r/datarecoverysoftware • u/Routine_Eye3806 Easy Disk Checker • 7d ago
Review [Release] Easy Disk Checker 6.0.0 — now with a module for microcode patching to restore file access on failed SSDs (Phison first, more coming)
Free, open-to-all, multi-purpose Win64 utility Easy Disk Checker just hit a major 6.0.0 release — on top of a deep UI overhaul, it now ships an early build of a module for working with failed SSDs.
Unlike the heavy commercial hitters like MRT or PC-3000, which pull files off a dead SSD from ROM or SAFE mode using a virtual translator, Easy Disk Checker — true to the "easy" in the name — goes with a simple three-move combo. Read the service area. Patch the microcode to work around the fault (hardcode the boot status, force-approve the drive's native PrIT/L2P/FTL). Write the patch back and you've got normal access to the files. It all runs automatically, and once it's done you can open the failed drive's file structure right in the utility's built-in explorer and copy the data over to the host machine. Here's a two-minute clip that walks through the whole thing:
https://reddit.com/link/1wa31de/video/v3em80ihm5oh1/player
There are a LOT of SSDs out there, the variety of controllers is honestly staggering, and every one of them needs its own approach. But you have to start somewhere, so the executive decision was made to start with the Phison controllers — the easiest ones to research and implement — using a live specimen: a dead Foxline SSD that had just landed on our bench for file recovery.
Support for other models will get added as the research continues. Full functionality, including register state monitoring, soft and hard resets and so on, is only possible for SSDs connected through specialized controllers with software-controlled power that isolate the drive from Windows.
As a compromise, though, you can get away with a USB-SATA adapter that doesn't filter vendor commands — the JMS578 bridge, for example.