At the end of May, we reported on problems with SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro portable SSDs, which were manifested by sudden deletion of all data and sometimes even complete unreadability of the storage. At the time, their manufacturer Western Digital promised to release a patch that was supposed to solve the inconvenience. How now reports TechSpot magazineproblems persist even after firmware update.
The manufacturer did keep his word and actually released an update, however, even after several months users keep losing their data. TechSpot cites as an example the case of Vjeran Pavic, senior producer of The Verge magazine, who recently lost 3 terabytes of videos stored on a SanDisk Extreme SSD. What’s worse – this is not the first time that Pavic has lost data stored on a SanDisk brand drive.
Problems with SanDisk portable SSDs
Earlier this year, Pavic lost 4 terabytes of video clips on another SanDisk Extreme Pro portable SSD. Luckily he had them backed up so the loss wasn’t so painful. Western Digital then issued a firmware update and sent Pavic a replacement drive in early June, but even that one was recommended “to the eternal hunting grounds” after two months.
“If you’re thinking about buying a SanDisk Extreme Pro, Extreme Portable, Extreme Pro Portable or WD MyPassport SSD, maybe you better not do that.“ writes Senior Editor and Co-Founder of The Verge Sean Hollister in the articlein which he describes in detail the experiences of Vjeran Pavica.
In the next text, he dwells on the fact that the data did not disappear from the disk that had been in use for several years, but from the new storage provided by Western Digital as a replacement for the previous defective disk. He points out that, judging by the posts on the Reddit discussion site, this is far from an isolated case.
Is the manufacturer sweeping the problem under the rug?
If nothing else, this fiasco is a cautionary tale of how important it is to have a solid backup strategy. This may vary depending on your individual needs. For example, a daily backup is ideal for work projects, while a weekly or monthly period is enough for less important data.
Hollister further states that “data loss” does not always mean irretrievable loss, however data recovery services tend to be very expensive. He therefore criticizes the manufacturer of the problematic drives for showing absolutely no effort to help customers recover their data.
“Honestly speaking it looks like Western Digital is trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug, while trying to sell off the remaining stock at a deep discount—they’re 66 percent off on Amazon, for example. As far as I know, WD has yet to even acknowledge the possibility of massive data loss.” notes Sean Hollister.
2023-08-13 12:45:15
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