Western Digital, SanDisk Extreme SSDs don’t store data safely, lawsuit says

Enlarge / SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2's are water-resistant, but are they erase-your-data-and-become-unmountable-resistant?

Amid ongoing pressure to address claims that its SanDisk Extreme SSDs are still erasing data and becoming unmountable despite a firmware fix, Western Digital is facing a lawsuit over its storage drives. A lawsuit filed on Wednesday accuses the company of knowingly selling defective SSDs.

Western Digital brand SanDisk's series of Extreme V2 and Extreme Pro V2 portable SSDs are often recommended by tech review sites. If you've considered a portable drive, it's likely you've come across the popular series in your search.

However, numerous owners of the drives, including Ars Technica's own Lee Hutchinson, encountered a problem where the drives seemingly erased data and became unreadable. Lee saw two drives fill approximately halfway before showing read and write errors. Disconnecting and reconnecting showed the drive was unformatted and empty. Wiping and formatting didn't resolve things.