Defective external SSDs from SanDisk: data rescuer Attingo explains possible cause
Reports of defective external SSDs from SanDisk have been increasing since the beginning of the year. According to data recovery company Attingo, the hardware is to blame.
A design and construction weakness is said to be responsible for the SSDs from SanDisk and Western Digital that have been failing for months. At least that's what Markus Häfele, Managing Director of Austrian data rescuer Attingo, told Futurezone.
Bad soldering work and oversized, unsuitable components lead to components detaching from the circuit board over time, according to Häfele. If it feels as if the SSD has a loose connection, the alarm bells should ring, says Häfele. In such a case, he recommends immediately saving the data on the external SSD to another drive.
The following models are affected:
- SanDisk Extreme Portable 4TB
- SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable 4TB
- SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable 2TB
- SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable 1TB
- WD My Passport 4TB
Western Digital, the parent company of SanDisk, has been silent on the case for months. In the spring, the company quietly released a firmware update, which is supposed to protect the SSDs from failing.
Häfele disagrees with this, as he believes it is clearly a hardware problem. Attingo has been receiving newer models of SSDs for some time now. The manufacturer additionally fixes the oversized components with epoxy resin. Häfele assumes that Western Digital wants to make the parts more durable in this way.
This new fastening method also shows that the manufacturer has recognised the problem, but is not really doing anything about it. Instead, they are keeping quiet about the problem and working with a makeshift solution that doesn't solve the problem. It would be time for the manufacturer to stand up and address the problem. Western Digital has not yet done so and that is why there has been no recall so far.
However, I do have one possible explanation: The affected SSDs are now more than two years old. I therefore assume that the manufacturer will soon be launching the successors on the market. So why would they make improvements to a discontinued product and admit to a manufacturing defect?
The problems and, above all, the lack of communication are likely to damage Western Digital's reputation. It's a shame really, because the Extreme Portable and Extreme Pro Portable performed quite well in my tests. That's why I kept recommending them. Something I'm probably better off not doing at the moment.
Cover image: Shutterstock
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