Modern Sony laptops often use M.2 NVMe SSDs, known for their high speed and reliability. However, NVMe drives can suffer from firmware corruption, controller failure, and logical errors, making business data inaccessible.
This case study details how we successfully recovered business-critical data for a local café from a Sony laptop with an M.2 NVMe SSD, after drive failure prevented system access.
As Cambridge Data Recovery, with 25 years of experience, we used NVMe chip-level repair, firmware restoration, and deep forensic data extraction to restore lost business files.
M.2 NVMe SSD Failure in a Sony Laptop
A café owner contacted us after their Sony laptop stopped booting, with the following issues:
- The laptop powered on but was stuck on a black screen.
- BIOS detected the M.2 NVMe SSD, but Windows would not boot.
- Attempts to reinstall the operating system failed or displayed errors.
- The SSD contained critical business data, including supplier invoices, customer orders, and financial reports.
Since NVMe SSDs are more complex than traditional hard drives, a specialized data recovery approach was required.
Diagnosis & Evaluation
When the Sony laptop with M.2 NVMe SSD arrived at our cleanroom facility, we conducted a full hardware and software diagnostic. Our findings:
- NVMe SSD firmware corruption – Preventing the drive from initializing correctly.
- File system corruption (NTFS/APFS) – Making stored business files unreadable.
- No physical NAND flash damage detected – Meaning logical and firmware-based recovery was possible.
Since firmware corruption can make SSD data inaccessible, we prioritized chip-level NVMe recovery and partition rebuilding.
The Recovery Process
1. Cloning & Imaging the NVMe SSD to Preserve Data Integrity
To avoid further corruption, we:
- Created a forensic sector-by-sector clone of the M.2 NVMe SSD.
- Used specialized NVMe recovery tools to bypass firmware errors and extract readable data.
2. Repairing the NVMe Firmware & File System
Since the drive’s firmware was corrupted, we:
- Used advanced NVMe firmware repair tools to restore functionality.
- Rebuilt the NTFS file system structure to regain access to lost data.
3. Extracting & Verifying Business Data for the Café
Once the SSD was accessible, we:
- Recovered customer order records, supplier invoices, and tax files.
- Repaired damaged spreadsheets, PDF files, and financial reports.
- Transferred the fully restored data to a secure external backup.
The Results: 100% Data Recovery Success
Thanks to our NVMe firmware restoration and deep sector recovery techniques, we successfully recovered 100% of the café’s lost data, including:
✅ Supplier invoices and customer order records
✅ Financial reports, tax documents, and accounting files
✅ Business emails, employee records, and menu pricing
The café was able to continue operations without losing important financial records, preventing disruption to daily business activities.
Why Choose Us?
With 25 years of experience and tens of thousands of successful recoveries, we are the leading M.2 NVMe SSD data recovery specialists in Cambridge and the UK. Our expertise includes:
✔ NVMe firmware repair & chip-level recovery
✔ Partition table reconstruction & OS boot repair
✔ Business document, invoice, and financial data retrieval
✔ Secure & confidential data recovery for small businesses
If your Sony laptop is failing to boot, not detecting the NVMe SSD, or preventing access to critical business data, stop using it immediately and contact us for expert SSD data recovery.