TRIM tells an SSD which flash blocks are genuinely free so the controller can erase them in the background. That keeps performance high, but it also means deleted-file recovery often has a shorter window than on a mechanical drive where bits might linger until something else overwrites them.
Stopping new writes still matters: you cannot recover what has already been replaced with fresh data. If the disk is healthy, try soon after the mistake; if it is the system drive, expect background activity from Windows and close what you can without destabilising the machine.
External SSDs in cheap enclosures may report different capabilities than the raw drive inside. If behaviour feels random across cables and PCs, treat the enclosure as suspect before you blame the NAND.
Encryption and enclosures
- BitLocker or full-disk encryption must be unlocked; otherwise scans see noise, not files.
- Cheap USB bridges sometimes lie about SMART, trim passthrough, or sector alignment. Weird behaviour can be the cable, not Recuva.
See also How it works (SSD context) and FAQ for BitLocker wording.