Did you accidentally delete important files while clearing the unnecessary data from your Mac? Your Mac was probably attacked by a virus, and you ended up losing your precious data, right? No matter how the data disappeared from your Mac’s SSD, we know one thing for sure—it’s going to be incredibly hard to get it back. But don’t lose hope yet. There might still be a way to successfully restore data from an SSD on your Mac. In this article, we will explain why recovering data from an SSD is a tough nut to crack and what you must do to maximize your chance of recovering your lost files. Let’s dig in.
Is Data Recovery Possible on an SSD?
Let us cut the chase. Yes, data recovery on a Mac SSD can work. But there’s a catch. The success rate of data recovery on an SSD will depend on two things. They are:
- The way you have lost your data
- The amount of time passed since your data went missing
Please note that if your SSD has suffered from physical damage, logical damage, or ransomware infestation, the chances of restoring your data are incredibly slim. At least, compared to a hard disk drive, it’s significantly tougher to restore deleted data from an SSD on a Mac. But what exactly makes success rate data recovery from a Mac SSD way more challenging than a standard HDD? It’s the TRIM command. Let’s see exactly how the TRIM command affects the success rate of data recovery in the next section.
TRIM and Its Effect on SSD Data Recovery
TRIM is a built-in feature that is activated by default on the SSDs of most computers, including your Mac. This feature helps your SSD read or write data at an extremely quick pace by managing the available storage space according to a set of fixed algorithms. As a result, whenever you delete a file from your Mac, the TRIM command makes the files invalid and immediately erases the data block containing the files.
This feature has an overall positive effect on the SSD’s performance and increases its lifespan. However, this also makes recovering data from the TRIM-enabled SSDs truly difficult, if not impossible. That’s why whenever you delete a file from your Mac, you should start the data recovery process as soon as possible. Because if you’re lucky enough, you will be able to retrieve your deleted files before the TRIM feature makes them invalid and erase them from the data blocks.
How to Check if TRIM is Activated on Your Mac SSD
While it’s true that most Mac SSDs are TRIM-enabled, it doesn’t mean that your Mac is TRIM-activated too. Maybe the problem that’s haunting you doesn’t even exist. Before you panic, you should check if the TRIM feature is active on your Mac’s SSD. Because if it’s not, it would greatly increase the chance of successful data recovery. Here’s how you can check it:
- Click on the “Apple” logo located in the top-left corner of your Mac screen.
- Next, click on the “About The Mac” option from the drop-down menu.
- Go to the “Overview” tab and click on the “System Report” option.
- Look at the sidebar under the “Hardware” option. Click on “Hardware” to expand it.
- Find and click on the “NVMExpress” option. Please note that on some Macs, you might not be able to find the “NVMExpress” option. In that case, the “SATA/SATA Express” option will be available. Click on it.
- Now, on the right-hand side of your screen, find the “TRIM Support” option. If it’s marked as “Yes,” it means that the TRIM feature is active on your Mac’s SSD. On the other hand, if it says “No,” it means that the TRIM feature is not active on your Mac SSD.
Instructions to Disable TRIM on Mac
Do you want to disable the TRIM feature on your Mac to make future data recovery easier? If your answer is yes, then you can easily do it by following these instructions:
- Open “Launchpad” from the “Dock,” and type “Terminal” in the search box. Once the “Terminal” option shows up, click on it.
- Once the Terminal opens, type the “sudo trimforce disable” command and press the “Return” button.
That’s it. You have successfully disabled the TRIM feature on your Mac. Please note that disabling it will slow down Mac’s SSD. As a result, it can adversely affect your Mac’s performance when your SSD’s storage space starts to fill up. Make your choice wisely.
Restore Data from an SSD on Mac Using Data Recovery Software
When you lose data from your Mac, the best choice is to use a professional data recovery application as soon as possible to recover the deleted files. As we have mentioned before, the TRIM-enabled SSD of your Mac will mark the deleted data as invalid. Once it does that, restoring data from your Mac SSD will be incredibly hard, even with the best data rescue application available in the world. You need to move fast.
If you don’t know which data restoration software will be the best choice for you, you can take a look at our guide on the top 10 data recovery software for Mac. Since most professional data retrieval application has a similar data restoration process, you can follow these instructions to restore the data deleted from an SSD on Mac:
- Download and install a data recovery software of your choice in a separate storage media, such as a flash drive. Do not install the application on your Mac unless you have no other choices.
- Downloading the application directly on your Mac might hasten the TRIM program’s action and lower the chances of successful data recovery. Once you download and install the software on the flash drive, connect it to your Mac.
- Now, launch the software on your Mac and select its SSD as the “Storage Device” you want to recover data from.
- Next, click on the “Scan” or “Search for lost data” button to start the scanning process.
- After the scan is complete, the application will show a list of recoverable files, which you can review as you please.
- Review the files and select the ones you want to recover.
- Click on the “Recover” button to restore the files. The application will ask you to select a location to download the selected files. Pick a location and click on the “OK” button. Your chosen files will be downloaded in the specified location.
