Western Digital in Trouble Over Failing Portable SSDs

[TheLostSwede]

Over the past few months there have been reports of issues with SanDisk portable SSDs and Western Digital released a firmware update in May that was meant to prevent the drives from "unexpectedly disconnect from a computer". However, it appears that this firmware update didn't solve the problem and Western Digital is now being taken to court over drives not just having disconnect issues, but also randomly failing. The court case is expected to become a class action suit, as the plaintiff claims that the issue of failing drives affect tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people in the USA.

The models included in the complaint includes the SanDisk Extreme Pro, Extreme Portable, Extreme Pro Portable and WD My Passport SSD. A further firmware update was released in July, which is said to have made the issues even worse, with data being lost on drives or being inaccessible to drive owners. In some cases the drives go into read only mode, but sometimes this means that the drives become inaccessible to the OS, which in turn also means dataloss to the user. Time will tell how this plays out, but it's not looking great for Western Digital, but it wouldn't be the first time a storage device maker has been taken to court over failing products.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Chaitanya]

So with WD its either Bait and Switch or failing NAND.

 

[TheLostSwede]

So with WD its either Bait and Switch or failing NAND.

This doesn't seem to be a NAND issue, but rather a firmware/controller issue.
WD makes it own SSD controllers and obviously its own firwmwares.
It's unlikely to be related to the ASMedia bridge chip they use in these drives, as then other portable SSDs with the same bridge chips should have similiar issues and there have been no such reports.

 

[ChosenName]

Last sentence, first paragraph: "tens of not hundreds".

 

[bug]

An obvious security feature: once your data becomes inaccessible, it is safe from any perpetrators.

 

[bonehead123]

Well, I've been using WD Drives in many form factors since the late 80's, and currently have a bunch of their m.2's and SSD's in both personal & client rigs, nevanottaproblemo....so I am really curious as to what the REAL issue is.... be it QA/QC, sloppy assembly or failing components... hopefully we will get more details now that it has been handed over to the lawyers to straighten out/get reecher over....

 

[bug]

Well, I've been using WD Drives in many form factors since the late 80's, and currently have a bunch of their m.2's and SSD's in both personal & client rigs, nevanottaproblemo....so I am really curious as to what the REAL issue is.... be it QA/QC, sloppy assembly or failing components... hopefully we will get more details now that it has been handed over to the lawyers to straighten out/get reecher over....

Probably some "fringe" scenario that escaped their testing then it proved to be not so fringe irl. I think the real issue here is they tried to sweep everything under a rug, not acknowledging the problem and not offering a solution/replacement to those affected, other than the aforementioned firmware updates.

I've also used WD HDDs almost exclusively. SSDs, I got Samsung and Crucial, they offered the best bang for the buck at the time I was in the market for them. But keep in mind this isn't about internal SSDs, it's about external ones. Those use a different controller, bridging NAND to USB.

 

[bonehead123]

it's about external ones. Those use a different controller, bridging NAND to USB

Exactly, since we both know that their internal drives are & have been solid for a long time, even as far back as the 7200 & 10k Raptor HDD's, of which I had many back in the day !

Since bridge chips have been known to cause all sorts of weird, unexpected issues over the years, so I would tend to believe that's where the problem is occurring...

 

[TheLostSwede]

Probably some "fringe" scenario that escaped their testing then it proved to be not so fringe irl. I think the real issue here is they tried to sweep everything under a rug, not acknowledging the problem and not offering a solution/replacement to those affected, other than the aforementioned firmware updates.

I've also used WD HDDs almost exclusively. SSDs, I got Samsung and Crucial, they offered the best bang for the buck at the time I was in the market for them. But keep in mind this isn't about internal SSDs, it's about external ones. Those use a different controller, bridging NAND to USB.

Some users seem to have gotten replacements, but not all, which makes it ever odder.
Supposedly the drives inside is the WD Black SN750, although this is an older model.

SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD Review (1TB) - The SSD Review

So we are going to take a look at a product today that has been out for some time. I have actually

www.thessdreview.com

The WD My Passport seems to be some kind of a WD Blue drive, which apparently applies to some non Pro Sandisk Extreme drives too.

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD v2 and WD My Passport SSD (2020) Review

www.anandtech.com

 

[bug]

Some users seem to have gotten replacements, but not all, which makes it ever odder.

Not odd at all. They don't know what's going on and are acting on a case-by-case basis, instead of having a policy to care about the user, before sorting everything out.

 

[Pickles Von Brine]

I work in a data recovery lab and what we are seeing is a number of different kind of failures. File system damage caused by the random disconnects but also the PMIC failing. Firmware failures are also quite common. We have also had several of these drives be completely unrecoverable.

I have seen fewer of these of the couple of months but at one point I was getting at least 2-3 a day at my location. At our main lab I know they were getting at least 3-5 a day and they get between 25-50 recoveries a day.

 

[bug]

I work in a data recovery lab and what we are seeing is a number of different kind of failures. File system damage caused by the random disconnects but also the PMIC failing. Firmware failures are also quite common. We have also had several of these drives be completely unrecoverable.

I have seen fewer of these of the couple of months but at one point I was getting at least 2-3 a day at my location. At our main lab I know they were getting at least 3-5 a day and they get between 25-50 recoveries a day.

Are we talking WD-only? Or external SSDs in general?

 

[BSim500]

I usually avoid external drives precisely because if it contains some proprietary USB to SATA / NVMe bridge chip, if that fails (but the actual drive doesn't), there's no guarantee the data will be readable after removing it and plugging it in as an internal drive. Far more reliable to buy your own USB to 2.5" / M2 caddy and insert your own internal drive. At least you can test 'internal readability' first before putting any sensitive data on and without invalidating the drive's warranty.

And that's on top of the other long-term external drive issue : "Buy our Extreme Ultra Evo Select Endurance Plus Super Pro USB stick / SD card and reward us for hiding what technology we actually use (MLC vs TLC vs QLC), or tell you which 'Ultra' one is going to die after a week in a 24/7 constant write GoPro even on the premium models!" It's WAY passed time the industry were all forced to list flash + controller specs for all external flash drives, not just internal SSD's.

 

[Chomiq]

The worst thing about it is that instead of addressing the issue WD simply decided to keep showing these drives on sale.

 

[Selaya]

so some portable sandisks fail like 10x, wd gets sued over
meanwhile, all those 10,000x 870 evo (and now 970 evo plus) failures over there at samsung ...

 

[TheLostSwede]

I usually avoid external drives precisely because if it contains some proprietary USB to SATA / NVMe bridge chip, if that fails (but the actual drive doesn't), there's no guarantee the data will be readable after removing it and plugging it in as an internal drive. Far more reliable to buy your own USB to 2.5" / M2 caddy and insert your own internal drive. At least you can test 'internal readability' first before putting any sensitive data on and without invalidating the drive's warranty.

And that's on top of the other long-term external drive issue : "Buy our Extreme Ultra Evo Select Endurance Plus Super Pro USB stick / SD card and reward us for hiding what technology we actually use (MLC vs TLC vs QLC), or tell you which 'Ultra' one is going to die after a week in a 24/7 constant write GoPro even on the premium models!" It's WAY passed time the industry were all forced to list flash + controller specs for all external flash drives, not just internal SSD's.

There's nothing proprietary about it with these drives, unlike more recent drives like the new Crucial X10 and X9 which have an SSD controller with a USB interface, where you can't even take the drive out and put it in a different carrier or in a motherboard to try and recover the data if the bridge chip fails. However, as pointed out above, if it was the bridge chip failing, other manufacturers of external drives would see similar issues, which they're not.

Your own caddy would most likely use the same ASMedia chip as these drives from WD. There are some options from Realtek and JMicron as well though.

 

[Chaitanya]

This doesn't seem to be a NAND issue, but rather a firmware/controller issue.
WD makes it own SSD controllers and obviously its own firwmwares.
It's unlikely to be related to the ASMedia bridge chip they use in these drives, as then other portable SSDs with the same bridge chips should have similiar issues and there have been no such reports.

Not sure what problem is but even their external Hard drives were prone to bizzare failures and data being unreadable due to automatic encryption. Unlike these external SSDs their external harddrives are far more tightly integrated with drive not having SATA interface.

 

[chrcoluk]

I just use ssd's externally connected via a usb cable.

 

[bug]

I just use ssd's externally connected via a usb cable.

That's how you do it! Totally different from what we're looking at here

 

[tommo1982]

Did WD pinpoint the root of the failures?

 

[bug]

Did WD pinpoint the root of the failures?

Yes. It's their external drives

Part of the problem is they have not acknowledged anything publicly yet.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

Is this issue only affecting WD's My Passport SSDs? I have a 1TB My Passport....but I'm pretty sure it's a HDD, not an SSD, even though it's about the size (2.5") of an SSD. I've never bothered to update the firmware on it in the 2 or so years I've owned it.

 

[Six_Times]

Same gong on with some Sandisk.

 

[bug]

Is this issue only affecting WD's My Passport SSDs? I have a 1TB My Passport....but I'm pretty sure it's a HDD, not an SSD, even though it's about the size (2.5") of an SSD. I've never bothered to update the firmware on it in the 2 or so years I've owned it.

Read the article. The answer is in there. Twice.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Same gong on with some Sandisk.

Yes, that's what the news post is about. WD owns SanDisk since 2016.