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Solid State Drive, 4GB/s Bandwidth in a Single SSD
- No Data, No Data Recovery Fee
- SATA & NVMe SSDs, every brand
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How Does a Single SSD Reach 4GB/s of Bandwidth?
By using four PCIe lanes. One PCIe 3.0 lane moves close to 1 GB/s in each direction, so an NVMe SSD on an x4 link reaches about 4 GB/s. SATA SSDs top out near 0.6 GB/s. The same speed makes SSD recovery different: the controller decrypts the data.
“More lanes make a faster drive. They do nothing to make it a safer place for your only copy.” — Bruce Cullen, founder, eProvided
Your solid-state-drive-craving eyes are not deceiving you: a single SSD can move around 4GB of data every second. Learn more about this data storage technology, the PCIe interface that makes it possible, how to keep an SSD running well, and what changes when one fails.
A fast NVMe SSD plugs into PCIe, the same expansion bus used by graphics cards. PCIe is built from lanes, and an SSD usually uses four of them. At PCIe 3.0 speeds, four lanes carry roughly 4 GB/s, which is where the headline number comes from. To keep an SSD healthy, update its firmware, keep TRIM on, and choose a sensible power plan. If it fails, don’t pull its chips: modern SSDs encrypt data inside the controller.
Do RIGHT NOW
- Check that TRIM is turned on for your SSD
- Update the SSD firmware with the maker’s own tool
- Keep a current backup — SSDs can fail without warning
- Send a failed SSD in whole, with nothing removed
DON’T Do
- Don’t assume a fast drive is a safe drive
- Don’t keep power-cycling an SSD that has vanished from the system
- Don’t desolder chips from a modern SSD — the data is encrypted
- Don’t fill an SSD to capacity; it needs free space to manage wear
If your SSD has already stopped working, a free evaluation will show what can be recovered. Contact us now: eProvided Data Recovery Company, (866) 857-5950.
eProvided Discusses Solid State Drive Technology and PCIe
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is an interface standard in a computer’s architecture. Every motherboard has several PCIe slots for adding GPUs and add-on cards. Which slots are available depends on the motherboard you buy. A PCIe connection works as a set of point-to-point lanes between the device and the processor, and a fast NVMe SSD uses the same system. This article comes from the team at eProvided Flash Drive Data Recovery, which works on flash storage of every kind.
PCIe Lanes Explained
PCIe slots come in five common widths: x1, x2, x4, x8 and x16 (x32 exists in the specification but is rarely used). The number after the x tells you how many lanes the slot has. An x1 slot has one lane, which carries data one bit at a time in each direction; an x2 slot has two lanes and moves twice as much, and so on. The “x” in “x1” stands for “by,” which means connections scale by one, by two, and so on.
How much one lane carries depends on the PCIe generation. The first generation moved about 250 MB/s per lane in each direction. PCIe 3.0 moves close to 1 GB/s per lane, so an x4 NVMe SSD reaches roughly 4 GB/s, the figure in this article’s title. An x1 slot is a good fit for gigabit Ethernet cards, audio and some storage applications. Graphics cards need an x16 slot to run at their full potential.
With SSD breakthroughs, large NAND memory chips appear in mass production. SSDs and SSD interfaces have become crucial in enterprise servers, because servers need massive speed and storage. With more frequent technology advances, NAND flash prices keep dropping, and these devices become more affordable to the public. Video production companies see huge benefits from faster SSDs. Drones use large amounts of data to record in flight. Many industries reap the rewards of new SSD technology.
1 TB NAND Storage in a Tiny Package
Just imagine it: 1 TB of NAND flash inside a flash drive or a camera memory card. The future is here, and this is where solid state storage is taking us. But what happens when you store all of your images, videos, office documents and personal data on that drive, and it becomes corrupted? It’s a devastating thought. You did not back up your data, and now it’s lost. This is where eProvided Data Recovery comes in. eProvided performs flash drive and thumb drive data recovery on all USB flash drives, and we work on every type of drive, from memory cards to NVMe SSDs.
Solid State Drive Latency
SSD I/O (input/output) latency is measured in microseconds, while hard drive I/O averages in milliseconds. Traditional applications run on a single system, while cloud applications spread single tasks across many systems. In those setups, performance depends on the slowest NAND chip request latency. SSD NAND chips also wear over time: every program/erase (P/E) cycle degrades the cells a little more.
Tips to Keep Your SSD Running
- Disable fast startup. Turning off Windows fast startup gives your PC a clean, full boot each time it powers up.
- Update SSD firmware. Firmware updates don’t always arrive through Windows Update. Use the SSD maker’s own tool or website to get the update for your exact model.
- Enable TRIM. TRIM tells the SSD which blocks are no longer in use, which keeps it fast and helps extend its lifespan.
- Select the High Performance power plan. Aggressive power saving can cause performance lags. In Control Panel, open “System and Security,” then “Power Options,” and click “High Performance.”
How SSD and Flash Drive Recovery Works
On a USB flash drive or memory card, all data resides on the NAND flash memory chips. When the controller fails, the lab reads the data directly from the memory chip. Once that read completes, the raw data is reassembled: the hexadecimal code dumped from the chip is converted back into the customer’s files.
A modern SSD is different. Most SSD controllers encrypt everything they write, and the key is locked inside the controller, not on the memory chips. A chip read from a modern SSD returns scrambled data. So SSD recovery means bringing the original controller back to life, repairing the board or the firmware, so the SSD can decrypt its own data. That is why a failed SSD should be sent in complete, with nothing desoldered.
eProvided Data Recovery has stayed on top of cutting-edge storage technology since 1999.
| PCIe Bandwidth by Generation (approx., each direction) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Generation | Per Lane | x4 SSD Link |
| PCIe 1.0 | ~250 MB/s | ~1 GB/s |
| PCIe 2.0 | ~500 MB/s | ~2 GB/s |
| PCIe 3.0 | ~985 MB/s | ~3.9 GB/s |
| PCIe 4.0 | ~1.97 GB/s | ~7.9 GB/s |
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Recovery Services for SSDs and Flash Storage
eProvided covers every class of fast storage: SSD data recovery for SATA and NVMe; USB flash drive data recovery; NAND flash chip-off recovery for USB and card media; Memory card data recovery; and professional hard drive data recovery. Browse all data recovery services →
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Four lanes and about 4 GB/s make an NVMe SSD fast. The encryption inside its controller is what decides how it gets recovered.
Fast SSD, Sudden Failure?
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