SanDisk 256GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drive - SDCZ430-256G-G46, Black

Purchased 9 months ago. Pulled from USB port on laptop today and discovered part of the plastic connector had broken off and is currently stuck inside the laptop, making the port inoperable. Did nothing to stress or create the failure. It just broke because of the cheap plastic construction that SanDisk used for this product. I have been buying SanDisk USB drives for many, many years. This UltraFit was the first that had all plastic construction, including the connector which is typically metal. I was concerned but assumed SanDisk knew what they were doing. Wrong. As I prepared to write this review, glanced at customer photos and see that my problem is not unique. There are multiple users who have had the same problem. SanDisk should recall this product. This product is a mistake. Good news / bad news - Contacted SanDisk and they responded promptly, providing an RMA and prepaid label to return the USB drive. Bad news - they will be replacing with another plastic USB drive so wonder how long it will last. This product should be recalled. Funny thing, I usually do not post images or clips with reviews but had one in order to complete the RMA request process for SanDisk. I was going to post the image but Amazon is not allowing any attachments within reviews for the product??? UPDATE 5/12/20 Recd replacement 256GB from SanDisk support, about a 3 week cycle after starting RMA process. Replacement is same all plastic construction as original. Expected that but now scrutinizing closely and realize what a bad product this is. Began reloading backup files and noticed file transfer seemed exceedingly slow. I was loading a 25GB folder of large media files averaging 600 - 800MB each. Watching Windows Explorer real time performance graph, there developed a cycle of rapid writes lasting 10 - 15 sec, perhaps 700-800MB, which was then followed by a complete halt for perhaps a minute or more. Believe this is the result of protective circuitry within the drive that monitors heat, perhaps a safeguard required by the cheap plastic construction. The continuous writes of these long files heats up the SanDisk drive (which does get hot), the SanDisk drive shuts itself down for a minute or so to cool. After cooling off, the SanDisk starts writing again for 10-15 seconds and then shuts down again, repeating the cycle until finally completed. Wondering how much of the heat retention is due to the solid plastic construction and perhaps needed to prevent a meltdown. Out of curiosity, performed the same file transfer to a Samsung Fit Plus 256GB USB drive (Samsungs offering for compact USB drive). The Samsung completed the same task in a relatively brisk 8.5 minutes. I repeated the same test again with the SanDisk using same files and USB port as the Samsung. The SanDisk required almost 37 minutes to complete the same task...4 times longer / slower. The Samsung costs a few dollars more and clearly worth it. In conclusion, stand by my earlier recommendation that SanDisk should recall this product. See that they have just released a 512GB version, same all plastic construction, which I feel is an outrage. Combine the cheap construction and miserable performance, these Ultra Fit drives are JUNK, an accident waiting to happen. I am so disappointed in SanDisk that they would offer such a bad and unreliable product. UPDATE 5/13/20 More I fool around with this drive, the more angry that I get. Angry for the inconvenience but probably more disappointed with SanDisk, felt they were a better company than this. Aside from the flimsy construction which may save them a few pennys in manufacturing, the drives are completely unsuitable for any reasonable use. If all you want to do is transfer some small files and light use, it may be OK. But, if that is the expected use, then why get a large capacity drive? The whole point of owning 256GB of storage is to move around large amounts of data but these drives do not appear able to operate for even minimal periods of sustained activity without overheating. And then there is the issue of the cheap construction. Reading thru some of the other reviews, there are several commenting about how the drives lock up and unable use after that. I am guessing that the user sees no activity, thinks the computer is locked up and removes the drive. Believe the removal leads to corruption of the files. My experience says, be patient, allow the drive to limp its way thru. What is likely happening is that the drive has shut itself down momentarily due to heat. As stated above, mine started out seemingly great but after about 2 or 3 minutes of continuous writing, it started a cycle of randomly stopping and eventually resuming the copy task. After several more minutes of this, it settled into a pattern of writing data for 12-15 seconds, around 700-800MB and then pausing for 60-80 seconds before resuming, again writing 700-800MB in 12-15 seconds before stopping for another 60-80 seconds. The drive was hot so it appears the drives have heat monitoring and suspend operation until the drive cools down some. Making the drive useless for moving large amounts of data. Simple Truth - SANDISK IS SELLING JUNK NOW. UPDATE 6/21/20 - Recd the replacement of the replacement. Took about 3 weeks again to get replaced. Same lame performance documented above so must be part of the SanDisk design. Regret buying the 256GB Ultra Fit drive. If you have the option, buy the Samsung version and avoid this like the plague. A truly bad product.

For the price, it is an excellent buy. My only issue Ive had with it in the time I have used it is that I cannot copy a single file larger than 4 gigabytes to it. For example, I attempted to copy over a 7 gigabyte MP4 file from a streaming session, and my system told me it was unable to move the file because it was too large. Keep in mind that I have only used 20% of the space on this 500Gb drive at this time. With that said, the times I need to use this drive for a file of that size are very rare, so that is not a deal breaker for me. I mostly use this as a backup drive for my files after all. All in all, great buy. But if you need to use this for very large files, you might instead need an external drive rather than this.

Good for travel and extra hard drive space.

good buy.. small handy

No cap or cover for the product, if you put it in your pocket or in your laptop bag, whatever is floating around is going to be inside of it

Great price, fast, small and easy to use. What more can you expect from a small thumb drive.

Perfecto pequeño

I synced about 20 CDs on the drive for my car and barely touched the memory capacity. its the size of a quarter.

I purchased the USB in February 2019 and it failed in Nov 2019, ten months hmmm. From new it required far more pressure to insert then my other USB drives and the housing became noticeably warm when in use. At that point, I should have sent it back but instead dismissed it as the consequence of its small architecture and poor manufacturing tolerances. After less than fifty applications the housing broke but more annoying the stored data became unrecoverable. I have several full size SanDisk and other maker USB drives and none have exhibited the above noted concerns or failures. Unfortunately four days ago my wife purchased the SanDisk 256 model and it also requires more insertion force than should be required, foreshadowing dear reader. Would I recommend this product? Absolutely not. Will I continue future Sandisk purchases? Probably, but not their miniature series. SanDisk, if you wish to offer me recompense, I will gladly include your response as an appendix to my review. Cheers E Update: Nov 25, 2019 The day after submitting my Amazon review I contacted the SanDisk warranty department by email requesting recompense as the USB was less than 5 years old. I provided them a copy of my Amazon purchase order and the next day I received a follow-up email from SanDisk® Global Customer Care stating SanDisk did not have a 128gb replacement in stock (in the warehouse) but would I settle for two 64gb instead to which I replied, yes. Within a day or two I received another SanDisk email this time different in tone. It referenced my Amazon.com review and included the following highlighted in blue, Note: Refurbished, physically damaged or non-authentic products are not covered by SanDisk warranty. The email also included an RMA (Return to Merchant Authorization) but no mention of the previous replacement offer. So what happened, a SanDisk employee armed with my Amazon purchase receipt trolled the Amazon.com website and located my review. Upon reading it they identified I had mentioned the USB casing had broken and presto SanDisk feels the warranty claim is disqualified, hence the blue highlighted script. To appear as a good corporate citizen they now offer me an RMA (Return to Manufacturer Authorization) so we can go through the process. Okay I will, with the clear understanding that I intend publish every SanDisk response regardless of the outcome. Other critical Amazon reviews about this product identify similar concerns, it runs hotter than a full sized USB, it is a tight fit especially in USB 3.0 ports, the housing cracks and this device prematurely ends in software/hardware failure. See a similar Amazon.com posted review provided by Gennaro M. on March 15, 2018. It is one of the many provided by dissatisfied consumers. My complaint, like those generated before me, does not originate from consumer misuse, abuse or accident but by product failure and warranty issues. Stay tuned for SanDisks response which I intend to publish when I receive it. Cheers E On 2019.11.27, I received the following email from James P.. a SanDisk® Global Customer Care rep, Thank you for writing back to us. Please be informed that the statement which was sent in the e-mail is a standard statement which we use in all automated RMA approval e-mail for letting customers know that Refurbished, physically damaged or non-authentic products are not covered by SanDisk warranty. Also we understand that you are not very satisfied with the model of flash drive which you were using earlier i.e. SanDisk® Ultra Fit USB 3.1. Therefore we would like to offer you an alternative product i.e. SanDisk® Cruzer Glide USB 3.0 128GB (SDCZ600-128G) in replacement. Please suggest if you are agreed for the alternative model. I agreed to accept their offer and on 2019.12.10 I received without cost to me a full size USB SanDisk® Cruzer Glide USB 3.0 128GB (SDCZ600-128G) delivered to my door. In the end SanDisk® or the parent company Western Digital Technologies Inc honored the warranty. I will continue to use SanDisk® as long as the honor they warranty. However I would not again purchase or recommend this specific product the SanDisk® Ultra Fit USB 3.1. cheers e.

Best deal I ever had. Cheaper than Micro-sd, 50MB/s, as small as Bluetooth dongle, so I can keep it in laptop all the time. Wish I found this product earlier. On inner side of package it had activation code for 1 year “RescueProDeluxe”, you can restore deleted documents with it (Works better if you don’t filled any extra data after deleting) Also comes with pre-installed SanDiskSecureAccess Valut, where it can store even 256/256gb of my drive forever, no subscription. Opens only with passcode!