Just had Sandisk Portable NVME 1TB go bust

LongLensPhotography

LongLensPhotography

Th..th..that's all folks!
Messages
17,652
Name
LongLensPhotography
Edit My Images
No
1 minute it was working, next had problems copying 10GB data from todays shoot and just disappeared crashing Lightroom. It eventually reconnected on a different laptop but only for a couple of minutes before I could copy most things and went for good.

It didn't have anything too critical. Mainly LR catalogs, which hopefully are not the end of the world since XMP files should cover me if I need to go back. I also had a few recent dates worth of partially edited landscape RAW files which is more annoying. Only edited stuff makes it to my NAS (speed and size reasons mainly). No customer files lost (I am much more careful with that). That NVME alone is £100 down the drain.

I actually opened the portable drive, extracted NVME but it is still no go with either Sandisk or ORICO controller. It just shows no drive, same as empty controller. I am not sure if there are any realistic and affordable option left for recovery. Also not sure what to replace it with as I really want more reliability than this. It was barely 1 year old, same as my system drive WD SN750, which is at the time of writing is still fine at 100% health if you can believe that. I wanted catalogs on external drive so I can work with it across different PCs.
 
Last edited:
You shouldn't be surprised if a 'single point of failure' actually fails.

As to reliability, these NVME devices are rated on usage and you don't say just how many read/write events it's experienced.
 
Last edited:
JohnX said:
As to reliability, these NVME devices are rated on usage and you don't say just how many read/write events it's experienced.
Click to expand...
All I can tell you is 1 year, and almost certainly less of everything else than desktop drive which still has 100% life left according to wd app. Whatever it was I got no warning from smart
 
SFTPhotography said:
Best ones are the Samsung T5's and T7's. I've had mine for 4 years now and no signs of failure
Click to expand...
I wonder if there is a reliable table of nvme drive reliability under moderate stress. And then would the same fare better inside proper motherboard slot Vs usb

Are yours always on or essentially just a fancy flash drive?
 
Last edited:
LongLensPhotography said:
All I can tell you is 1 year, and almost certainly less of everything else than desktop drive which still has 100% life left according to wd app. Whatever it was I got no warning from smart
Click to expand...

Is it covered by their warranty i.e. at least to get a refund?
 
SSDs can and do fail sometimes. That's just how it is. Chances are if you had 2, the other would still be good in 10 years time.
 
I run a Fantom 3GB external drive that backs up nightly but also an off site backup that runs continuously.

So far so good on both counts but I do feel for you OP, it's a worry.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
I wonder if there is a reliable table of nvme drive reliability under moderate stress. And then would the same fare better inside proper motherboard slot Vs usb

Are yours always on or essentially just a fancy flash drive?
Click to expand...

Always on when the PC is on. I leave it connected via USB3. Same when I had the MacTower.

Samsung make the best SSD's and NVME's going. Settle for nothing less.
 
Have / did you checked the connection cable, the micro usb3 connectors are so flimsy and also the micro usb2.

on older ssd drives the controllers where the weak link, not that helps you now.
 
seaodyssey said:
Have / did you checked the connection cable, the micro usb3 connectors are so flimsy and also the micro usb2.

on older ssd drives the controllers where the weak link, not that helps you now.
Click to expand...
I've got NVME isolated, USB part is fine. I was hoping it was the reverse but sadly. I found one of the small capacitors on the NVME was very loose and fell off after barely touching it. that's clearly not supposed to happen, but no way to tell if this was the original point of failure. I am tempted to use a hammer for a final fix so I can forget the bloody thing for good right now
 
Just considering my replacement options. What If I add Samsung 980 PRO 1TB to my main build and move SN750 to the slower lane? Then somehow migrate windows partition or reinstall and mirror data partition between the two drives? Will this somehow work?

As for removable one, which I may elect to use somewhat less extensively now, I have ORICO fast case, and now the Sandisk one sitting empty so I could just fill it with perhaps Crucial P2. I may have 500Gb lying spare after I vacate from old MBP and sell the old thing. Or get a bigger 1TB one?
 
LongLensPhotography said:
I've got NVME isolated, USB part is fine. I was hoping it was the reverse but sadly. I found one of the small capacitors on the NVME was very loose and fell off after barely touching it. that's clearly not supposed to happen, but no way to tell if this was the original point of failure. I am tempted to use a hammer for a final fix so I can forget the bloody thing for good right now
Click to expand...
NVMEs get very hot. So one guess would be that the case didn't have a sufficient heat sink, whole thing got hot and started to unsolder itself.
 
JonathanRyan said:
NVMEs get very hot. So one guess would be that the case didn't have a sufficient heat sink, whole thing got hot and started to unsolder itself.
Click to expand...
It had a bunch of silicone gum top and bottom, a tiny bit of foil on the bottom and the rest is rubbery plastic. I have no idea if that can be regarded as sufficient, personally I think it is suspect and I think it was quite warm to begin with. I don't monitor temperature and just left it hanging in place... Certainly wouldn't get another from them
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Just considering my replacement options. What If I add Samsung 980 PRO 1TB to my main build and move SN750 to the slower lane? Then somehow migrate windows partition or reinstall and mirror data partition between the two drives? Will this somehow work?

As for removable one, which I may elect to use somewhat less extensively now, I have ORICO fast case, and now the Sandisk one sitting empty so I could just fill it with perhaps Crucial P2. I may have 500Gb lying spare after I vacate from old MBP and sell the old thing. Or get a bigger 1TB one?
Click to expand...
You can use the free version of Macrium Reflect to clone old drive to new.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top