Memory cards, USB sticks and portable SSDs all carry the same badge and fail in entirely different ways — and one of those three has a well-documented reliability problem worth knowing about.
A card is monolithic and read through test points. A stick may be discrete or monolithic. A portable SSD is a controller problem, and on some models a known one.
SanDisk SD and microSD cards are monolithic: controller and flash fused into a single sealed package with nothing separable inside. When the controller fails there is no chip to desolder, so recovery means locating the internal test points on the package itself and reading through them, which requires the correct pinout for that specific monolith.
Where the card still reads but the file system is damaged — the far more common case — the images or files are recovered normally by rebuilding the index or carving by signature. That is a routine job and usually a good outcome.
The SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro portable SSDs attracted widespread reports of drives failing abruptly and becoming undetected, and there was a firmware fix issued for affected units. If you have one of these and it has stopped being recognised, that history is relevant context rather than bad luck.
Practically it is a controller failure like any other: the drive is reached at controller level where possible and imaged read-only. If you have a working Extreme drive, back it up and check for the firmware update — but apply that update to a drive that is behaving normally, never to one that has already started dropping out, because a firmware write on an unstable drive can finish it.
SanDisk is among the most counterfeited storage brands. A fake card reports a large capacity while containing far less real flash, with altered firmware that accepts writes beyond what exists and silently discards or wraps them. It appears to work until usage passes the true capacity, then corrupts catastrophically.
The signs are a suspiciously cheap card, an unusually large capacity for the price, and sudden total corruption with a lot of data on it. Recovery is limited to whatever genuinely landed on real flash — often a fraction of what the card claimed to hold, and no technique changes that.
SanDisk memory cards and USB sticks are from £250 +VAT; portable and internal SSDs are from £300 +VAT. Free 48-hour diagnostic and a written quote before any work, with most jobs no fix, no fee. Send cards on their own in a rigid case rather than inside a camera or phone.
Usually. Where the card still reads and the file system is damaged, files are recovered by rebuilding the index or carving by signature. Where the controller has failed, SanDisk cards are monolithic, so recovery means reading through test points on the sealed package itself.
It is a documented issue. The Extreme and Extreme Pro portable SSDs attracted widespread reports of drives failing abruptly and becoming undetected, and a firmware fix was issued. Recovery is a controller-level job, and if you have a working one, back it up.
No. Apply firmware updates to drives behaving normally, never to one already dropping out — a firmware write rewrites the service area and on an unstable drive can leave it permanently unreadable.
Suspiciously cheap, an unusually large capacity for the price, and sudden catastrophic corruption once a lot of data is on it. Fakes report more capacity than they contain and silently discard writes beyond the real limit. Recovery is limited to what genuinely landed on real flash.
Memory cards and USB sticks are from £250 plus VAT; portable and internal SSDs from £300 plus VAT. Fixed in a written quote after a free 48-hour diagnostic, with most jobs no fix, no fee.