It doesn't look like a firmware fix will be enough.
SanDisk Extreme Pro Failures Result From Design and Manufacturing Flaws, Says Data Recovery Firm::A data recovery specialist from Austria uncovers several possible hardware reasons for the Extreme Pro's failures.
This is a bit more detailed, technical explanation:
Industry experts from Attingo, a seasoned data recovery firm that confronts faulty SanDisk Extreme Pro SSDs on a weekly basis, have shed light on the intricate nature of the defects. The company has pinpointed that the resistors deployed in these drives are mismatched with the circuit boards they sit on, leading to precarious connections that under duress, break. The frailty is exacerbated by an unstable soldering material known to bubble and crack, although it is still under debate whether one or both elements are the primary catalyst for the defects.
I'm fed up with external hard drives. Every single one I get fails within 2 years. I got a Western Digital "my passport" 2TB hard drive and it only took a year to start making loud clicking noises (failure imminent). Are there any ones out there that are actually built to last, or am I just unlucky?
Get a cheap 2.5" SATA enclosure or an m.2 enclosure and throw a real SSD in it. That's what I've been doing and I get significantly higher speeds for significantly cheaper, as well as not having any fail on me
Yep. A good enclosure with a well rated drive in it is the way to go. Easy peasy to put together and/or pull apart if something goes wrong or you want to upgrade your storage capacity.
A new report from a data recovery company now points the finger at design and manufacturing flaws as the underlying issue with the recent flood of SanDisk Extreme Pro failures that eventually spurred a class action lawsuit.
It became clear in May that some of Western Digital's SanDisk Extreme Pro 4TB SSDs suffered from sudden data loss; at this point, the company promised a firmware update to owners of the 4TB models.
However, newer revisions of these SanDisk Extreme Pro SSDs seem to have been modified with extra epoxy resin to secure the oversized components.
To follow up on its investigation, the Verge quizzed Western Digital about the recurring issue with its Extreme Pro SSDs but did not receive a response as of August 19, 2023.
This is more common with low-quality or counterfeit drives, but this is certainly not the case with the SanDisk Extreme Pro products bought from prominent retailers like Amazon.
While one of the issues is that some of Western Digital's SanDisk Extreme Pro suddenly lose data, another is that the company hasn't communicated well about the problems.
The original article contains 580 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 69%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Bad bot. You've removed most of the meat of the article. TL:DR - Oversized components and cheap solder cause weak connections and make the drives prone to breaking. It also impacts 2GB and 3GB drives.