I’m staying away from the Blue SA 510s for sure.
In addition to the 2 1TB Blue 3Ds, I have a 500mb and a 2TB.
Pure speculation on my part but I wonder if we’ll eventually find out there is a memory production problem at WD that has affected both the SA 510 and the Sandisk Extreme.
Meant to say that all my Blues are the 3D Nand model.
I have a 2TB Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD - I have noticed that if plugged in for a long period say 2 days the content appear to gradually disappear and eventually clicking on it shows no files. If you force eject then re-mount after pulling it out and back in then they re-appear? Only to disappear again if left plugged in for a day or so?
With ref to this discussion from Aug 22: SanDisk Portable SSD Failures Proliferate, here are some news.
An Austrian data recovery company has now found a possible cause for unexplained data loss on certain Sandisk Portable SSDs (1 and 2 TB Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD Models SDSSDE61-1T00 and SDSSDE61-2T00)
Report here: Datenrettung von SanDisk SSD Flash-Speicher (use your favourite online translation tool if your German is a bit rusty. Their English website version doesn’t have this blog entry)
An austrian news portal has photos: Kaputte SanDisk SSDs: Jetzt wurde die Ursache gefunden
Main point: It might be a manufacturing problem.
Thank you for the updates, Michael. This recent report highlights what some were suspecting earlier, that a simple firmware update might not correct the core issue(s).
When I was deep diving on this in Aug/Sept, I came across a discussion that mentioned a Japanese group that had been tracking this problem for a while. They had noticed a pattern with SanDisk SSDs manufactured since around November 2022.
I cannot find the article right now, but for those of you with SanDisk SSDs made since then, it may be worth buying another brand (ie. Samsung) and making that be your primary work/backup drive until we have more clarity. At least ask yourself if a sudden, total failure would cause you great distress. If SanDisk later provides a real solution (ie. replacement after manufacturing flaw is corrected) you can trade it in and have 2 working SSDs.
Here are some english language articles referring to the Futurezone info:
I had a SanDisk Extreme 2TB (SDSSDE61-2T00-G25) purchased Nov 2022 that I used as a Time Machine drive. After nine months or so, it started randomly un-mounting. It would disappear from the Desktop, and the Finder would scold me for disconnecting without ejecting it.
It always looked fine once re-connected, with all the data apparently there, but having your main backup drive suddenly go offline for no reason is not at all reassuring.
The serial number was outside the range of officially acknowledged affected units, and no firmware updates were available for my serial number. I did an RMA under warranty and got a brand-new replacement, but I have no confidence in any SanDisk or WD drive at this point. I can’t afford to fool around with a backup drives that might not have my back.
I’m now using a Crucial X8 in its place, and have left the Sandisk warranty replacement in its box.
Interesting business note… WD plans to split its HDD and Flash/SSD divisions into two separate companies. I suspect this has more to do with the failed merger and general storage industry issues than the SanDisk SSD problems.
In response to the Attingo claims, SanDisk (WD) has denied there is a hardware issue with its SSDs.
It seems that only 2TB and 4TB Sandisk SSDs are experiencing these problems. Are the 1TB versions safe?
Not sure, but seeing as how WD had a 1 TB model on their firmware update fix list it may be best to lean on the side of caution with any SanDisk SSDs made since Nov 2022.
From ZDnet article posted 21 Aug 2023:
According to the Western Digital’s firmware update page, the impacted products are from the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2, SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2, and WD My Passport SSD line, and lists the models as follows:
- SanDisk Extreme Portable 4TB (SDSSDE61-4T00)
- SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable 4TB (SDSSDE81-4T00)
- SanDisk Extreme Pro 2TB (SDSSDE81-2T00)
- SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB (SDSSDE81-1T00)
- WD My Passport 4TB (WDBAGF0040BGY)