the drive on/off will make things worse.
You'd essentially be asking the same questions using different equipment, and adding additional power cycles along the way. If your drive doesn't respond via its native interface, it's unlikely that using an adapter will magically fix it, and low-cost enclosures for NVMe SSDs can cause misleading behaviour. You've tried enough; let the bench do its job.
It's within the same price band: £300 + VAT for the actual drive (the price being quoted in writing for a genuinely rare chip-off monolith case, prior to any work happening). The free diagnostics will tell you what path to take for either a chip-level recovery or controller-level recovery, and you'll also know the price prior to making a decision.
Before you drop your device off or post it, please get a quote from us by phone or using the form first. Then there are two honest routes for dropping off and delivery. No vans. Hand in the device at Tay House, 300 Bath Street (right at Charing Cross, two minutes off the M8) Monday to Friday, 9am–5:30pm, without need of an appointment. Or wrap the device well and send by insured, tracked post from anywhere in the UK. All work is done in-house by our own engineers. We have documentation of the complete chain of custody and your data never leaves the UK.
You have eliminated both the cable and the host computer as potential causes for non-detection by a host. Everything else goes onto a bench equipped with controller-specific tools. SSD not detected recovery for Glasgow: keep it powered off, post it or drop it at Tay House, and get an honest answer after the free look.