Backing up files or moving large projects between devices should not feel like paint drying but traditional hard drives (HDD) make you wait what felt like forever as they spin and click their way through transfers. External SSDs changed the game when they reduced those wait times to mere seconds instead of minutes and the SanDisk 2TB SSD takes the speed advantage and wraps it in a package that is tough enough to survive your daily chaos.
This drive hits read speeds up to 1050MB/s and write speeds around 1000MB/s which means transferring a 4K movie takes about 30 seconds instead of several minutes. Its 2TB capacity gives you plenty of room for your entire photo library and a solid collection of games. And the good news, Amazon dropped the price to $179 from the usual $209 for Black Friday (and it was launched at $250) which marks an all-time low.
Speed That Matches Your Workflow
The NVMe solid-state performance inside this compact drive delivers the kind of transfer rates that make backing up your laptop or editing 4K footage directly from the drive practical. You can drag and drop a 50GB project folder and watch it complete before you finish your coffee which beats the old-school external hard drive experience where you’d start a transfer and go make lunch.
The USB-C connection works with both USB 3.2 Gen 2 and backward-compatible ports so you’re not locked into only the newest devices. This level of performance allows video editors to work with high-resolution footage without needing to pre-copy everything to their internal drive first and allows photographers to cull through thousands of RAW files without the lag that makes you want to throw your mouse across the room.
The IP65 rating protects against water splashes and dust intrusion which matters more than you think when you’re tossing this drive in bags, leaving it on outdoor shoot locations, or just living your normal clumsy life. SanDisk upgraded the drop protection to 3 meters, so those accidental falls from your desk or even that low tree branch on a hiking shoot aren’t going to turn your entire project archive into a paperweight.
The rubberized exterior provides grip and another layer of shock absorption while the included carabiner loop lets you clip it to your backpack or belt loop if you’re the type that needs gear within arm’s reach at all times. That 256-bit AES hardware encryption with password protection keeps your files secure in case the drive goes missing, giving you one less thing to panic about if you leave it in a coffee shop.
The SanDisk Memory Zone app will help you figure out what’s taking up space and automatically back up your phone content so you don’t have to remember to do this every few months. Because of solid-state technology (not generating the heat from spinning platters), the drive keeps cool during long transfer sessions, and a compact form factor means it disappears into any bag pocket.
For $179, 2TB of fast, rugged storage costs less than 9 cents per gigabyte, and that’s exactly the kind of value that makes upgrading your entire backup strategy a no-brainer instead of a budget debate.
