A few months ago I purchased two 32GB SanDisk Cruzer: small, nice, perfectly fit for my needs.
Last week one of them went suddenly “write protected” during a write operation and there was no way to get it out of it. A few tests proved that it was an intrinsic condition of the device rather than some vagary of a specific computer. Long googling got me nowhere.
Today I learn from SanDisk itself (in the FAQs) that this is an irrecoverable condition due to an internal error, and that all I can do is return the defective device to have it replaced. Moreover, upon the huge number of complaints I found on the same subject, apparently I’m neither the first nor the only one who went through such an interesting experience.
Now I have no guilty secrets of mine stored in that pen drive, but it still contains plenty of work-related material I’m not supposed to divulge, not to mention a few passwords, some bank account info and other private things I’m not willing to share with the manufacturer - and it would take more than a persuasive peddler to convince me that the manufacturer was unaware of that while generously offering to replace defective devices without asking questions.
Given the situation I think I’ll back-up the contents of both pen drives (how could I trust the other one now?), take a hammer, smash them flat and turn them in for replacement.
If they get accepted and replaced, OK: no hard feelings, I’ll forgive SanDisk the inconvenience I suffered.
If they don’t… well, I doubt I’ll ever buy even a single nail from SanDisk anymore.
