Western Digital has indirectly acknowledged a severe flaw in its SanDisk Extreme Pro portable solid-state drives (SSDs) by releasing a firmware update. The aim of this update is to prevent the 4 TB model from autonomously erasing user data.
However, according to a report from Ars Technica, there is no mention of a fix for the 2 TB model as of yet. It’s an alarming situation since Western Digital has not addressed the issue for months and continued to sell the faulty SSDs.
What’s worse is that even if you manage to recover your data through backups and start adding the missing content back, it starts disappearing one by one, almost as if it’s a cyber attack.
One customer from The Verge reached out to SanDisk, but they told him that his drive could not be replaced as they were being recalled. SanDisk eventually settled for a deal to compensate the customer with two 2 TB drives instead, but he never received them as the company’s systems were down due to a data breach.
Unfortunately, the 2 TB models are not safe either as a number of them have failed as well, as reported by Ars Technica. The company even tried to clear its inventory by offering major discounts on its Extreme Pro SSDs.
Do not buy these SanDisk drives. They've been faulty for months and they're trying to clear inventory with steep discounts https://t.co/Rax0FNOhod
— V (@vjeranpavic) April 12, 2023
If you happen to have one of these SanDisk SSDs, we would recommend backing up your data in a separate space, despite the firmware update.
