News Sandisk Extreme SSDs suddenly failing

[mikeymikec]

SanDisk Extreme SSDs keep abruptly failing—firmware fix for only some promised

Ars saw two 2TB units become unreadable, but SanDisk only confirms 4TB troubles.

arstechnica.com

Don't forget to back up your data people! Oops, there goes the backup data!

Update 2023-08-11:
Update: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ill-wiping-data-after-firmware-fix-users-say/

Update 2023-08-18:

Western Digital sued over SanDisk SSD data-loss claims

Drives are anything but solid, allegedly

www.theregister.com

Update 2023-08-21:
Two more class action lawsuits:

SanDisk Extreme SSDs are “worthless,” multiple lawsuits against WD say

Ars cited in two SanDisk SSD failure lawsuits filed yesterday.

arstechnica.com

 

[mikeymikec]

Update: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ill-wiping-data-after-firmware-fix-users-say/

 

[BoomerD]

We just lost 3TB of data on a SanDisk Extreme SSD

How are these still on sale?

www.theverge.com

SanDisk Portable SSDs Are Failing So Frequently, We Can No Longer Recommend Them

We can no longer SanDisk portable SSDs amid widespread drive failures and data loss.

petapixel.com

Sounds like this problem is pretty wide-spread...and WD is ignoring it...hoping it will somehow just go away.

 

[Shmee]

Yikes. I just use SATA 2.5" SSDs or m.2 NVMe SSDs and put them in USB enclosures though, as it is more modular, more repairable/reliable, and generally cheaper.

 

[A///]

Yikes. I just use SATA 2.5" SSDs or m.2 NVMe SSDs and put them in USB enclosures though, as it is more modular, more repairable/reliable, and generally cheaper.

I do this too. It's cheaper and less of a headache if you ever need to do a warranty claim which isn't very likely with this method. I was at best buy earlier this week trying to get some peculiar battery sizes and they had these sandisks on hold. idk if that was a per store policy or company wide. easier to send that trash back to sandisk than deal with customer complaints.

 

[Tech Junky]

I do this too.

Same here with M2's. Latest is an Acasis TB4 enclosure paired with a sn770. Able to squeeze 3GB/s out of it. Even in USB mode it hits GB/s.

 

[A///]

Same here with M2's. Latest is an Acasis TB4 enclosure paired with a sn770. Able to squeeze 3GB/s out of it. Even in USB mode it hits GB/s.

I've got an acasis myself somewhere. i use taped notes to remind myself whats on the drives. wish they'd figure out a format to throw in 3-4 drives and have them show up as individual drives on the pc.

 

[Tech Junky]

@A///

There's a 2 drive hub / dock that could do that. The problem though right now is 40gbps TB connection of which only a portion can be used which is why you get odd 3.x GB/s speeds instead of 5GB/s. Enclosures for multi drives then invoke a bridge controller and that bottlenecks the data to conform to the throughput of the cable / port being used.

It's kind of like PCIE bifurcation on Intel consumer boards vs AMD which allows it. Intel needs a PLX switch to aggregate the data on the X16 card and even though you can plop 4 drives onto it each doing 7.5GB/s the aggregate speed gets capped off at ~6GB/s vs 30gB/s the drives could to natively.

The NVME class drives woefully go beyond the speed of the ports they would get plugged into through an enclosure. The upside though is TB5 is to push 80gbps but, then there's the question how much of that is going to be reserved for display data.

The other good thing is that controllers are always being updated. It's still a hard thing to advance w/o the backing of Intel tough since they own the protocol and set the specs / programming. The flip side is USB4 which basically does the same thing but doesn't guarantee the speed as there's 20/40gbps versions It's not a clean subject ever with USB as we all know. I wish they would kill off older versions on new products even being an option. WTF am I going to use a USB2 port for on a system build in 2023? The only thing I own that uses anything close to that is my phone which can't use a certified higher version due to pumping 80W of power w/ a proprietary charging protocol. Which means for data it's quicker to use WIFI to move files than to plug in the cable.

 

[A///]

@A///

There's a 2 drive hub / dock that could do that. The problem though right now is 40gbps TB connection of which only a portion can be used which is why you get odd 3.x GB/s speeds instead of 5GB/s. Enclosures for multi drives then invoke a bridge controller and that bottlenecks the data to conform to the throughput of the cable / port being used.

It's kind of like PCIE bifurcation on Intel consumer boards vs AMD which allows it. Intel needs a PLX switch to aggregate the data on the X16 card and even though you can plop 4 drives onto it each doing 7.5GB/s the aggregate speed gets capped off at ~6GB/s vs 30gB/s the drives could to natively.

The NVME class drives woefully go beyond the speed of the ports they would get plugged into through an enclosure. The upside though is TB5 is to push 80gbps but, then there's the question how much of that is going to be reserved for display data.

The other good thing is that controllers are always being updated. It's still a hard thing to advance w/o the backing of Intel tough since they own the protocol and set the specs / programming. The flip side is USB4 which basically does the same thing but doesn't guarantee the speed as there's 20/40gbps versions It's not a clean subject ever with USB as we all know. I wish they would kill off older versions on new products even being an option. WTF am I going to use a USB2 port for on a system build in 2023? The only thing I own that uses anything close to that is my phone which can't use a certified higher version due to pumping 80W of power w/ a proprietary charging protocol. Which means for data it's quicker to use WIFI to move files than to plug in the cable.

coincidentally that is why amd waited for tb4/usb4 and their refreshed boards are allegedly getting that chip based on some random post I read online a month ago. you want to maintain 1-2 usb 2 ports on any motherboard because sometimes mobos and peripherals don't speak nicely to each other when on a newer usb "platform" and will try to boot off or write to the device when it can't and cause malfunctions. They're rare but they do happen. usb 2 ports are also decent ports to boot material off of if the newer ones are fickle. thats why you still got usb 2 headers on bleeding edge mobos.

rounding the block here but this is a perfect example of why tb or usb4/5 is pointless on non macs after a point because your data transfer can only be so fast before it feels redundent. not to mention the lack of hardware on the pc side that would take advantage of these ports. their only real benefit is hooking a hub to a high end port and splitting off the signaling to lower end devices.

 

[Tech Junky]

@A///

It all depends on what you want to use your ports for. Sure, legacy ports might be necessary for a few things but, not many. AMD did the right thing knowing USB4 aka TB3 w/o licensing commissions to Intel makes financial sense to both AMD and customers as the price drops in the sale price.

TB used to be a premium you had to pay Apple for or spend hefty sums on cards to add them to a PC. I picked up a 2 port card off Amazon though for $60 and it also has a SAYA power connector which allows me to suck juice off it up to 100W per port. I run my internet through a USB PD power bank but could put the PB inline using the TB port to keep it topped off while also powering the ISP device.

I hope there might be some plans to increase the port density for TB rather than 1-2 ports per system w/o getting creative. There's also PD3.1 for USB that now inches closer to 240W which would power most laptops just fine. I just picked up a new MOBO from GB though that has an interesting line up of ports on the back.

Chipset:
2 x USB Type-C® ports, with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 support (1 port on the back panel, 1 port available through the internal USB header)
1 x USB Type-C® port on the back panel, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) on the back panel
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports available through the internal USB header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports on the back panel
Chipset+USB 3.2 Gen 1 Hub:
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the back panel
Chipset+USB 2.0 Hub:
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports available through the internal USB headers

At least it's shifting to more higher 10/20gbps ports instead of just filling the space with legacy speed ports. I was going to use a different one to keep costs down on my little project but, the board I got has RAM issues as in only 1 stick will work and won't boot w/ more. So, I went back looking for options and decided to bight the bullet and add DDR5 to the equation even though I've been resisting it since the release of DDR5 was a mess w/ lack of inventory and sky high prices even for smaller 8GB sticks when ADL was released.

 

[A///]

The intel licensing had a caveat where Intel needed access to documentation amd would prefer not to hand over to intel. that is their own problem. tb on pc is largely useless. the devices I'm talking about are often written with bad firmware that messes up how the computer behaves when out of desktop or in use. I can think of a few tb peripherals which are very niche but have usb fallback. tb is great in theory but it makes more sense for apple than it does on pc.

 

[Tech Junky]

tb is great in theory but it makes more sense for apple than it does on pc.

Well, Apple had a 15-20 year head start to develop hardware specifically to use TB. It was their niche while PC played around with dumb things like firewire and USB.

TB for me is about data at high speed. I can boot my server off an image of my laptop (W11) and not have to slot the drive. Networking though opens the door to 10GE on a laptop w/ an external NIC.

The big thing for most though is laptops / charging at higher rates for a quicker charge. The other market use would be AR/VR now that the bandwidth isn't limited to Apple. The mass market though will take a bit of time to adopt TB because most of them grew up w/o ever using it or knowing about it because Windows is dumb. Those of us that play around in the grey area w/ Linux though know the power of not being tied to Windows and the lackluster HW options.

When you think about the premium Apple users pay though for things it's horrifying. It comes down to the Right vs Left brain and how they view tech. It also is about catering to just pulling it out of the box and turning it on. Both sides meet those goals though today whereas they didn't early on. Then there's the marketing $$$'s. Apple owns everything soup to nuts where PC is open so, there's dilution of "brand" due to so many suppliers.

I'm sure there are other uses for TB like monitors / DP and suspect there will be more development of HW now that it can be mass marketed to users besides Apple.

 

[mikeymikec]

Another update: https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/17/western_digital_sandisk_ssd_lawsuit/

I think I'll update the OP as this situation seems to be the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[mikeymikec]

Another update: two more class action lawsuits!

 

[tcsenter]

Well, Apple had a 15-20 year head start to develop hardware specifically to use TB. It was their niche while PC played around with dumb things like firewire and USB.

For a while Apple was about the only computer company really shipping Firewire standard equip and promoting it over USB.

 

[aigomorla]

FML... i have 4 x 4TB in R0 as my game storage drive....

oh wait but mine are ultra's and not extreme... am i exempted from this?

 

[tcsenter]

Dude you running R0 what are you concerned about at all. I take it you have backups?

 

[aigomorla]

Dude you running R0 what are you concerned about at all. I take it you have backups?

backup for game downloads?
nah, if i lose the entire array i can always redownload the games via steam.

Im more worried about having to replace the drives if anything.

 

[Tech Junky]

replace the drives if anything.

If you do you might want to look into the micron 7450 pro. I'm still working on mine as it freaked out while copying files and hopefully is a one off issue. Got a replacement on the way for further testing. 16tb in a 2.5" form factor but Gen 4 speeds for about $1100 with the pcie adapter card.

 

[mikeymikec]

FML... i have 4 x 4TB in R0 as my game storage drive....

oh wait but mine are ultra's and not extreme... am i exempted from this?

I wouldn't bet on it. IIRC the articles I mentioned state the SanDisk Extreme (which is an external drive I believe) but also the WD Passport (also an external drive), but the fact of the matter is they had to get the internal drive electronics from somewhere and the most commonly affected drives are 4TB IIRC. I'd at least consider firmware updating your drives.

 

[igor_kavinski]

IIRC the articles I mentioned state the SanDisk Extreme (which is an external drive I believe) but also the WD Passport

It seems to be external drives and the product manager or division head for that could be a totally different scumbag at WD, who must have gotten a fat bonus for "saving" substantial costs on the manufacturing of these defective drives. A person like that does not merely deserve to be fired. He needs to be stripped cashless so he understands that trying to get rich quick by cutting corners has consequences. Problem is, the guy above him is gonna be a bigger sleazeball so nothing will happen. I only hope that the class action suit results in at least a billion dollar awarded in damages. But that's not gonna happen either. Consumers always keep getting screwed and these corporations keep getting away with just a slap on the wrist (anything less than a billion dollars fine for egregious neglect of duty is just that).