How to Recover Data from Crucial M4 SSD (2 Ways)

This article describes how to recover data from Crucial M4 SSD step by step in 2 simple and effective methods. Scroll down to explore more.

By @Ivy Last Updated November 4, 2024

With its high capacity, fast transfer speeds, and reliability, Crucial M4 SSDs are one of the best storage devices for storing data such as documents, family photos, videos, and more. However, they are not immune to data loss. Here's a real user case:

"Hey folks, I'm in a bit of a pickle here. My Crucial M4 SSD just crashed, and I'm freaking out about my data. Has anyone successfully recovered data from a Crucial M4 SSD before? If so, what recovery software did you use? I'm running it on a Windows 10 laptop, and I need to restore files. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!"

Congratulation! In most cases, your data is recoverable, but the success rate varies. Please be sure they are not overwritten. Any read or write operation may cause further data loss. Here are some useful tips: 

  • stop using Crucial M4 SSD immediately. 
  • don't add any new data to the Crucial M4 SSD.
  • don't re-format the Crucial M4 SSD. 
  • handle the SSD with care and avoid physical shocks or drops, which may make data recovery more difficult.
  • avoid using unreliable or unverified software to recover data.

★ More about Crucial M4 SSD: As in standard, the Crucial M4 SSD is a 9.5mm, 2.5-inch form factor with SATA 3Gbps. It also offers SATA 6Gbps connector options. Its capacities range from 64GB to 512 GB. In addition, It works on the same principle as RAID and has an impressive mean failure time of 1.2 million hours.

Common Causes Behind Data Loss on Crucial M4 SSD

Before starting Crucial M4 data recovery, it's essential to get the potential causes of data loss from the Crucial M4 SSD. This will give you some clues to recover data and prevent further loss. We collect some of the possible reasons below:

Possible Causes  Description
❌Accidental deletion or formatting Sometimes, you may delete files or format the entire partition (eg: Windows ask you to format the disk before using it), even without recognizing it, eventually resulting in data loss. 
🧱⭕Logical failure  Abruptly removing a drive during data transfer or other processes,or experiencing sudden power crashes can lead to logical failures, resulting in data loss.
🛑 File system corruption Power outages or hardware malfunctions may cause file system corruption, thereby making your Crucial M4 SSD drive inaccessible.
🦠Virus or malware Infections Viruses and malware pose a significant threat to data on any disk, which may corrupt the file systems and cause damage to partitions, ultimately leading to data loss.
💿Drive corruption Physical damage, primarily to the disk processor or controller, will cause drive corruption and data loss. It is responsible for extracting, translating, and transmitting data to the SATA interface and presenting data on this drive. Recovering data from this situation requires specialized software and hardware expertise. Seek help from data recovery services, such as Geek Squad.

⭐Way 1: Recover Data from Crucial M4 SSD Using Reliable Software

MyRecover is a trustworthy and feature-rich data recovery software, which provides quick and deep scan technologies to search for deleted or lost data effortlessly. It's compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc, and Windows Server.

MyRecover
Why Choose MyRecover?
  • 🌟Apply to: recover data from all series of Crucial SSDs not limited to Crucial M4 as well as other popular brands, such as WD, Samsung, Seagate, SanDisk, Lacie, Kingston, etc
  • It has a free edition that recovers data up to 500MB.
  • Recover documents (eg: recover Word documents), images, audio files, videos, and more, in uphold of 1000+ formats.
  • Search or filter files quickly through types, file names, extensions, etc.
  • Recover specific files or folders instead of all.
  • Recover files while scanning.
  • Support NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, and ReFS file systems.
  • Deal with different scenarios well, such as accidental deletion, formatting, virus infection, file system corruption, partition issues, system crashes, etc.

Then, follow the steps below to perform Crucial M4 SSD data recovery step by step.

Step 1: Download and install the reliable data recovery software - MyRecover. Hover the mouse over the Crucial M4 SSD drive, and click Scan.

Step 2: It will run two advanced scanning methods automatically and display all the deleted or lost files on the selected disk. You can filter and preview files during the process.

  • Click Filter and select a file type, such as Videos. Then, type the file name or extensions to narrow down.
  • Expand the Other Missing Files tab and go to the folder containing deleted or lost files.

Step 3: Select all deleted or lost files on the Crucial M4 SSD disk and click the Recover x files button. You can also select specific files to recover. Then, you will be asked to select a location. Please select a new location instead of the original location to prevent potential data overwriting.

⚠️Notes:
  • The restore button will display the number of selected files and their full size. 

  • You can perform Crucial M4 data recovery for free, up to 500MB. To recover all files, please upgrade to the advanced editions

In addition, you still can use this software to recover WD Elements drive and other disk brands, such as Seagate, Samsung, SanDisk, etc.

⭐Way 2: Recover Data from Crucial M4 SSD When PC Won't Boot

MyRecover is also capable of recovering data from bootable hard disk when PC won't boot. Its Crashed PC Recovery feature allows you to create a bootable hard disk to boot a problematic PC and recover data from it. You need to prepare a USB drive and another working computer.

Please download MyRecover to get started.

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Step 1: Open MyRecover. On the main page, click Crashed PC Recovery.

Step 2: Select the USB Boot Device option and the prepared drive.

Step 3: Confirm you select the right drive, click Create > Yes to start the creation process.  

Warning: MyRecover will format the selected USB drive during the creation process. So the data in the USB drive will be deleted unless you back up files in advance. If not, click No.

Step 4: Once you receive a message, saying, "Creating a bootable USB device was successful", close this software and take out your drive.  Then, insert it into the problematic computer, access the BIOS windows (press F2, or F10, ESC, etc. during reboot), and set it as the first choice.

Step 5: Save changes and reboot from it. After loading, you will see MyRecover. At this time, click PC Recovery and follow the steps in Way 1 to recover data from Crucial M4 SSD.

How to Prevent Data Loss from Crucial M4 SSD

It’s also important to take some preventive measures if you don't want to experience data loss on the Crucial M4 SSD. You could consider the following recommendations:

1. Back up Your Data Regularly 
 

Data loss may happen at any time, even without warning. So if you don’t want to lose them, regular backups are essential. It will include a copy of your files currently on this drive and newly added or changed data in the future. You need complete Windows backup software, such as AOMEI Backupper Standard to help you.

  • Its File Backup allows you to back up any files, such as documents, audio, videos, etc as long as the drive is accessible. You can then restore them in a disaster.
  • With Schedule Backup, you can backup files regularly, such as, daily, weekly, monthly, and more.
  • By default, this software backup only changed files with incremental backup after the first full backup. It will greatly reduce backup time and save disk space.
  • It supports a wide range of storage, such as internal or external disks, network drives, share or NAS drives, cloud drives, flash drives, etc.
  • ...

2. Turn on  Anti-virus Software
 

Malware or viruses are a major threat to data loss on disks like Crucial M4. It can host to your disk while you are browsing an unofficial or risky website, or click on any suspicious email link. 

Without antivirus software, you may not be able to recognize it unless you recognize data loss. So please employ reliable software, either built-in Window Defender or a third-party one, and turn it on.

3. Avoid Disk Errors Wherever Possible
 
Sometimes, when you try to access a disk, it tells you “G: \ is not accessible. The volume does not contain a recognized file system.”, “You need to format the disk in drive D: before you can use it.”, etc.
This may be due to incompatible or RAW file systems, missing drive letters, outdated drivers, firmware issues, etc. To avoid any disk errors, please check these issues and update them regularly.
4. Be More Careful with Your Disk
 
The fact is that there are many potential causes of data loss. To protect them safely, you need to be more careful with your disks, such as,
  •  not write new data to your disk after data loss
  • avoid dropping the disk on the floor
  • not keep the disk in extreme temperatures
  • double-check before deleting files or formatting the disk, etc.

Conclusion

Yeah, you can easily recover data from Crucial M4 SSD with reliable data recovery software like MyRecover. It's compatible with all brands of SSD disks, such as Crucial, WD, Samsung, SanDisk, etc., as well as different file systems, from NTFS to FAT32, ReFS, and exFAT.

Meanwhile, it's a feature-riched software. It offers users several ways to search or filter specific files instead of all, saving time and effort. This is useful for users who want to recover specific files or folders. Once found, you can pause the scanning process.

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Frequently Asked Questions