Recently my laptop died. Thankfully, the issue wasn’t the SSD. So I bought an external enclosure, took the SSD out of the laptop, and popped it into the external enclosure. I was hoping at that point, it would “just work”.

I was hoping that when I plug it into my steam deck in desktop mode, it would recognise it and I could get some files off of it. Well, just one file really, my Sims 4 save. But it isn’t recognised at all.

Is there anything I can do to get the save file off of the SSD? I can borrow someone else’s (windows) laptop if necessary, though it didn’t recognise it last time I plugged it in there either.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

  • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz
    5·
    4 days ago

    What type of SSD? There are basically four types:

    • 2.5" SATA, looks like an old HDD

    • mSATA, a PCB with two screw holes.

    • M.2 SATA, a PCB with one screw hole and usually two notches.

    • M 2 PCIe/NVME, a PCB with one screw hole and usually only one notch.

    The latter two are physically compatible but electrically not. It just won’t work.

  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
    4·
    4 days ago

    Too much stuff missing here.

    But it isn’t recognised at all.

    • Where did you expect it to pop up and does the same work with other drives or usb sticks?
    • What type of SSD was in your laptop?

    • Whats the model name of the enclosure/adapter you are using?
    • Was your laptop running windows?
    • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.ukOP
      1·
      4 days ago

      Where did you expect it to pop up

      I expected it to show up under external devices on the steam deck

      does the same work with other drives or usb sticks?

      Unfortunately I don’t have any others that I can try with

      What type of SSD was in your laptop?

      It’s a 1T M.2 PCIe SSD

      Whats the model name of the enclosure/adapter you are using

      It’s a FIDECO M.2 NVMe Enclosure

      Was your laptop running windows?

      Yes, it was running Windows 10

      This is the laptop, if that helps: Link

      • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
        3·
        4 days ago

        Yes, it was running Windows 10

        The steamdeck should support drives formatted to ntfs, but it might not mount automatically. Does the steamdeck have the application gparted preinstalled? Thats for formatting drives, but you can also just look at anything that might be detected but not in a readable state. If it doesnt show up in the drop down of devices (top right), then something is wrong.

        I dont wanna make you use a terminal too much but if it doesnt show up in gparted then try running the command lsusb in a terminal which will list all your usb ports and devices connected to them. If that doesnt find something that looks like the nvme adapter then something is even more wrong.

        • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.ukOP
          1·
          4 days ago

          gparted isn’t preinstalled, unfortunately. But when I use the command lsusb, I do see an entry for NVME adapter so it is recognising it

  • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
    3·
    4 days ago

    One thing that I don’t believe has been brought up: Is the disk encrypted? If so, do you have the key? You’ll need that.

    If encrypted + Windows and if you can’t boot on another machine to get the data, you may need to make a DART disk + computer + encryption key to get at your data: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/dart-v10/

    If it’s not encrypted but the wrong format, you’d need to copy the data with an OS that can read whatever your file system is first or give your Steam Deck the ability to read NTFS or whatever (supposedly it’s natively supported but it might take some doing), then copy it over to something that your Steam Deck can read, but only after you install the game (provided it hasn’t been backed up on Steam’s cloud storage of course), you’d copy that saved data back to the correct installed path.

    If you’re certain it’s in a readable format and unencrypted, I’d recommend troubleshooting whatever sled/adapter you’re using. Does it work with other drives? Does it work with other devices? If not, you might have a busted sled/adapter.

    I would also add there are some solid suggestions already posted here when it comes to the specifics of the Steam Deck.

    • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.ukOP
      1·
      4 days ago

      Is the disk encrypted? If so, do you have the key?

      I believe it is encrypted, but I was able to get the key from my Microsoft account

      you may need to make a DART disk + computer + encryption key to get at your data

      I’ll have to have a proper look into that, I’ve never done anything like that before. Thank you for the suggestion!

        • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.ukOP
          2·
          4 days ago

          Having a look around on that link, when I try to download DART, I’m asked to log in with a work or school account, personal ones aren’t allowed. It also sounds like it needs a subscription. So, not sure if this will work for me, or if I just clicked the wrong thing.

          I did find an article here that details how to decrypt a drive that’s been encrypted with bitlocker, do you think that would work?

          • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
            1·
            4 days ago

            Wow, they won’t let you use DART with a personal account? That’s fucked. Thanks for the link! I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.

  • mutual_ayed@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    4 days ago

    Update your steamdeck with the usb drive adapter installed.

    Does the drive show up in bios?

    • Double check that the drive is properly seated
    • That the cables are properly seated, plug in the drive
    • Reboot the deck and get to the bios
    • See if your drive is seen as a boot option.
    • Do not boot to that drive, it’s just to see if you’re seeing the drive.

    Next, you might check to see if it’s in your USB stack. If you have the Linux steam deck, open the terminal and run

    lsusb && lsblk && df -h

    See if the drive shows up there.

    If you’ve got windows running on your steamdeck open an admin terminal and run

    diskmgr.msc

    If your drive doesn’t show up from all of that you might have a dead drive or a faulty adapter. Good luck.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    3·
    4 days ago

    If the drive was encrypted from Windows, you’re not going to be able to read it from your Steam Deck without a lot of extra steps.

    Do you have the recovery key for your drive?

    • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.ukOP
      1·
      4 days ago

      I don’t know if it was encrypted. I don’t think I set it to be, does windows do it automatically?

      Do you have the recovery key for your drive?

      Where would I find that? It’s the drive that came with the laptop

      • zaph@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        4 days ago

        does windows do it automatically?

        According to documentation, no. In practice, I’ve seen it happen multiple times.

        Where would I find that?

        If you didn’t get screwed by Microsoft it would be in your Microsoft account. Go to office.com and log in.

        • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.ukOP
          1·
          4 days ago

          Ok, there’s an entry in my Microsoft account for bitlocker for my laptop, and I can see the recovery key. How do I use it to decrypt the drive though?

          • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
            2·
            4 days ago

            The neighboring comment by just_another_person links to a tool that can be used to read bitlocker drives. It might be easier to just find another windows device to do the job tho. If losing the files on the drive would be catastrophic, then fucking around with lots of terminal stuff that you dont understand might not be the best.

            Also, if you dont wanna install gparted you can still check the list of connected drives by running lsblk -f in a terminal.

            • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.ukOP
              1·
              4 days ago

              It might be easier to just find another windows device to do the job tho

              Yeah, I think that’s what I’ll need to do. I found a guide here detailing how to decrypt a bitlocker encrypted drive, I’ll give that a go when I’m able to borrow a windows machine

              Also, if you dont wanna install gparted

              I want to, but the steam deck isn’t having it. It’s arch based, so need to use pacman, but that just gives an error when I try

          • zaph@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            4 days ago

            Thunar just prompts me for a password when a plug a bitlocker encrypted disk on mine if it’s not prompting you and you can’t install a file manager that will you’ll need a pc. You’ll probably need a pc anyway because unless you have access to windows you can’t actually decrypt the drive and will have to copy data off of it, reformat, and restore the data you need.

          • zaph@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            4 days ago

            Yes but in those cases, which it sounds like includes op, you should have it in your Microsoft account. I had a customer bring in a new PC they’d just purchased from Walmart that had a home license and already had bitlocker enabled. If I didn’t catch it they could have lost any data saved to it from a botched update in the future.