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.

TL;DR: This drive personally verified capable of large, sustained reads for hours if needed and had no problem transferring 500GB+ of data (both read and write) without slowing down at all. If you're tired of external SSDs that slow down due to cache outs and/or overheating, this drive will take care of those issues.-------I've gone through several Samsung and Crucial external SSDs and one common thing is they all "cache out" sooner than later or even overheat and transfer speeds quickly plummet (sub 50-75MB/sec in some instances) when you're doing large (>100GB) transfers or if you're using the drive as an attached active media for real time use like using a replicated database or photo editing. If the job ends up R/W > 75-100GB+ I will always see drive slow downs consistently on those Samsung and Crucial models. They are good for small, quick transfers especially sub 25GB but anything remotely large and sustained and the slowdown happens.After doing a lot of research and reading along with personal recommendation from some fellow developers and editors, I gave the SanDisk 2TB Extreme PRO (you know it's serious when "PRO" is all in caps) a try.It is very compact and nicely built. Excellent external texture with even a corner clip hole. It comes with both USB-A and USB-C USB 3.2 2x2 cables and is ready for data transfers up to 2000MB/s.So how did it fair? I plugged it into my 1000MB/s rated USB-C port to backup over 500GB of data in one sitting and sat there and watched it transfer the entire set of data with zero slowdowns sometimes peaking OVER 1000MB/sec on large contiguous data asset transfers. This is a first among the pile of external drives I've used over the last 10 years.When it came time to copy the information back, the sustained speeds were still there during the entire transfer.I used it even to run some games for testing and it had no problems for Steam or Blizzard games albeit for normal use I use internal storage. I also did a couple of dev projects externally and it worked absolutely fantastic.As with most external drives, it does get warm during heavy use but nothing that is worrisome. I was able to pick up and hold the drive no problem.I tested it on both Windows 10 and 11 and Windows 11 is slightly slower than Windows 10 in data transfers under the same conditions but still peaked over 900MB/sec. It isn't the Sandisk's fault but the OS.Overall, I can't recommend this drive highly enough. It fixed all the issues I had grown used to accepting with my previous Samsung and Crucial models with expected slowdowns (it wasn't an issue of "if" but "when") and 2TB is spacious enough for now. If I end up needing more capacity I will pick up the 4TB version if needed but as for the 2TB model specifically? Highly recommended.5/5

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. :(