BUFFALO DriveStation 8TB High Speed 7200RPM TAA Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.2

Lets start with why I purchased this...well after running out of space on my internal 1TB SATA III Hitachi hard drive, I had to make a decision to either buy a second larger internal 2TB hard drive or go external to use for additional data storage. I weighed the benefits of getting an internal one...fast theoretical native SATA III 6Gbps interface speed, no desktop clutter/wires etc vs the disadvantages...fixed not removable/portable so cannot be connected to a router or laptop computer etc.I ultimately decided to go external because I definitely prefer the option of being able to disconnect the hard drive and connecting it to another computer or device such as a router for streaming/sharing. I'm aware that I also could share an internal hard drive over the network with other devices but that means 1) My computer needs to be on 2) My computer will slow down if another device is streaming content from it...been there done that. With an external hard drive I could just connect it to my router which has USB ports and it will automatically be accessible from other network devices without affecting my computer in any way. Not only that but when using USB 3.0 (5Gbps) and directly connected to a computer the theoretical transfer rate is not much slower than SATA III (6Gbps). Regardless the bottle neck will be the mechanical transfer speed of the hard drive which is around 125MB/s (1Gbps) anyway. Also even though the drive inside the Buffalo unit is a SATA II (3Gbps) model the mechanical transfer rate is still well below that interface's theoretical speed. Only when using Wi-Fi on my new Belkin AC1200 Dual Band Wireless AC Router does the theoretical transfer rate drop to 480Mbps but that's only because the router has USB 2.0 ports instead of 3.0. The router itself has a wireless theoretical 867Mbps data transfer rate on the 5GHz band.At the time of this writing this external hard drive was the same price as the non-Velocity model so to me it made so much more sense to get this one instead. The main differences between this DriveStation Axis Velocity and the non-Velocity model BUFFALO DriveStation Axis 2 TB USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive - HD-LB2.0TU3 is:1. 7200 rpm hard drive vs 5400 rpm2. 2 year warranty vs 1 year3. Optional hardware encryptionSo with the technical talk out of the way lets move on to the design/styling which quite frankly I found to be utterly slick. In my opinion it's one of if not the most stylish plastic cased desktop hard drives on the market. It's one of those pieces of computer equipment that you'd want to display proudly instead of hiding it under the desk or in a drawer. Just as the pictures show the sides are matte black while the center "water fall" strip/panel is high gloss. The only other desktop drives that look just as good are the brushed metal Porsche Designs but those also cost more. The case also has stylishly designed vents along the perimeter of the body. I suspect that when this drive eventually gets full I'll get another one. The stylish exterior design works well when stood side by side or stacked.Finally with regards to function and performance, I've found it to be acceptably fast and quiet right out of the box even without installing any of the included software and despite only using a USB 2.0 connection. After installing the hard drive caching application Turbo PC EX which is included on the drive, transfer rates seem to improve when copying a large number of files. Since USB 2.0's theoretical transfer rate is lower than the hard drive's mechanical transfer rate I suspect using USB 3.0 will be quite a bit faster. Buffalo says real world speeds using USB 3.0 will be about 4-5 times faster than USB 2.0. Unfortunately at the time of this writing I do not have a computer with USB 3.0 ports so cannot test this claim..though there's no reason why it wouldn't hold true. When connected to my Belkin AC1200 router it worked fine as a NAS drive and I was able to stream HD 1080p videos contained on the hard drive wirelessly to my computer and even my iPhone 4 smoothly.On a related note one cool feature of this drive is the tri-color activity/power/locked LED. When in USB 1.1/2.0 mode it lights up green while in USB 3.0 it's blue. When using encryption mode the LED is red. Another nice feature of this drive is the option to install a cooling fan via a user removable mounting bracket on the back. This is a very "cool" option for situations where you're backing up lots of data which may take many hours to complete and where the ambient room temperature may already be warm or hot. Anyway for my mode of usage (media/file server) I did not enable the hardware encryption function nor did I install the RAMDISK or Back Up utility.

I liked the one I purchased in August 2020 so much, that I just got 2 more. I use it on XP and Win 7 with no issues.I tried the 2 recent ones on XP, then Win 10 with no problems.The first time I tried the original one on Win 10, it didn't do anything, but now that one also works on Win 10.Someone smarter than me will have to explain why it works now:The 1st time, the USB cable used an extension and was plugged directly into the laptop.The 2nd time (that worked) I did not use a USB extension cable and plugged it into a USB hub.

This is a good drive, but it has a couple of issues that may or may not be a problem. First, it can get a bit noisy when accessed. Internally, this is a Toshiba drive (from SMART diagnostics) I bought to replace a Toshiba 2TB drive which was relatively quiet. If I wasn't sure whether or not the older Toshiba drive was being accessed, I had to either look at the light or feel for vibrations on the cashing. This one leaves no doubt, it's easily audible from five feet away during heavy access times.Second, it does tend to run a bit warmer. If SMART diagnostics are to be believed it's rated for 55°C maximum, and it's easy for it to go up to 60°C and beyond during heavy access.Finally, I'm not sure the SMART diagnostics are completely trustworthy. It has recorded quite a number of overlimit shock events (42 in just under a month) and I have taken good care of the drive (no drops or bangs). I haven't had any issues yet, and hope I don't come across any before it's time to upgrade to another new drive.Other than that, access times over USB 3 were acceptably fast for a mechanical drive. (The computer I'm using it with most is USB 2, but I used a computer with USB 3 for the initial data migrations.)