SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 1TB up to 550MB/s read Solid State Drive

Product Information

We run two sets of tests when we’re looking at external hard drives for the Xbox Series S and Series X. First, we connect them to a PC and run the CrystalDiskMark benchmark to test their raw sequential and random read/write speeds. Sequential speeds are an indication of how fast the drive can read or write large quantities of data in one sustained burst, which makes a big difference when you’re first running a game, loading a saved game, streaming in all the models and textures in a level, or transferring a game from one drive to another. Random read/write speeds cover smaller data transfers, and make an impact when you’re running a game directly from the hard drive. Most such multi-bay devices are sold without the actual hard drives included, so you can install any drive you want (usually, 3.5-inch drives, but some support laptop-style 2.5-inchers). Their total storage capacities are limited only by their number of available bays and the capacities of the drives you put in them. The storage industry refers to these (as well as smaller-capacity externals as a whole) as DAS—for "direct attached storage"—to distinguish them from NAS, or network attached storage, many of which are also multi-bay devices that can take two or more drives that you supply. (See our separate roundup of the best NAS drives.) When you're dealing with an external platter-based hard drive, it makes little difference which USB interface you get, as long as it works with your PC; the speed of a hard drive won't challenge any of the modern USB 3.x flavors. Bottom line, when looking at rugged drives with a USB interface, you just need to be sure your PC or Mac has aphysically compatibleUSB port—that is, can you simply plug it in, and does the drive say it works with PCs, Macs, or both? This physical compatibility is what matters most, as a USB device will dial down to the slower speed of the two elements in play (the host system or the drive). If Device Manager shows a yellow or red mark on the external drive, it's likely that this is a driver problem. The ADATA SE730H is another competitor that perhaps deserves more recognition. It is smaller than the SanDisk Extreme Portable, slight cheaper, and sports an IP68 rating making it far more resilient. Like the Extreme, it has a Type-C connector, a three-year warranty and uses 3D NAND Flash technology – but it is slightly slower and comes from a lesser-known brand.

It has a USB-C connection concealed beneath a chunky rubber flap and plug, with a Type-A adaptor provided. Don’t expect much in the way of extreme speed – it’s rated at a max 140MB/sec, and we tested it at 119MB/sec read and 141MB/sec write – but this is more of a tank than a Ferrari. Most of us don’t need to splash out on a drive that offers this level of protection, but if you want to store big image and video files and want a drive that’s built to withstand most disasters, then the Armor ATD won’t let you down. In addition to their physical shape differences, USB ports on the computer side will variously support USB 3.0, 3.1, or 3.2, depending on the age of the computer and how up to date its marketing materials are. You don't have to worry about the differences among these three USB specs when looking at ordinary hard drives, though. All are inter-compatible, and you won't see a speed bump from one versus the other in the hard drive world. The drive platters' own speed is the limiter, not the flavor of USB 3. I think one metric for comparing storage is to look at Sustained Write Performance as well, because it affects anyone who needs to do a large write: whether it's just once a week, or else many times a day. We’re looking for 2TB superfast, extremely rugged, IP67+ rated external solid state drives. That disqualifies the likes of the popular Samsung T7 Touch which is not waterproof.

Give your Xbox a serious storage boost with the best external SSDs and HDDs and plug-in expansion cards

Once you complete the steps, the system will proceed to create a new volume with a partition and a drive letter. Fixing drive with an unsupported file system

Over the Type-C connection you get sequential read speeds of 1090MB/sec and write speeds of 1050MB/sec, although these drop to 469MB/sec and 461MB/sec over the slower Type-A. Random read/write speeds are speedy either way, peaking at 262MB/sec and 241MB/sec. While it’s not in the same league for speed as the fastest USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 SSDs, it’s an effective all rounder at a price more of us can afford. When used with a USB Type-C cable, the SanDisk Extreme rises above the competition with some stellar numbers. The design and form factor are spot on and while we have one reservation regarding the bundled cable, you can’t go wrong at this price. Get extra peace of mind with a 5-year limited warranty 3 and a durable silicon shell that offers a premium feel and added protection to the drive’s exterior. This new drive from Toshiba has a few advantages over older favourites from Seagate And Western Digital. First, it’s relatively fast by HDD standards, with sequential read speeds of over 150MB/sec and write speeds of 160MB/sec. It’s actually a smidgen faster than the excellent Canvio Gaming. And while its random read/write speeds aren’t anything to write home about, they’re no worse than those of comparable drives, and we’d recommend an SSD these days for actively running Windows apps or games.For capacity, traditional hard drives (HDDs) offer a lot more options, but SSDs are generally able to house the same amount of storage in a smaller amount of space.

For all their uses, USB ports like to mess with us from time to time, so it helps to troubleshoot the port. What's the best way to be sure your external drive won't suffer an early demise due to rough handling? Keep it in a climate-controlled room, wrapped in bubble wrap, resting on a feather pillow, and plugged safely into a stationary desktop PC. After completing the steps, you should be able to start using the storage as usual. If you can't get the storage online, and it was recently available, that could mean the drive is corrupted, disconnected, or it's not getting power. Fixing drive status unreadable Used as a USB Type-C drive, the SanDisk Pro G40 does nothing to justify its high price. Sequential read/write speeds (1,055MB/sec and 1,012MB/sec in our tests) are nothing special, and its random read/write speeds aren’t particularly fast. However, plug it into a Mac, or a laptop with a Thunderbolt 4 port, and you’ll unleash a monster. On Thunderbolt 4, the Pro G40 posted read speeds of 3.15GB/sec and write speeds of 2.6GB/sec, making it the fastest drive we’ve ever tested. And nothing else even gets close for random read/write speeds.The drive is a shade expensive, and the integrated carrying loop is too big to easily fit on a standard keychain.Otherwise, this is an excellent storage device that's ideal for heavy everyday use. If you know that the drive is working correctly, but it won't show up in File Explorer, the drive could be trying to use a letter already in use by another device or the drive letter may be missing.

Get fast NVMe™ solid state performance featuring 1050MB/s 2 read and 1000MB/s 2 write speeds in a portable, high-capacity drive that’s perfect for creating amazing content or capturing incredible footage. We saw some good numbers here, with the caveat that the Type-C connector – not Type-A – was used. This little SanDisk product outperformed all non-Thunderbolt 3 drives we’ve tested with CrystalDiskMark, delivering nearly 560MBps in terms of read speed and just over 500MBps in write. A 100GB file was transferred in 294 seconds, which equates to a transfer rate of about 334MBps. There’s not much competition in this price range. The Samsung T5, which costs marginally less and is far more portable, is the only rival that is widely available. It is not IP-rated, though, and its metallic surface is likely to get scratched easily.The LaCie 2big RAID array promises the reliability and delivers the performance benefit you'd expect from 7,200rpm platters, magnified by the default RAID 0 setting, while the optional RAID 1 setting is available if you want data redundancy. (A JBOD mode is also available if you don't want to use RAID.) Who It's For The Extreme Portable SSD comes pre-formatted as an exFAT device which means that it can work on Windows and Mac out of the box. Reformattingit to NTFS will limit compatibility to Windows but will enable TRIM which will improve the longevity of the drive. When the drive isn't available on your computer, it could also be a driver issue. You can troubleshoot and fix this problem in at least two ways. You can install the most up-to-date driver available, or you can reinstall the same driver to see if it helps the computer detect the drive. If a drive’s looks matter to you, you’ll definitely have choices. Manufacturers these days frequently market portable drives as fashion accessories, selling them in various sizes, shapes, and colors. How we test external hard drives