SanDisk 2TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD - Up to 2000MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, IP65 Water and Dust Resistance, Updated Firmware - External Solid State Drive - SDSSDE81-2T00-G25

As a photographer (f my granddaughter mostly!) and general tech enthusiast, the SanDisk 4TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD has been a lifesaver for my storage needs. First off, the capacity is enormous – 4TB gives me room for thousands of photos, videos, and even backups of my PC games, all in a drive that fits in my palm. The speed on this thing is no joke: when connected to a compatible USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port, file transfers are blisteringly fast. Large 4K video files move in seconds, and even on a regular USB-C 3.1 connection I’m getting excellent throughput. I was also pleased to see that the firmware was up-to-date (SanDisk addressed some past issues with an update), and I haven’t encountered any data hiccups or disconnects. Physically, the drive feels rugged yet lightweight. It has a durable rubberized coating and is IP65 water/dust resistant, which adds peace of mind when I’m on the go. I actually dropped it accidentally from about 3 feet onto a hard floor, and it survived without a scratch and kept working perfectly. It does get a bit warm during heavy transfers, but not alarmingly so – just something I noticed when moving nearly a terabyte of files in one session. The only other minor con is the included USB-C cable is quite short, but that’s easily swapped. Overall, this portable SSD is worth every penny for the speed and space it provides. Whether you’re editing video, backing up important documents, or expanding console storage, the SanDisk Extreme PRO delivers top-tier performance in a pocket-sized package.

Great SSD! Super fast, durable, and easy to carry. Perfect for big files and peace of mind with the water and dust resistance. Definitely a solid buy.

Doesn't get much more portable than these, unless stooping to a thumb drive; even has a hole to put it on a keychain. Used to use thumb drives, but these SSDs are much faster.After deleting included software (some sort of security stuff, perhaps for password protection), was left with 1.8TB, which seems about right for a 2TB drive (somehow, that's just how the math works with these things).Put it through its paces backing up a TB worth of PC data and copying over some stuff from thumb drives (all at the same time) and it never broke a sweat or had any problem. It gets warm when really busy, but cools right back down. I often leave it connected all day.At under $300, don't imagine I'll ever go back to thumb drives. Fingers crossed that it will last, but it seems very durable, supposedly able to withstand water, dust, drops, etc. Not going to test any of those claims. :)UPDATE: I never had a problem leaving the 2TB model plugged in to the PC for weeks on end, but the 4TB model (have tried a few of them) periodically stops reading and Windows 10 complains that the device is "not ready". Have tried USB 3.0, 2.0 with A connectors, with and without a hub. The only "fix" I've found for this issue is to unplug it and put it back, which sucks. :(

OK, so I read many of the reviews of this drive, and I believe that people who are saying this doesn't give them the speeds that it's rated at, may not be testing it correctly. There are MANY factors that go into properly testing the speed of an HD ... OS file buffering/caching being a HUGE one. The drive that I bought, SDSSDE81-1T00-G25 - SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD - Up to 2000MB/s, boasts speeds up to 2000MB/s (read/write). If you plug this drive into your computer and you use the blue USB 3.0 cable, you will not get the maximum speed out of this device because the max speed for USB 3.0 is 625MB/s. If your computer happens to truly have a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port, and you have a cable that supports that, then you could theoretically get the max speed out of this drive. Next, if your computer has a USB-C port, is it truly a USB 3.1 or better (or a Thunderbolt) port, or just a USB-C 3.0 port. Finally you have all of the OS file buffering stuff to deal with. Once you plug this drive in, you'll need to make sure you've set your OS's file buffering/caching to it's highest performance settings. Even with that, testing may not reveal the correct speeds because your OS may not buffer enough of the files being transferred to accurately test the read/write speeds of the drive. Another area for potential speed (and max file size) issues is the file system. You'll most likely want to format (keep) this SanDisk external SSD with exFAT (what it comes formatted in) unless you're going to use it 100% exclusively with your own computer (exFAT is readable/writeable in most OSes). If that's the case, it might be faster performing in your OS's native file system format, but that's not a for sure thing. It'll depend on the size and number of files that you're planning on using it to read/write. Several large files compared to thousands of small files makes a difference in performance too (you may want to look into this further yourself if it is a concern to you).I have a WIndows PC. After doing the stuff I mentioned above, when I do a large file transfer to the drive, it starts out at 1.7GB/s and then begins to drop to a steady 915MB/s or so. This reflects close to the drive's specs at the start, but Windows file buffering doesn't cache enough of the file to get a continual accurate reading, hence the speed drop in write speed. In testing out the read speed, I was only able to get around 700MB/s, but that is because I am copying a file from a super fast HD (this Sandisk drive) to a much slower HD (my internal PC HD), so it can't transfer any faster than this. I also tested reading and writing just from this Sandisk drive and got around the same 700MB/s, however, this is not a fair nor accurate test, because the same drive is doing the reading AND the writing. Finally, I ran the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test that everyone else seems to be using to test drive speeds, and got only 915MB/s read and write speeds. We know this is not accurate since I got 1.73GB/s in my own testing.So all of this to say that I believe this drive is probably fully capable of its advertised speeds, but you will likely not see speeds that fast due to OS limitations, other drive limitations, hardware limitations (your cable and/or port), etc. I'm happy with it because it averages about 1sec/GB throughput, and for files that Windows can buffer completely, I'm getting much closer to the spec's speeds. Hopefully all of this info. is helpful. Just remember, you get the best possible speed out of this drive by connecting it to a true Thunderbolt 3 port on your computer and by setting your OS's caching/buffering settings to maximize the performance (even a USB-C 3.1 or better port will get you the best speed out of this drive).