Halloween remains to be months away, however right here’s a tech horror story for you: Imagine working for a media firm, busting your butt on video manufacturing, solely to lose 3TB of footage as a result of the exterior SSD it was saved on went dangerous. Now think about the way you’d really feel if this SSD was a vendor-provided substitute for a defective drive that had already spontaneously deleted knowledge.
Unfortunately, this situation is a real-world expertise of the tremendous of us over at The Verge. The unique dangerous SSD was a 4TB SanDisk Extreme Pro mannequin that abruptly wiped saved knowledge by itself. And the substitute despatched by Western Digital (which owns SanDisk) apparently has related issues too. The Verge believes the Extreme Pro isn’t the one mannequin affected—a firmware repair additionally implicates the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 and WD MyPassport SSD as nicely. (So do annoyed studies on Reddit.)
Obviously, in the event you’ve been considering of buying considered one of these fashions for extra storage or as a backup drive, it’s possible you’ll wish to suppose twice. (I’ve to confess, The Verge’s wariness about the present deep low cost on these SSDs doesn’t appear unfounded.) But in the event you’ve already purchased one of many affected SSDs, it’s a good time to do two issues: Back up the information on that drive proper now, and choose up a substitute for it, too.
Sadly, as disconcerting as this example is, the unlucky reality is that each storage drive is all the time in danger for failure, regardless if it’s an SSD or a onerous disk drive. The odds aren’t excessive (and normally the end result isn’t the worst case situation, the place you merely can’t belief the drive), however you may’t keep away from the inevitable. Usually it simply occurs a few years down the highway.
Reviews can’t all the time catch issues, both. (We in actual fact gave the SanDisk ExtremeS Pro and WD MyPassport SSD very excessive scores after they first launched again in 2020, as did different publications that use much more strong testing.) Situations that may uncover a long-term subject will not be included in ordinary benchmarks. In extra uncommon circumstances, later firmware updates can create hiccups. You may argue that reviewers utterly miss the mark, however typically this sort of catastrophic final result is surprising and never widespread.
Your solely actual safety is to make use of evaluations as a common information for efficiency and any rapid issues—after which all the time, all the time have a backup of your vital knowledge, utilizing the 3-2-1 rule. You ought to have three copies of the information on totally different gadgets, with two on various kinds of media and one copy off-site. (There’s a newer riff on this follow that recommends a fourth copy of knowledge stored on an offline drive, to guard in opposition to ransomware assaults, however the 3-2-1 method is a stable begin.) If you automate the method, holding the system going turns into simpler. Your backups can be common with out a lot effort wanted.
Because sadly, as The Verge’s expertise illustrates, even firms that previously had rock stable reputations can stumble. Prepared is protected—not less than in terms of your knowledge.
Need suggestions for an alternate drive? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of one of the best exterior SSDs obtainable at present
Author: Alaina Yee, Senior Editor
Alaina Yee is PCWorld’s resident discount hunter—when she’s not protecting PC constructing, pc parts, mini-PCs, and extra, she’s scouring for one of the best tech offers. Previously her work has appeared in PC Gamer, IGN, Maximum PC, and Official Xbox Magazine. You can discover her on Twitter at @morphingball.
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