Theoretically, you know that you should back up all important data immediately, but still, the total loss of a storage medium remains a nightmare - especially when external SSDs are used for direct recording from cameras such as the Blackmagic Pocket cameras or Sigma fp. And even if you only work mobile on such an SSD and edit video for example - the (total) loss of data is always annoying.
However, several models of SanDisk&s Extreme series of external SSDs seem to have exactly such a problem, which are very popular among filmmakers, among others, due to their high speed of around 2,000 MB/s read and write speed and their robustness. Actually, SSDs should be safer than HDDs, since they don&t have any moving parts like the sensitive hard disks and write heads - but nevertheless, problems can occur due to defective components or programming of the firmware.
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD
Already 4 months ago 
warned a professional video editor others of failures with data loss of the SanDisk 4TB Extreme Pro SSDs in the Reddit community for editors - in the associated thread also other users reported failures of their SanDisk 4TB Extreme Pro V2 SSDs, in other threads and also in San Disk&s own forum also of similar problems with the 4TB Extreme V2 and the 2 TB Extreme Pro model.
Apparently only some newer batches are affected - older disks work fine.
The technology magazine Ars Technica also reports about the failure of two SanDisk 2TB Extreme Pros. In response to an inquiry from Ars Technica, SanDisk only replied that the problem would soon be fixed by a new firmware for the 4TB SanDisk Extreme (Pro). When asked about a refund or when the firmware would be released and if it would also be applicable to the 2TB Extreme models, SanDisk did not respond.
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD
Thus, they lost the complete file system including all data after longer write processes. The drive can no longer be mounted in this case although it is displayed in the hard disk utility. In some cases the file system could be recovered using the data recovery tool DiskDrill, but often not. The problem occurred with any file system type.
Managing the affair
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Western Digital or SanDisk does not cut a good figure in the affair. Instead of quickly verifying the problems through its own tests, publicly admitting them and recalling the affected batches, SanDisk has relied on keeping quiet and hoping that the problems with the Extreme SSDs won&t generate much attention. Now, however, after several major online magazines have made the whole thing an issue, SanDisk is looking bad and leaving users doubting the reliability of its products - for a storage manufacturer, that&s fatal. SanDisk still offers the Extreme (Pro) 4TB - whether these are the models of the problematic batch is not clear due to SanDisk&s information policy.
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD
The lesson
The lesson for users is to inform themselves well about the experiences of others with certain models before buying SSDs and to test them well with corresponding programs after the purchase in order to find out about possible errors early and before the actual use. And of course, you should always create many backups to avoid losing too much and especially no irrecoverable data in case of an SSD failure.
Here is our test of the
review of the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 and Extreme Pro V2 in comparison with the Samsung T5.
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