StorageDigital Storage ForensicsSSD / NVMe ForensicsHow TRIM, garbage collection and wear levelling change evidence on SSD and NVMe drives.ACE Lab
PC-3000 SSD
PC-3000 SSD is the solid state drive module of the PC-3000 family. It runs on ACE Lab's hardware and gives the examiner access to the drive's technological mode, where the controller can be made to reveal user data it will no longer serve through the normal interface.
SoftwareCommercialCurrent
Profile
- Manufacturer
- ACE Lab
- Category
- Storage and hardware
- Product type
- Software
- Platforms
- Not stated by the manufacturer
- Licensing
- Commercial
- Product status
- Current
- Educational level
- Advanced
- Last verified
- 2 November 2026
Sold as PC-3000 SSD and PC-3000 SSD Extended. Platform is not listed here because the software runs only through the ACE Lab hardware systems.
What PC-3000 SSD is
A failed SSD rarely has a mechanical fault. The usual cause is a damaged translator, corrupted firmware or a controller that has locked itself after a power event. PC-3000 SSD is ACE Lab's software for those cases. It is not a separate box. It starts from the main window of the PC-3000 Portable PRO, Express or UDMA system and uses that hardware to talk to the drive. ACE Lab sells it in two packages. The base package covers SATA, PATA, mSATA and M.2 SATA drives. The Extended package adds the PCIe family, including NVMe, M.2 PCIe, PCIe x16 cards, Apple MacBook drives, CFexpress, U.2 and U.3 and Intel Optane, several of them through specific adapters.
The software contains a Universal Utility for any drive that follows the ATA-8 specification and Active Utilities for particular controller families in factory mode. From there an examiner can read and write the ROM, load microcode into RAM, look at the defect logs, turn off background processes that would otherwise keep rewriting the flash, emulate the translator to reach user data and in some cases read the memory chips directly without unsoldering them. It also works with Data Extractor so the recovered drive can be imaged the moment it responds.
Primary applications
Where it is used
- Diagnosing SATA and NVMe SSDs that do not identify or report a wrong capacity
- Backing up ROM and firmware before any repair attempt
- Stopping background garbage collection so a damaged drive does not lose more data
- Translator emulation to read user data from a drive with a broken mapping table
- Direct access to memory chip contents without chip removal on supported controllers
- Handing the drive to Data Extractor for imaging once access is restored
Who uses it
- SSD data recovery engineers
- Forensic examiners handling failed laptop drives
- Laboratory staff supporting corporate investigations
- Storage firmware researchers
Capabilities and limits
Major capabilities
- Runs on the PC-3000 Portable PRO, Express and UDMA hardware
- Universal Utility for ATA-8 drives and Active Utilities for specific controller families
- Technological mode with ROM read and write and microcode loading
- Views hidden defect logs and can reset logs and SMART data
- Turns off SSD background processes to protect remaining data
- Translator emulation for access to user data
- Extended package adapters for PCIe NVMe, Apple, CFexpress, U.2 and U.3 and Optane drives
- Manual mode for working with dumps and integration with Data Extractor
Technical limitations
- Support depends on the controller family. A new or rare controller may have no Active Utility at all
- Self-encrypting drives return only ciphertext without the key, and no utility changes that
- Technological mode commands can destroy the translator if applied in the wrong order
- Needs the ACE Lab hardware. It is not a program that runs on an ordinary USB connection
- ATA password reset functions must only be used on media the laboratory is authorised to examine
Learning with DFRTI
Independent professional education covering the principles and workflows of PC-3000 SSD. DFRTI is not a vendor training centre and its courses are not vendor certifications.
Before you learn it
- SSD internals: controller, NAND, flash translation layer and garbage collection
- NVMe and ATA command sets at a working level
- Experience with the PC-3000 hardware and Data Extractor
Disciplines
Related tools
- PC-3000 Portable PROThe PC-3000 Portable PRO is ACE Lab's field unit for working with damaged hard drives and solid state drives. It is the portable branch of the PC-3000 family and the current generation after the Portable III.ACE Lab
- PC-3000 ExpressThe PC-3000 Express is the laboratory version of the PC-3000 family, a tester board fitted inside a workstation for hard drive diagnostics, firmware repair and data recovery.ACE Lab
- Data ExtractorData Extractor is the software that turns a PC-3000 board or portable unit into an imager for drives that are unstable, slow or partly unreadable.ACE Lab
- PC-3000 FlashThe PC-3000 Flash reads raw NAND memory chips and rebuilds the user data that a dead or damaged controller can no longer present.ACE Lab
Courses that cover this tool
StorageDigital Storage ForensicsSSD / NVMe ForensicsHow TRIM, garbage collection and wear levelling change evidence on SSD and NVMe drives.
StorageDigital Storage ForensicsHDD ForensicsImage hard drives through a write-blocker, find hidden areas and recover deleted data.Related reading
- What NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 ChangedNIST published the final NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 in September 2025 and withdrew the 2014 revision. The new edition drops the media-by-media technique tables and asks organisations to run a sanitization programme instead. Here is what moved, what stayed and what it means for disposing of IT assets in India.Standards update
- SSDs, TRIM and What Happens to Deleted DataOn a hard disk a deleted file usually sits where it was until something overwrites it. On an SSD the drive itself may clear it within minutes. This explainer covers TRIM, garbage collection and wear levelling, what a forensic image of an SSD really contains and why file carving so often comes back empty.Explainer
Official source
Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. DFRTI is an independent educational and research institute. Inclusion in this directory does not imply manufacturer endorsement, partnership or authorisation. Facts are checked against the manufacturer's public documentation on the date shown and may have changed since.
Go deeper with DFRTI
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