Kingston A400 Data Recovery

SATAFIRM S11 is the factory firmware identity string of the Phison PS3111-S11 controller. When the controller's Flash Translation Layer corrupts beyond its self-repair threshold, the controller falls back to ROM MODE and reports this factory identity instead of "Kingston A400" or whatever brand was programmed into the firmware.

The Phison PS3111-S11 is a budget, DRAM-less SATA controller. It stores its entire Flash Translation Layer on the same TLC NAND that holds user data. When the NAND pages storing the FTL degrade (from wear, power loss during writes, or bad block table overflow), the controller cannot boot its firmware normally. It enters ROM MODE: a minimal state where it responds to basic vendor commands but cannot access user data.

In BIOS or Disk Management, the drive appears as "SATAFIRM S11" with 0 bytes capacity. The OS cannot interact with it. Recovery software cannot scan it. The data remains physically stored on the NAND cells, but the mapping table that tells the controller where each file is located has been lost or corrupted.

The PC-3000 Portable III with the Phison module communicates with the PS3111-S11 controller in ROM MODE. Instead of flashing firmware to NAND, it injects a temporary loader into the controller's SRAM. This loader boots the controller enough to access NAND without touching the service area.

1. 01

   Identify controller revision and NAND configuration

   The Kingston A400 ships with multiple NAND vendors (Toshiba/Kioxia, Micron, SKHynix) depending on manufacturing batch. The PC-3000 Phison module reads the NAND ID to determine the exact flash type, page size, block size, and ECC configuration. This determines which loader profile to use.

2. 02

   Inject firmware loader into controller SRAM

   PC-3000 sends vendor-specific commands to load a minimal firmware image into the controller's volatile SRAM. This image is NOT written to NAND. It runs entirely in RAM and is lost when the drive is powered off. The loader gives the controller enough functionality to read NAND pages and respond to diagnostic commands.

3. 03

   Reconstruct the Flash Translation Layer

   PC-3000 reads the NAND pages that contained the FTL and related metadata (page headers, block sequence numbers, wear-level counters). From these fragments, it reconstructs a virtual FTL in software. This virtual map restores the logical-to-physical mapping without writing anything to the NAND.

4. 04

   Image the drive and verify files

   With the virtual FTL active, the drive presents its original capacity and file system. We image every sector to a known-good destination drive. Files are verified against the reconstructed directory structure and delivered on your return media via mail-in service.

Kingston A400 firmware recovery (SATAFIRM S11): $600–$900. If the controller also has electrical damage requiring board repair: $450–$600. Free evaluation, firm quote before any paid work, no data = no charge.

The PS3111-S11 is a DRAM-less controller, which simplifies the FTL reconstruction process compared to DRAM-cached controllers. Most Kingston A400 cases fall into the firmware recovery tier. Board-level repair is needed only when the controller has additional electrical damage from power surges or physical trauma.

Rush service: +$100 rush fee to move to the front of the queue. Call (512) 212-9111 for a free evaluation.