A storage device, and a method for operating a storage device. In some embodiments, the storage device includes storage media, and the method includes: determining, by the storage device, that the storage device is in a first fault state from which recovery is possible by power cycling the storage device or by formatting the storage media; determining, by the storage device, that the storage device is in a second fault state from which partial recovery is possible by operating the storage device with reduced performance, with reduced capacity, or in a read-only mode; and operating the storage device with reduced performance, with reduced capacity, or in the read-only mode.