Update…
I tried another M.2 drive in the USB enclosure and that worked just fine.
Disk Drill doesn’t even see the drive, when it’s connected in its USB enclosure.
Would it still be any help to go the Linux route? I tried connecting it to my Mac, but it didn’t show there either…
Have you checked with sudo dmesg in a terminal on Mac OS X if there’s any problem reported, or the device at least probed? If this yields nothing, I doubt Linux will help at all. But depending of the value of the data to you, Linux might be a good goto option. dmesg works there too.
Most if not all the tools on Linux are available on macOS too, since they share the same ancestry (they might not come preinstalled but installation is trivial with brew).
If disk drill can’t see the drive when it’s connected to a motherboard M.2 slot then I’d fear it’s electrically dead…
Will try it in a mobo slot today.
Windows sees a Disk1 that needs to be initzialized though…
Hopefully Disk Drill can pick it up then… or someone else can help you with the Linux tools?
Put the drive in an M.2 slot on the motherboard but disk drill couldn’t see it. Nor did it show in the UEFI.
Guess it’s KIA…
I took the drive to a local Computer guru, but he couldn’t help. He mentioned dedicated data recovery shops can remove the storage chips and read them, but at a premium price…
The drives only contain pictures. Nothing I can’t live without, but there are some pictures of persons I will never meet again and I’d really want the pics back.
Nothing secret and nothing compromising, just affectional value.
Anybody know of a data recovery shop that can be trusted to attempt to find my pics without just cheating me out of my cash?
You really don’t want to hear this, but the cheap method is preventative measures, aka Backups.
Good, worthy, automatic Backups with frequently tested and trusted Restore.
Right now your only options are expensive and they do not guarantee success. It’s a rare craft that needs expensive equipment. Would be a miracle if you find a capable, cheap techie.
Thank you, Captain Hindsight! 
I don’t mind paying as long as they have the tools and are a serious shop.
Jumping on this thread just to save starting a new topic.
Just bought a 2tb ssd M.2
Are these plug and play? Like what happens when i install it into the case? There is a drive in there at the moment, which i believe to be failing. Can i just pop the new one in or is there a process?
Always turn off the PC, remove the power cord from the PSU, and only then mount the hardware.
That goes for anything that needs to be fitted in the PC.
If it’s a regular drive it should be recognized by windows and the only driver you need should be already in the OS.
Anything extra should come with the drive.
You may need to use Windows Disk Management to initialize the drive, format it and select a letter for it.
I was literally just about to ask this! Mind reader! 
It shows up in device manager but nowhere else, I’ll try that now kyle reese. Thanks 
Oh damn, I assumed.
Sorry man, that’s on me.
It needs a better name. Why not call it Reese?
Yep. As an IT guy I am obligated to mention the 3-2-1 rule.
3 Copies, at least two different types of storage media, 1 copy off-site.
If you don’t follow 3-2-1, then the data doesn’t exist.
As well, flash based media, whether that be SSDs (NVMe or SATA based), SD cards, etc - are only expected to retain the data when not connected to power for a few months to a year. So if this ends up being the root cause, the drive is otherwise fine most likely and can be re-used.
An SSD is not an ideal choice for “offline” backups.
Can i rename it?
