AVOID Sandisc flash drives

[Tedster]

Folks, We have had numerous complaints and people requesting help with Sandisc flash drive failures. All I can say is AVOID buying them, the brand is not reliable. If you have one, don't store anything important on it.
This has been going on for quite some time. Myself, Socrates, and RealBlackstuff have been helping folks over and over with these drives. They are really problamatic.

:dead:

 

[SNGX1275]

You forgot me, occationally I jump in on one of those threads, but they keep comming back so I made that Read/Sticky thing.

I think its pretty obvious these drives aren't the most reliable things out there. After I resurrected mine its been pretty good, and I've had it for over a year now. I got it from one of those deals sites for really cheap back in the day.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

I have 2 Sandisk Cruzer Mini (256MB each), that I use regularly between many PCs and have had NO problems myself.

 

[DelJo63]

my Trek 2 Smart has been reliable too

 

[Tedster]

glad you guys have good ones. Apparantly there are quite a few bad batches.

 

[Tedster]

not familiar with that one, but I am talking specifically about the sandisc cruiser.

 

[DelJo63]

not familiar with that one, but I am talking specifically about the sandisc cruiser.

Understood. Just thought we might recommend some good ones too

 

[SNGX1275]

Mine is the Cruzer Mini 1 Gig. Its the one that died, but since I brough it back it has been fine.

A friend of mine has a Cruzer Micro 512, and it seems to read and write reliably, but its INSANELY slow, I can't remember the exact speeds, but I am pretty sure its slower than USB 1 and its a USB 2 drive.

 

[Tedster]

fortunately, I don't have sandisc drives. I had a samsung that I formatted by accident at work and thought it was dead, but I was able to bring it back. Now it works great at home.

I also have an extremepc drive. Both of these I bought from extremepcgear.com and have been very reliable.

 

[LNCPapa]

Great timing - I just ordered 15 x 1 Gig Sandisc cruzer minis for me and my coworkers So far we haven't had any problems with them but it's been less than a week.

 

[Tedster]

sorry to hear about that.....

I've had real good luck with flashdrives from xtremepcgear.com

 

[macx]

I've got a mini and a micro - both 256's.

Both have locked up to where I couldn't add
anything although they were only 1/2 full.

On one, everything went away. Lost it.
Reformatted it.

On the other, I could read and copy FROM,
but couldn't add to it.

Got stuff copied off, then reformatted.

both are working OK since then, but it's
only been a couple days.

I'd never buy another Sandisk.

 

[Tedster]

typical. Like I mentioned before, you might want to try the house brands from extremepcgear.com - they've been pretty good for me.

 

[justeasy]

You forgot me, occationally I jump in on one of those threads, but they keep comming back so I made that Read/Sticky thing.

I think its pretty obvious these drives aren't the most reliable things out there. After I resurrected mine its been pretty good, and I've had it for over a year now. I got it from one of those deals sites for really cheap back in the day.

Hey,
How exactly did you 'resurrect' your drive? I've had a cruzer mini (256MB) for about 2 mths now, and it is no longer detected by either WinXP or Win2K. The LED works fine, but even the Disk Manager utility does not detect it. Sandisk has so far suggested that the data on the drive may be corrupted, and this was the way to reformat it.
Don't really mind losing the data on the drive, but really wanna get it workin again.

 

[Tedster]

Hey,
How exactly did you 'resurrect' your drive? I've had a cruzer mini (256MB) for about 2 mths now, and it is no longer detected by either WinXP or Win2K. The LED works fine, but even the Disk Manager utility does not detect it. Sandisk has so far suggested that the data on the drive may be corrupted, and this was the way to reformat it.
Don't really mind losing the data on the drive, but really wanna get it workin again.

please check the other threads this problem has been addressed countless times.
thanks.

 

[SNGX1275]

Yeh, check my sticky at the top of this forum, or any of the 4000 other threads on this issue.

Edit: Whoops, sticky is at the top of Other Hardware and not this forum.

 

[RGHawk2000]

Mine is the Cruzer Mini 1 Gig. Its the one that died, but since I brough it back it has been fine.

A friend of mine has a Cruzer Micro 512, and it seems to read and write reliably, but its INSANELY slow, I can't remember the exact speeds, but I am pretty sure its slower than USB 1 and its a USB 2 drive.

I have to agree tothe guys tht i made the wrong desicion to buy a SanDisk Cruzer Mini 1 GB. One of the thread here show the exact problem I got. What It amaze me is that almost everybody trying to reformat the device instead on doing the following 2 things:

1st.- Recover the data which would be there as it happen to me
2nd.- Repairing the damage partition

About the 2nd part, I dont know if the repairing partition tools out there for HD would work fine on my SanDisk. If anyone of you have tried to do that, please advise. For recovering the data, I use Stellar Phoenix FAT and NTFS ver 2.1
I got all my info. Now Im working to find the right tool to repair the partition rather than to create a new one

Anyway, if anyone has any idea how to help that, please post it here for the community

Sincerely,

RG

PS: By the way, SanDisk tech support is not good at all. Even the recover tool they have there couldnt anything for recovering my files

 

[Tedster]

there's a reason why they're not trying to get their data- they can't!

 

[RGHawk2000]

Hello m8

I have the exact same problem and I did recover my data. I posted the solution somewhere else. One way, is the sollution from SNGX1275, but if you find yourself (like it happens to me) that it didnt work, I use an small tool called Stellar Phoenix FAT and NTFS. If could not do it with that, your usb device is probably physically damage and you wont be able to format it with the HP soft tool.

But what I want to know if thre is a way to repair the partition or cluster section where your damage data that allows to view your info is. On normal HD, I use several tools but it didnt work on my pen. However, the tool I use to retrieve the info it did work on my usb device.

well, those are another 2 cents.

Sincerely

RG

PS: Anyway, I got my data back and I reformatted my usb device but it shouldnt be done in that way. One thing I promise, I wont buy another sandisk device again.

PS: The only good thing that came out of this is the people from RescuePro (SAndisk soft tool tech support) They did contact me and were very nice people eventhough their tool didnt work at all

 

[justeasy]

sandisk support?

Well,
As far as my 256 micro. After Sandisk's suggestion of checking disk manager for the drive, and reformatting it from there failed, it really didnt take much else for them to refer the case to the RMA dept for replacement. I was quite surprised, especially since I had bought the drive outside of mainland USA (actually Jamaica, and they say they'll refund shipping too!).
Maybe they are really hurting with so many bad drives out there!
Anyway I'll be ecstatic AFTER I receive the replacement drive (once that works lol).
Long and short of it.. I found that Sandisk customer service was more than a pessimist like me expected.
Best word of advice, never keep anything critical on any form of flash storage.
+ backup backup backup!