Rapid Failures in SanDisk’s Extreme Portable SSD, and WD’s Reaction

WD has provided a solution in response to the growing number of dissatisfied customers of SanDisk’s Extreme and Extreme Pro portable solid-state drives (SSDs), many of whom have experienced or are facing the terrifying prospect of unexpected data loss. After finding many social media threads in which users complained of data loss and drives sometimes being completely unreadable, Ars Technica contacted the parent company of SanDisk to inquire about the matter and obtain a response. However, SanDisk’s response only mentions the 4TB versions of these portable flash storage devices; there is no mention of an update for the 2TB variants. SanDisk has stated that a software fix is on the way “soon,” and it will be arriving “soon.”

Computer users that use their computers responsibly purchase data storage solutions from companies such as SanDisk to protect the safety and security of their data. The functioning of portable solid-state drives (SSDs) such as the SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro series is guaranteed to be “professional grade storage,” “rugged,” “worry-free,” and “dependable” for a period of at least five years (the lifetime of the warranty). Because of this, these portable SSDs should be considered an excellent choice for either a working data drive or a backup drive. There has been an increase in customers’ level of discontent with the SanDisk Extreme SSD series over the past several months, as indicated by reddit postings such as these, these, and these. After an extended period of writing to the drive, one of the most typical symptoms is the impression that all of the data stored on the device has been overwritten or deleted.  After this, some people discover that the disk is not only empty but has also been rendered absolutely unwritable. Ouch.

Unfortunately for one of our staff members, not just one but two of their SanDisk Extreme Pro SSDs, each with a capacity of 2 terabytes, have just failed. After the drives had reached approximately half capacity, according to his observations, “a slew of read and write errors” began to appear. The drives gave the appearance of being unformatted after being disconnected and then reconnected, and it seems as though the data that was already there could not be retrieved. WD has acknowledged that there is an issue with the firmware, and the company will provide an update to correct the problem. Under normal circumstances, the odds of having two consecutive drives fail in this manner would be extremely low.

In response to enquiries from Ars Technica, the storage technology manufacturer Western Digital replied, “Western Digital is aware of reports indicating some customers have experienced an issue with 4TB SanDisk Extreme and/or Extreme Pro portable SSDs (SDSSDE61-4T00 and SDSSDE81-4T00 respectively).” The problem has been fixed, and an updated version of the firmware will be made available on our website very soon. Customers who have inquiries or who are having problems can get in touch with our Customer Support staff so that they can receive assistance.

To the dismay of a number of users, the official statement from WD does not mention the prospect of receiving a refund. In addition, it is not apparent whether the omission of 2TB drives was an accident or whether the 2TB drives will also get updated firmware “soon,” as they ought to. There has been a lot of talk, but nothing official to back it up, suggesting that the problems with SanDisk Extreme SSD only affect people who are using devices “manufactured after November 2022.” However, as of the time that this article was written, we would warn anyone who uses these drives to utilize them with the utmost caution. It is possible that it would be prudent to limit the usage of these storage devices to the storing of convenient duplicates or temporary data until the patch is implemented and it has been thoroughly tested.