Do you think it’s not newsworthy if a manufacturer sells drives with a history of failures, releases a firmware update they claim will fix the issue, sends a replacement drive that also fails, and continues to sell the drives at a deep discount?
It’s definitely newsworthy, and the ars article is at least a bit more balanced. My main issue is the “I trusted my data to a single USB device, and was then furious when it died” clickbait. These journalists should know better than to store critical data in a single place.
If you can’t RMA the drives then that is a bigger problem, but that comes down to the consumer protection laws you have in your country.
In the article they point out their first drive failed and sandisk replaced it. Now the replacement is dying in the same way. And the drive just so happens to be on clearance now, as if they’re trying to clear out stock.
Also, it’s an SSD, so it’s not a mechanical failure.
SSDs can fail at random as well. Often with less warning. It’s definitely newsworthy that there are lots of these failures, but the “We lost 3tb of data” angle is bullshit. The correct response to a USB drive dying should be “Bummer, RMA it, and get a copy from the NAS/cloud/resilient storage”
The fact that it was a known issue, should have clued them in that maybe it should be used for memes, NFTs, and other crap that means absolutely nothing in the real world.
Aside from design defects, most items havr a bathtub curve for reliability. Stuff either fails very early on, or very late.
These drives are obviously defective. But USB harddrives in general should be used for copying data from point A to B, or storing secondary/tertiary copies of data. But definitely not long term storage of valuable data.
Yeah, that’s bad, but maybe not surprising either. At that point insist on a refund (consumer protection laws are important) and go buy something else.
But definitely don’t put 3tb of critical unbackedup data on it and hope for the best.
“I have a defective drive, therefore all drives are defective”
Storage can fail at any time, that’s why important data should be backed up.
Dunno what more to expect from the Verge. Have they tried putting thermal paste on it?
Are you willing to accept an article from Ars Technica? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/05/sandisk-extreme-ssds-keep-abruptly-failing-firmware-fix-for-only-some-promised/
Do you think it’s not newsworthy if a manufacturer sells drives with a history of failures, releases a firmware update they claim will fix the issue, sends a replacement drive that also fails, and continues to sell the drives at a deep discount?
It’s definitely newsworthy, and the ars article is at least a bit more balanced. My main issue is the “I trusted my data to a single USB device, and was then furious when it died” clickbait. These journalists should know better than to store critical data in a single place.
If you can’t RMA the drives then that is a bigger problem, but that comes down to the consumer protection laws you have in your country.
OP should have posted this one, not that The Verge crap.
In the article they point out their first drive failed and sandisk replaced it. Now the replacement is dying in the same way. And the drive just so happens to be on clearance now, as if they’re trying to clear out stock.
Also, it’s an SSD, so it’s not a mechanical failure.
SSDs can fail at random as well. Often with less warning. It’s definitely newsworthy that there are lots of these failures, but the “We lost 3tb of data” angle is bullshit. The correct response to a USB drive dying should be “Bummer, RMA it, and get a copy from the NAS/cloud/resilient storage”
In 2 months though?
The fact that it was a known issue, should have clued them in that maybe it should be used for memes, NFTs, and other crap that means absolutely nothing in the real world.
Aside from design defects, most items havr a bathtub curve for reliability. Stuff either fails very early on, or very late.
These drives are obviously defective. But USB harddrives in general should be used for copying data from point A to B, or storing secondary/tertiary copies of data. But definitely not long term storage of valuable data.
Agreed, all my external drives are backups of music, ebooks, and porn.
I get what you’re saying, but this was about the RMA replacement also failing.
Yeah, that’s bad, but maybe not surprising either. At that point insist on a refund (consumer protection laws are important) and go buy something else.
But definitely don’t put 3tb of critical unbackedup data on it and hope for the best.