Poor response to widespread failure reports has resulted in a tarnished reputation.
  • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
    1882·
    11 months ago

    Just an FYI on Sandisk.

    They were acquired by Western Digital in 2016.

    So this bullshit falls as much at WD’s feet as it does their wholly owned subsidiary, Sandisk.

  • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
    1502·
    11 months ago

    50% percent off a product that is almost guaranteed to lead to complete data loss?

    By Grabthar’s Hammer, what a savings!

  • Bell@lemmy.worldEnglish
    143·
    11 months ago

    Let’s be clear that a failing part is one thing but silently dumping them on the public is the unforgivable failure. I hope shareholders are seeing this and selling.

    • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
      542·
      11 months ago

      I hope shareholders are seeing this and selling.

      Sandisk has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital since 2016.

      WD’s share price is up ~25% this year…

          • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            191·
            11 months ago

            “401k” is an American term of art. It’s like a pension fund except you’re directly investing into the stock market and not pooling risk with anyone else. Money contributed to a 401k isn’t taxed until you retire, but in exchange you can only contribute direct earnings from the job sponsoring your account.

            As part of a benefits package, some employers also offer contribution “matching”. It’s very similar to the concept of employers matching charitable donations – for every personal dollar you put in, they chip in as well. How much they contribute will also vary. Some places will do dollar-for-dollar matching up to a maximum salary percentage (e.g.: If I earn $50k and get 5% matching, the employer will match the first $2500 I contribute). Other companies will instead contribute pennies on the dollar at a fixed percentage rate (e.g.: If I save the annual maximum of $22,500 and get 5% matching, the employer will contribute $1,125). And yes – it’s never a pleasant surprise when you’re expecting the good matching and instead get the shitty matching.

            In any case, because 401k matching is technically only a job benefit, there aren’t many rules against employers reneging on it. It’s one of the first corners that tend to get cut in workplaces where the boss doesn’t have to look their underlings in the eye on a regular basis.

          • WarmSoda@lemm.eeEnglish
            91·
            11 months ago

            It’s a way for companies to act like they’re helping you retire instead of providing a pension.

          • root@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            11 months ago

            Can’t tell if sarcasm. It’s a retirement plan that employers will match up until a certain point, In lieu of the pension plans previous generations were offered.

            • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
              2·
              11 months ago

              No, I was being genuine. We have compulsory superannuation here in Aus. Employers pay in an amount equal to 11% of your wages, it goes up to 12% in 2025. It applies to every wage earner, full-time, part-time, contract and casuals.

              • root@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                11 months ago

                Wow, that’s great. We only get like 3-4% on average, and that requires us to put in 6-8%

        • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
          22·
          11 months ago

          Good point. I was looking from when this problem was first discovered vs when this news hit as you did.

    • loutr@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12·
      11 months ago

      Yep, and shame on clickbaity tech “news” websites for churning out “awesome deals on SanDisk SSDs!” articles with no mention of the failures.

  • daddyjones@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1291·
    11 months ago

    It took my sleep deprived brain far too long (less than a second, but still) to realise this wasn’t a genuine name change.

    • reason@lemm.eeEnglish
      19·
      11 months ago

      For those unfamiliar, the phrase “one’s name is mud” means that a person, or in this case a brand, is widely unpopular due to disgrace or scandal>

    • HikuNoir@lemmy.worldEnglish
      101·
      11 months ago

      I think if pulling an Elon means something like committing a massive fraud then yer. P.S. I using pulling an Elon from now on.

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      161·
      11 months ago

      So far I only bought Samsung SSDs
      for internal use and expanded that to Crucial as well.

      Only heard good things about Sabrent, Kioxia and Samsung so far and not much bad.

      • vanontom@geddit.socialEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        I’ve bought exclusively WD storage for many years. Mostly because I’ve never had a failure, and hadn’t read anything terrible about reliability. Well, all that changed this year.

        My newest portable drive (Passport Ultra USB-C 2TB) has only 30 hours (40 power cycles) on it, and is clicking/chirping and abnormally slow while writing anything. Probably dying, at least it warned me. It will need to be replaced, at my cost (just out if warranty of course). Combined with SanDisk failures, and complete silence from WD… I’m done with them.

        I’m moving to Samsung. I’ve already bought a replacement (T7 Shield SSD 2TB), and also an M2 NVME (980 Pro with Heatsink) for PC OS refresh later. Hoping to move almost all the things to Samsung SSDs in coming years, outside of 1-2 large Seagate HDDs for NAS.

        Bye WD. I do not tolerate reliability issues when it comes to data storage. Or silence from companies when there are massive public failures. Or buying out and destroying the competition.

        • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          My SanDisk 512GB 3D had a similar behaviour issue.
          Read was okayish but writing was exorbitant slow for a SSD at 10MB/s sequential.
          Backup Asap.

          • vanontom@geddit.socialEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            Interesting. I’ve only had one brand of SS/flash drive actually fail (ADATA UE700, and replacement). But most of mine seem to heat up very quickly, then soon throttle the speeds (probably to mitigate further heat or death). The T7 will be my first portable SSD for larger backups, and I hope it handles heat much better.

            I am/was using mostly WD Passport HDDs for backups, which I disconnect and put in a safe. Shocked that this newest one has only 30 hours usage, very gentle handling (same as others), yet it’s apparently failing. (So tired of worrying about tiny fragile spinning disks and mechanisms!) Will backup, and try deleting some files, hoping maybe it just hates being nearly full (about 70-80%). SMART data says it’s healthy, but maybe would until it’s too late.

            • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              My sandisk ssd also said it’s “healthy”. If it shows abnormal behavior for now reason it’s getting faulty. Expected heat (like a good data transfer) is not abnormal but my problem happened with every data transfer.

              Both CrystalDisk and the Sandisk tool said it was healthy. Took me 2 or 3h to fully transfer about 250gb from my ssd to my new one.

      • discodoubloon@kbin.social
        112·
        11 months ago

        For memory Samsung all day. Micro/SD cards etc the big camera manufacturers source solid stuff if you aren’t a fan of Samsung.

        If you’re talking about readers I don’t think anyone does anything particularly well. Anker might be my preferred brand though. Lots of companies rip them off.