Your holiday photos or professional files are stored on your Macbook Air, but it no longer shows any signs of life? Your storage device may be faulty. Fortunately, there are various ways to try to recover data from an SSD hard drive.
Today, the performance of SSD (Solid State Drive) hard drives has proven itself and has won over users who were used to traditional HDD hard drives. These solid-state drives are faster, consume less power and have a longer lifespan. They have no moving parts and are directly integrated into the motherboard of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, which improves the performance of Apple products. The absence of mechanical components avoids wear-related or mechanical failures, but malfunctions can still occur, and modern SSD technology introduces new challenges in the event of data loss.
Here are a few tips to maximize your chances of being able to recover the data stored on a MacBook Air SSD hard drive.
What factors can cause data loss on an SSD hard drive?
An SSD drive is made up of memory cells where data is stored. Unlike HDD hard drives, which can make a noise when they fail, an SSD hard drive remains silent. Sometimes a problem can only be noticed through error messages or a slowdown of the Mac computer. Several factors can cause data loss on the drive, the most common of which are:
- When you manually delete a file
- When the device is damaged
- Your Mac computer no longer turns on
- Improper use of the drive’s advanced settings
- Due to a virus
- A power surge
- Issues related to the MacBook Air’s charging
Various reasons can therefore be behind data loss, and the outcome differs depending on the type of deletion.
How can you recover your data?
Your files are still in your Trash
If you simply deleted a file from your MacBook Air and it is still in your Trash, recover your data easily and restore it to your Finder.
You have manually deleted your data or emptied your Trash
Recovering a file becomes more complicated when you have permanently deleted your data from the SSD, particularly using the Option + Command + Delete key combination.
The chances of recovering files decrease if the TRIM function is enabled, which it often is by default. This function removes invisible characters and will erase your files when the MacBook Air goes to sleep, in order to achieve faster read and write processes. In this case, only a professional will be able to help you.
Your MacBook Air has been attacked by a virus
In the event of a virus attack, your Mac’s devices will be altered and you will no longer be able to open your affected files. There are different types of viruses, and in the panic, you risk not proceeding in the right way. Once again, the simplest solution is to turn to a specialist: a Chronodisk professional has the specific knowledge and skills to optimize the chances of recovering the data.
A few techniques for trying to recover your data
If the TRIM function is not enabled, the drive will not have deleted the existing information and the window of opportunity will be wide enough to consider a drive recovery. It is possible to use data recovery software, capable of scanning your Mac hard drive to see which data has been lost. This also works if your MacBook no longer turns on: you can use software or even create a boot disk to repair the system. If you have chosen the best possible software but the recovery does not work, you can perform a computer update: this technique may solve the problem. Finally, if the fault lies at the level of the memory cells and your storage device is read-only, you can copy its content to back it up elsewhere: this is the cloning technique.
Note that in the event of a power surge or a fall, only a professional will be able to attempt to recover your data. There are therefore various ways to recover lost data from your SSD hard drive on a MacBook Air. However, care must be taken: improper handling can lead to total loss of files even when it was possible to recover them. A professional remains at your disposal to guide you and will be best placed to carry out the recovery of your files from your internal hard drive to help recover the majority of them.