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SDR / Manufacturers / SanDisk

Extreme · Extreme Pro · Ultra 3D · Plus · PRO-G40

SanDisk SSD data recovery. The portable drives that made the news in 2023, and the ones that did not.

SanDisk's Extreme and Extreme Pro portables are the portable SSDs we are sent most. From spring 2023 a wave of them failed with the message the Mac gives when a disk is not readable, or with Windows asking to format. Western Digital issued firmware for the 4TB models, a US class action followed, and a European recovery laboratory said the boards it examined had design and manufacturing faults, which WD denied. On the bench the data behind the fault has mostly been reachable whatever the cause. SanDisk is its own company again since February 2025 and now owns the WD-branded SSDs too. One SanDisk SSD, portable or internal, is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, 3–5 days at the bench.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668

Models we see, family by family.

Which kind of drive is it →
Family Models Controller commonly reported
PortableExtreme Portable SDSSDE60 and SDSSDE61, Extreme Pro Portable SDSSDE80 and SDSSDE81, Extreme PRO V2 4TB, PRO-G40, PRO-BLADESanDisk NVMe behind a bridge; single-board on later models
SATA 2.5-inch and M.2 SATAUltra 3D (SDSSDH3), SSD Plus (SDSSDA), X400, X600, Ultra IISanDisk and Marvell
ProfessionalSanDisk Professional G-Drive SSD, PRO-G40, PRO-BLADE TransportSanDisk, behind Thunderbolt and USB bridges

What tends to go wrong on a SanDisk.

Extreme and Extreme Pro failures, 2023Drives failed suddenly with the not-readable message. WD issued firmware for the 4TB SDSSDE61-4T00 and SDSSDE81-4T00. Attingo, a European recovery laboratory, blamed design and solder faults; WD denied a hardware flaw. The data has mostly been reachable on the bench either way.
Krum v. Western Digital, 2023 onwardsA class action was filed in the Northern District of California in August 2023 alleging the firmware updates were unreliable. In June 2024 the court allowed part of the case to proceed. It is a US action; UK owners should keep the receipt and the failed drive.
The WD/SanDisk separation, 2025SanDisk separated from Western Digital on 21 February 2025 and owns the flash and SSD business, including WD-branded SSDs. Warranty goes to SanDisk; recovery is unchanged.
General pattern on the internal drivesNo specific fault was documented for the Ultra 3D or SSD Plus in our research. What we see is the general pattern: firmware that will not load, a controller in ROM mode, and flash that is fine.

SanDisk symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
"Not readable by this computer", or Windows asks to format itA file system hit by a disconnect, or the bridge. Do not click Initialise.Do not delay
It disconnects every few minutesBridge solder, a cable, or a controller crash.Do not delay
No light, no mountThe bridge or the power stage. Often a quick bypass.Everyday job
The socket is loose or snappedBoard repair; the drive behind it is usually untouched.Everyday job
Packing it and posting it: a bare SSD travels in an anti-static bag inside a small padded box, with nothing able to move. Insure it for what the files are worth rather than the price of the drive, and use a tracked service. The posting address is not printed anywhere on this site; it arrives by email in reply to the form, with a booking sheet to print; the sheet inside the parcel is what matches it to your enquiry when it is opened. Or hand the sealed parcel in at the nearest of ten drop-off points, your name on the outside and the sheet inside; say where you are on the form and it comes by email. We pay the postage home either way. The whole of it is written up on the guide to packing and posting.

What the message means on a SanDisk.

Describe yours to us →
What you see The usual reason Where that leaves you
"The disk you attached was not readable by this computer"The 2023 portable fault, or a file system hit by a disconnectDo not initialise; recoverable in most cases
A 4TB Extreme on its original firmwareThe WD update appliesImage before updating, never after failure
Disconnects every few minutesBridge solder or a controller crashStop using it
"The disk you attached was not readable", or asks to formatFile system damaged by a disconnect, or a bridge faultDo not initialise; recoverable in most cases
Mounts, then vanishesBridge solder, cable or controller crashStop using it; image it
No light at allBridge or power stageOften a quick bypass
Reads as 0 bytes or the wrong sizeThe SSD behind the bridge is in ROM modeSSD work, as for an internal drive

From the box arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. The drive is read on our own equipment, never in a computer that might send it a TRIM command. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo TRIM, no writes
02

Powered on our terms

Every power-on gives a failing SSD another chance to run its own housekeeping. Here the drive is brought up in the controller's diagnostic state instead, which lets the bench speak to the flash directly and keeps damaged firmware out of the conversation.

Vendor diagnostic modeNo hopeful reboots
03

Past the fault, to the map

Working code is loaded into the controller's memory rather than onto the flash, the service area is read, and the translation table is rebuilt from what is there. Where the controller itself is dead, the chips are read one by one and the controller's scrambling and error correction are undone in software.

Loader in RAM, never on the flashMapping tables put back together
04

A full image, then the volume

Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, weak pages retried in their own passes, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the key you supply, and never on the original.

One careful imageThe volume verified end to end
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job3–5 days at the bench

From the bench

  • Do not install the firmware update on a drive that has already failed. It is for working drives, and flashing a misbehaving one is a risk to the data on it.
  • Recover first, then claim. A warranty replacement is a new empty drive, and the failed one goes back to the maker with your files on it.
  • Send the cable. The Extreme's USB-C cable is part of the story more often than people expect.
  • Send the cable it came with. A drive that disconnects on one cable and not another is telling us where the fault is.
  • Never let Disk Utility repair or erase it. First Aid on a damaged volume can make a bad situation permanent.
  • Bridges may or may not pass TRIM. A deleted file on a portable drive may survive far longer than on an internal one, or may not. Power it off either way.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDR-2026-0409JOB LOGGED ✓

A 2TB SanDisk Extreme Pro V2, unreadable the morning after a wedding

A photographer offloaded three cards onto the drive, ejected it, and next morning the Mac said the disk was not readable. Nothing was written to it after that, which mattered. The board showed a solder fault at the bridge; the SSD behind it was separated and read on its own interface, the APFS volume put back together on the image, and every RAW file accounted for.

Every RAW file recovered4 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Keep the original cable and send it
  • Note the exact model and capacity
  • Photograph any error message
  • Send it in a padded bag

What sets us back

  • Clicking Initialise, Format or Erase
  • Running First Aid on a damaged volume
  • Updating its firmware now
  • Opening the case yourself

Questions answered before you commit.

Is my SanDisk covered by the lawsuit?

Krum v. Western Digital is a US class action. UK owners should keep the receipt and the failed drive, and recover the data first, because a warranty replacement is a new drive and the old one goes back.

Should I install the firmware update?

On a working 4TB drive, after copying the files off, yes. On a drive that has already failed, no.

Can you just bypass the USB part?

Often, if a separate SSD sits inside; it is read on its own interface. Later single-board designs are worked on directly.

What does it cost?

£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing.

How long does it take?

3–5 days at the bench after the free look.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

Portable SSDs →Western Digital →SanDisk Professional and G-Technology →Snapped socket →Deleted files and TRIM →

Put it in an envelope with its cable.

That is most of what we need. The first look is free, the figure follows in writing, and on most jobs no data means no bill.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting