2nd SanDisk Ultra 3.0 failure

[waylucywrapturd]

I am convinced that there are a problems, either with a specific batch(es) of certain USB flash drives manufactured by SanDisk or the design itself.

In the space of about a year or so I’ve had 2 SanDisk Ultra 3.0 USB’s fail on me.
A record really, since in about 15+ years I’ve never experienced a USB flash drive failure.

Sure, it’s possible and it happens. But 2 new USBs from the modern era in one year?
I could understand the first one, it was under heavy use and I was running several portable applications on it on a daily basis. The second one was barely used and would slowly flash a blue LED when plugged in and heat up.

It wasn’t recognised either on Windows 10 or Linux. I spent an hour using various disc utilities to at least get it to enumerate on the file system, but no cigar.

My uninformed opinion is that either there are thermal issues or poor tolerance to surges, especially when sharing the bus with other devices. I haven’t had any issues with older USBs (other manufacturers) on the same set of computers. The SanDisk Ultra 3.0’s do heat up noticeably even when not under active load.

[mulderfox]

I don’t know about the ultra, but there are a few models (at least) that seems to be less reliable:
This one was used a few times, and then just sat in my wallet without being used for a few months. Once I took it out and connected it, it would just heat up, but would not function at all nor get recognized:

This one I’ve replaced under RMA at least twice now (within a year or two). This makes it a very poor choice for saving any kind of data… and it’s not the only one. this one as well: