Best portable SSD or Flash drive I 2023?

[TinaBelcher]

Hello.

I need some great advice. My new MacBook Air with 512GB storage is arriving next week.
I'm gonna travel in a couple of weeks, and I'd love to have either a portable SSD or Flash Drive with me, to watch a bunch of movies on. Obviously, I plan of storing other things on it later on. I won't have wifi at my location, so I can't stream.

I used to own a 2018's Sandisk "Dual" flash drive with 128 GB. It was such a great little thing. However, I had some issues with it. It was always burning hot. It also got corrupted a couple years ago, and bad on my part for password-encrypting it. Now it's locked forever, and I cannot format it. I basically have to melt it off or find some way to destroy it, to avoid anyone ever finding a way to unlock my files on it. It really sucks... but I'm having trust issues with Sandisk and Flash drives in general now. I know, NO Flashdrive or SSD is ever 100% save and you always need to have multiple backups. But just in general what would you guys recommend me?

What is better, faster and more practical? I also don't want to have a chunky SSD hanging on my Macbook while watching a movie... But I also don't want something slow / bad quality.

 

[Aushiker]

I was actually looking at SSD, and Flash Drives, SSDs are a lot cheaper from what I found. I was seeing prices starting around AU$80 for 2TB drives.

At the moment, I use a Samsung 1TB T3 and have had it for a few years without any issues (touch wood). From what I have read they are still considered good. They are not big or heavy but you do have a cable so they will hang off. Maybe use a short cable?

 

[Boyd01]

I have three of the old Samsung T3's, used them all as external boot disks for different 2012 Mini's. Always worked great for that. Still using one (500gb) as a boot disk for a 2014 Mini media server now.

I also have four 2tb Samsung T7's, two 2tb WD Black game drives and one 2tb Samsung T7 Shield. Three of these are permanently connected to my 2018 Mini and they see heavy use (one has over 60 million files as a local copy of my web server). The others are all Carbon Copy Clones.

I get about the same performance from them all ~900MB/sec and they all seem reliable. Only reason I got the WD game drives was that I needed them right away and they were the only 2tb external SSD's my local Best Buy had. They have been fine but are physically larger than the Samsung disks and have plastic cases instead of metal.

No idea what the "best" is, but the Samsung disks have served me well, going back to around 2016 with the T3's and 2020 with the T7's.

 

[Fishrrman]

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, Portable External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0S/AM, 2022), Black

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water1 and dust2 resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe achieve soaring sequential read/write ...

www.amazon.com

Tips:
- IGNORE any Samsung software that comes with it
and
- ERASE IT to "Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format" before using.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, Portable External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0S/AM, 2022), Black

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water1 and dust2 resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe achieve soaring sequential read/write ...

www.amazon.com

Tips:
- IGNORE any Samsung software that comes with it
and
- ERASE IT to "Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format" before using.

I second this recommendation. Have 2 T7 shields. Very pleased.
Also the format tip under mac to APFS is a good one.

 

[herbert7265]

Another vote for the Samsung T7.

You can get the T7 in 3 different versions (T7, T7 Shield and T7 Touch) with capacities from 500 GB up to 4 TB. Pricing is reasonable.

I use the T7 and T7 Shield with 2 TB. The drives are reasonably fast (around 700 MB/s). Under load they get warm to hot, but not to the extent as you will hear from NVME drives. Another benefit of these drives: They are really small, no clunky SSD hanging on your computer.

My recommendation would be the T7 Shield, as the rugged design makes it perfect for travel and "off desk" usage.

Herbert

 

[TinaBelcher]

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, Portable External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0S/AM, 2022), Black

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water1 and dust2 resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe achieve soaring sequential read/write ...

www.amazon.com

Tips:
- IGNORE any Samsung software that comes with it
and
- ERASE IT to "Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format" before using.

Software? What kind of software? Never heard of a SSD that needs software installed into it 🧐

 

[Boyd01]

The drives are reasonably fast (around 700 MB/s).

I suppose the smaller capacity drives might be slower. I also read that external SSD's were slower on first generation Apple Silicon Macs. But this is what I get with my 2tb T7's. They are definitely faster than 700MB/sec when tested with the BlackMagic app. Mine are all formatted as APFS, if that matters.

 

[herbert7265]

I suppose the smaller capacity drives might be slower. I also read that external SSD's were slower on first generation Apple Silicon Macs. But this is what I get with my 2tb T7's. They are definitely faster than 700MB/sec when tested with the BlackMagic app. Mine are all formatted as APFS, if that matters.

I have no problem to believe you that your T7's may be faster, especially as they are stated up to 1,050 MB/s. But fact is that in my case all my T7's (3 x T7 2TB, 1 x T7 Shield 2 TB) average around 700 MB/s, also tested with the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test app. All my T7's are also formatted as APFS.

But maybe there is an issue with the Blackmagic app...! I run it on my 16" MBP M2 Max and I am not sure if it works there as it should (last update around 11 months ago). Testing my internal 2TB drive, which is considered a really fast drive, I get in consecutive tests a high speed variation, ranging anywhere from approx. 500 MB/s up to more than 1,500 MB/s. The same can be observed when testing my T/'s, the speed can vary in consecutive tests in the range of approx. 200 MB/s. And no, the drives are not hot in these tests, what could cause a throttling. Also, I did tests on the different TB4 ports, used different cables, always the same observations.

Let´s see if I can figure out the problem or somebody already has the solution.

Herbert

 

[Boyd01]

That's interesting. Like I said, there was quite a bit of discussion of external USB SSD's running slow on Apple Silicon Macs in the past. I've seen more recent posts that claimed this issue was fixed, but just don't know - I'm still on Intel and plan to stay there for a couple more years! But I have four of the 2tb T7's and one 2tb Shield. They all clock around 900MB/sec on my Intel Mini.

 

[herbert7265]

That's interesting. Like I said, there was quite a bit of discussion of external USB SSD's running slow on Apple Silicon Macs in the past. I've seen more recent posts that claimed this issue was fixed, but just don't know - I'm still on Intel and plan to stay there for a couple more years! But I have four of the 2tb T7's and one 2tb Shield. They all clock around 900MB/sec on my Intel Mini.

In the meantime I did some "not scientific" testing which, at a first glance, seems to back my assumption that the results of the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test could be a little questionable.

I tested my internal SSD, using as well different folders as different test sizes (1 GB and 5 GB). The results move anywhere, without a really clear pattern, in the range from 5,000 MB/s to 7,000 MB/s, especially for the write speed. The read speed seems a little more stable in the 5,000 MB/s to 6,000 MB/s range.

Maybe I do some more testing in here within the next days and then will ask in a separate thread about the experience of other users, I do not want to hijack this thread with this off-topic!

Herbert

 

[ovbacon]

In the meantime I did some "not scientific" testing which, at a first glance, seems to back my assumption that the results of the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test could be a little questionable.

I tested my internal SSD, using as well different folders as different test sizes (1 GB and 5 GB). The results move anywhere, without a really clear pattern, in the range from 5,000 MB/s to 7,000 MB/s, especially for the write speed. The read speed seems a little more stable in the 5,000 MB/s to 6,000 MB/s range.

Maybe I do some more testing in here within the next days and then will ask in a separate thread about the experience of other users, I do not want to hijack this thread with this off-topic!

Herbert

I can run blackmagic on my internal at any folder or size and the results are very similar in R and W. same goes for my external Samsung 980 PRO. I think BM is pretty solid but I can see that results can differ when there are other operations happening simultaneously.

 

[Pointillism]

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, Portable External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0S/AM, 2022), Black

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water1 and dust2 resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe achieve soaring sequential read/write ...

www.amazon.com

Tips:
- IGNORE any Samsung software that comes with it
and
- ERASE IT to "Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format" before using.

Samsung's software is, as you say, mostly useless but I don't think you can totally ignore it since you need to use the Portable SSD utility in order to update the drive's firmware.

 

[herbert7265]

I can run blackmagic on my internal at any folder or size and the results are very similar in R and W. same goes for my external Samsung 980 PRO. I think BM is pretty solid but I can see that results can differ when there are other operations happening simultaneously.

That’s a good point, concerning other operations. I will do some testing without other apps running in the background (BitDefender, iStat Menus, iCloud, OneDrive, 1Password, etc.).