Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda

New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site

New Feature: SMS Notification alert

New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist

FM Forums | Post-processing & Printing | Join Upload & Sell

2 end

Archive 2023 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

RoamingScott
Online
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

https://www.theverge.com/22291828/sandisk-extreme-pro-portable-my-passport-failure-continued

I've been recommending Samsung T7s for a while now...glad I never bought into Sandisk. Just too risky given their track record here.

Aug 07, 2023 at 05:48 PM

jharter
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

Better still is a DIY NVME drive. I have a 2TB with a Samsung Pro chip with a Thunderbolt 4 connection. It will copy about 64GB to my MacBook Air in about a minute.

Aug 07, 2023 at 05:54 PM

EB-1
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

See this thread also. https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1814603

EBH

Aug 07, 2023 at 06:15 PM

PIOK
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

“The disk you attached was not readable by this computer.”

Exactly what happened to my 4TB drive and how I did lost some days of my work twice

However

last month I bough 2TB ( SkyBlue color - to see if something change )

I started work on my video project to test it, but I always copy my file to another drive once I finish my daily work
So far so good BUT at least 3 - 4 time I did get a message that my drive disconnected from the computer and did not save my edit ( the good thing is Final CutPro saves edits itself )

Yeah by SanDisk firmware fix is a joke - I just hope I never see again ---- “The disk you attached was not readable by this computer.”

Aug 07, 2023 at 06:41 PM

oguruma
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

To be fair, having only a single copy of important data is just asking for something like this. Having that single drive be a consumer-grade portable drive is even more stupid.

Every drive will fail (or you'll lose it, it gets stolen, accidentally delete it, etc.) and portable drives are even more prone to loss because they're more easily misplaced, more likely to be stolen from your car, left in your pants pocket and go into the washing machine, more exposed to the elements, and subjected to more radiation.

Aug 07, 2023 at 07:38 PM

PIOK
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

Aug 07, 2023 at 07:57 PM

RoamingScott
Online
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

oguruma wrote:
To be fair, having only a single copy of important data is just asking for something like this. Having that single drive be a consumer-grade portable drive is even more stupid.

Every drive will fail (or you'll lose it, it gets stolen, accidentally delete it, etc.) and portable drives are even more prone to loss because they're more easily misplaced, more likely to be stolen from your car, left in your pants pocket and go into the washing machine, more exposed to the elements, and subjected to more radiation.

No kidding you should have backups, but you can't back up a drive that shits its pants on its own with no warning. You should not be buying a drive that is a known quantity of "I love to brick myself randomly when I'm brand new" and this is a PSA about that.

There is no "to be fair" here. This drive sucks ass. Don't buy it, no matter how attractive the pricing becomes. The amount of people buying it JUST because of the lanyard loop is insane.

Aug 07, 2023 at 08:17 PM

oguruma
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

RoamingScott wrote:
No kidding you should have backups, but you can't back up a drive that shits its pants on its own with no warning. You should not be buying a drive that is a known quantity of "I love to brick myself randomly when I'm brand new" and this is a PSA about that.

There is no "to be fair" here. This drive sucks ass. Don't buy it, no matter how attractive the pricing becomes. The amount of people buying it JUST because of the lanyard loop is insane.

I have no doubt that the drive is terrible, nor do I have any intention of buying one.

With respect to not being able to back up a drive that gives up with no warning, that is typically how drives fail..... There's not usually a warning light that indicates "This drive is going to fail tomorrow."

Aug 07, 2023 at 08:33 PM

ruthenium
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

I have two 2GB SanDisks like pictured in https://www.theverge.com/22291828/sandisk-extreme-pro-portable-my-passport-failure-continued - they have not given me any problem so far, in the past two years.
That message in the above link: "The disk you attached was not readable by this computer" looks like from a Mac. I see this message every time when insert a SanDisk Extreme Pro 256 GB memory stick to my MacBook Pro M2 Max (the laptop has the latest Ventura). To deal with this, I start Windows via Parallels and work with the files on the memory stick in Windows without any problems. After copying to MacBook, the files are fully accessible from MacOS.
I am not suggesting that the reported problem is all due to MacOS but it would be interesting to know what happens to such unreadable drives when connected to a Windows computer, or when the drive is accessed from Windows via Parallels on a Mac.

Aug 07, 2023 at 09:32 PM

PIOK
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

ruthenium wrote:
That message in the above link: "The disk you attached was not readable by this computer" looks like from a Mac. I see this message every time when insert a SanDisk Extreme Pro 256 GB memory stick to my MacBook Pro M2 Max (the laptop has the latest Ventura). To deal with this, I start Windows via Parallels and work with the files on the memory stick in Windows without any problems. After copying to MacBook, the files are fully accessible from MacOS.
I am not suggesting that the reported problem is all due to MacOS but it would be interesting...Show more →

Once is unreadable in Mac Ventura is unreadable in Windows. I did try this many times ( only option was to Erase )
I also have 3 more SanDisk SSD's since 2 and 3 years ago and have zero issues with them. Is something wrong with specific drive or firmware... Because I use them all with Mac Ventura and Windows. Only the one from late 2022 has this problem. Older SSD's work super amazing.

Aug 07, 2023 at 10:10 PM

amv8
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

I have a couple of the Sandisk Extreme V2 drives (a 2TB and 4TB) as well as a newer G-Drive 4TB external SSD (which is also owned by Sandisk). I haven't had any issues so far, but my Sandisk Extreme V2 drives were purchased in early and mid-2022. I recall seeing some posts that the issues appeared to be with a specific production run/serial number range, perhaps from later 2022 but I'm not sure about that. Anyway here's a link from Sandisk that in theory allows you to see if your drive (based on serial number) is impacted and needs the fw update.

https://support-en.wd.com/app/firmwareupdate

I don't think Sandisk has done a good job on proactively informing their customers about the problem, nor are they owning up to how serious it is.

Aug 07, 2023 at 10:40 PM

EB-1
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

oguruma wrote:
I have no doubt that the drive is terrible, nor do I have any intention of buying one.

With respect to not being able to back up a drive that gives up with no warning, that is typically how drives fail..... There's not usually a warning light that indicates "This drive is going to fail tomorrow."

I've been happy so far with the Extreme Pro 4TB containing the WD SN850X (black). A minor complaint is that there is no activity light. Hard drives are more likely to give SMART warnings before failure, but SSDs sometimes indicate reallocated sectors before failure.

EBH

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(09) WD_BLACK SN850XE 4000GB
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model : WD_BLACK SN850XE 4000GB
Firmware : 624131EX
Disk Size : 4000.7 GB
Interface : UASP (NVM Express)
Standard : NVM Express 1.4
Host Reads : 11313 GB
Host Writes : 15456 GB
Health Status : Good (100 %)
Features : S.M.A.R.T., TRIM, VolatileWriteCache
Drive Letter :

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 000000000000 Critical Warning
02 00000000012E Composite Temperature
03 000000000064 Available Spare
04 00000000000A Available Spare Threshold
05 000000000000 Percentage Used
06 0000016A0ADF Data Units Read
07 000001EE9F16 Data Units Written
08 00000B2A90A6 Host Read Commands
09 00000F20C914 Host Write Commands
0A 000000000125 Controller Busy Time
0B 0000000000F8 Power Cycles
0C 000000000020 Power On Hours
0D 000000000018 Unsafe Shutdowns
0E 000000000000 Media and Data Integrity Errors
0F 000000000000 Number of Error Information Log Entries

Aug 08, 2023 at 01:46 PM

AmbientMike
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

Take a look at the solution mentioned in this thread (Rivermist)

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1807806/0

Might be a connection issue. Also I'd be curious how many have failed <1 hour per day of use backing up vacation/travel daily, vs hours of video editing that could heat it up

Aug 09, 2023 at 11:17 AM

PIOK
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

In my case was simple I did some video editing. Later - Eject Drive - Close Computer - Disconnect Drive - Next morning Connect Drive again and it was Message “The disk you attached was not readable by this computer.”

This happened to me 2 times ( or three ) I did try with 4 computers (PC and Mac with different USB connections ) Each time I have to format drive. Three other SanDisk I use all the time are much more heavy use ( full day Lightroom, Photoshop or Video editing they all work perfect

So imagine that you bought TWO SSD like this and put your important files to both of them and there is the same issue in both of them... You will just loose everything

Aug 09, 2023 at 11:52 AM

EB-1
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

One of the tenets of the 321 storage paradigm is to use two different kinds of media. It's exactly for that reason to mitigate loss if a particular product has a common defect.

EBH

Aug 09, 2023 at 05:01 PM

mcbroomf
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/lawsuit-takes-western-digital-to-task-over-sandisk-ssds-allegedly-erasing-data/

I have 2 of the older (?) Extreme Portable 2TB drives, both exhibited similar behavior. I just use them on occasion for transferring large files/directories between machines. No trust for normal storage.

Aug 18, 2023 at 04:41 AM

Abbott Schindl
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

mcbroomf wrote:
I have 2 of the older (?) Extreme Portable 2TB drives, both exhibited similar behavior.

Did you check whether their S/Ns are affected? You can do that here:
https://support-en.wd.com/app/firmwareupdate

I've got several 2TB and 4TB drives and none are listed as having the problem. That said, I've now changed my backup strategy from using duplicate SanDisk Extremes to having one SanDisk (because I already have them and they're working fine so far) and a Samsung T7 Shield as the duplicate copy. I'll continue doing this going forward.

It's unfortunate that WD's had so many HDD and SSD issues over the last several years; hard to know who to trust, other than use multiple vendors in addition to having a solid backup strategy.

Aug 18, 2023 at 11:55 AM

mcbroomf
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

Abbott Schindl wrote:
Did you check whether their S/Ns are affected? You can do that here:
https://support-en.wd.com/app/firmwareupdate

I've got several 2TB and 4TB drives and none are listed as having the problem. That said, I've now changed my backup strategy from using duplicate SanDisk Extremes to having one SanDisk (because I already have them and they're working fine so far) and a Samsung T7 Shield as the duplicate copy. I'll continue doing this going forward.

It's unfortunate that WD's had so many HDD and SSD issues over the last several years; hard to know who to trust, other than use multiple vendors in addition to...Show more →

Yes I did. No joy. I will check again in case they've rooted out more problems.

Aug 18, 2023 at 12:27 PM

EB-1
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

Abbott Schindl wrote:
Did you check whether their S/Ns are affected? You can do that here:
https://support-en.wd.com/app/firmwareupdate

I've got several 2TB and 4TB drives and none are listed as having the problem. That said, I've now changed my backup strategy from using duplicate SanDisk Extremes to having one SanDisk (because I already have them and they're working fine so far) and a Samsung T7 Shield as the duplicate copy. I'll continue doing this going forward.

It's unfortunate that WD's had so many HDD and SSD issues over the last several years; hard to know who to trust, other than use multiple vendors in addition to...Show more →

We have not had issues with the WD HDDs lately. Are you talking about marketing issues or actual defects?

EBH

Aug 19, 2023 at 08:53 AM

amv8
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Beware the Sandisk external SSD drives

EB-1 wrote:
We have not had issues with the WD HDDs lately. Are you talking about marketing issues or actual defects?

EBH

Regarding WD HDDs, I believe he's referring to the WD Red drive scam, where WD started using SMR based drives rather than traditional CMR technology.

WD settles lawsuit

I had the WDD Red drives in question, and they effectively destroyed my NAS when they failed... WDD didn't honor the warranty either.

Aug 19, 2023 at 10:41 AM

1 2 end
FM Forums \| Post-processing & Printing \| Join Upload & Sell 1 2 end

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.