CrucialX9 1TB Portable SSD, Up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 USB-C, External Solid State Drive, Compatible with Windows, Mac, & Android, Reliable Storage for Games, Files, & Backups, Black - CT2000X9SSD902

I’ve known the name Crucial for about as long as I’ve been in the computer business yet I can’t say for sure if I ever ordered from them by brand. I do know their reputation is good. I’ve been spending my spare hours cleaning up files on my endless array of hard drives and SSD’s, I just got finished cleaning 205,000 files and I have more to go. One of the pitfalls of being a professional photographer and cinematographer and running a business is managing a lot of data. Today I went to open an often used Excel file and guess what, it was gone. And it was a super important one. So I stopped everything and did something I have meant to do for a long time. Get this SSD to do continuous backups of those things that I absolutely can’t lose, ever. I do have a good manual backup routine, hence all those backup drives but what was missing is being able to keep a history of my work on a daily basisI wanted something small that I could plug in to one of the USB-C ports of my Z2 G9, a very capable workstation. I have three such fast ports so no worries there. I didn’t need anything fancy or a cool belt lanyard or bright colors or lots of fluff ware and I don’t plan to drop it but there are no moving parts so that doesn’t concern me. What I did want is speeds keeping with the latest standards, because why not, and I wanted media that’s as relatively safe as possible, which I will never believe is a hundred percent possible with any storage drive, disk or solid-state. I scoured as many tech articles as I could find and the X9 seems to be one of the most highly regarded there is. I avoid the brand that starts with s because it seems everything I buy from them I regret and I try not to do business with them.THE NEED FOR SPEEDI stay miles away from any discussion having to do with speeds for a gadget like this. It’s all a game with no winner. It’s like saying my brother can run faster than some guy in Cincinnati or my Yugo is faster than yours. There is only one answer to storage media speed – your speed will depend on stuff. Everybody’s computers, phones, files, and everything else are different, and a bench test is just that, unless that’s all you’re going to do with this thing. In real life the speed you get will depend on stuff. Knowing my workstation’s ports can support it I did do a quick test and found that I was able to achieve some fast read speeds. Then in real life I did a full backup using TrueImage and my overall average was about 203 mbps. Any other speedy capabilities of this device were pretty much wasted.OH PLEASEThis is where I air my disappointments. Why is this thing plastic instead of aluminum or magnesium or titanium? What’s inside is three cents worth of silicon, couldn’t they spend another five cents on a decent case? And, what happened to including a basic version of some brand of backup software? I got the impression from their poorly done product page that they were saying they include Acronis, well they do but it is so stripped down that it is for all practical purposes worthless. They push hard on upgrading it, but it’s very clear that Acronis’ target client base is the IT departments of major corporations not us lowly consumers. The upgrade process went terribly, Unlike other software if you don’t pay the annual ransom they deactivate the whole product instead of letting you continue to use it. That subscription includes some questionable virus ware I don’t want or need, automatic renewal and worst of all it is set to allow them and anyone they sell your information to the right to spam you forevermore. And if you change your mind one second after paying for it you’re out of luck, they won’t give you your money back. They also include a three month trial of some photo cloud storage app that I would never use for my client work because of privacy concerns. And oh yeah, they will give you a whole whopping month of Adobe if you give them a whole lot of private information and agree to get their ads pushed to you by email.Storage Executive is another app you can download. I found it of dubious value, it features things that I can already do on my computer without having their app in the way, and by installing it you give them the right to automatically get access to your SSD for upgrades, this also is a privacy concern to me.Although this review is for the SSD, if my intent is to use it as a backup device, I found it was necessary to discuss this company’s poor choices when it comes to their embedded software apps. If you don’t use them this doesn’t apply to you.YES NO MAYBEThe case is very lightweight and angular in shape, and very lightweight. If I bought this as my travel drive I would have been very disappointed that it is plastic. And I may have been disappointed that the included C-to-C cable is only a few inches long. But the cable is good quality, with strong strain reliefs and a robustly braided covering. I used a piece of #M Command tape to mount the drive to the bottom of my workstation where I could leave it permanently plugged in to a dedicated data port on the back of the computer. And I spent the thirty-nine bucks to get a paid version of TrueImage because it works for me. With my x9 mounted out of sight it is always plugged in and backing up, that was my intent when I bought this so overall I am fully satisfied.Despite the things I wish they would fix how can I say no to this thing? It’s a piece of functional gear that I need and it has a job to do. If it ends up not doing that job it goes back and I let the world know, wimple as that.

I have been a very long term, 20 years plus, user of products that are produced by the Micron Corporation under the Crucial brand name. Micron/Crucial is simply one of the highest quality and technically advanced producers of memory devices in the entire world. I am using this device to store files that will NEVER be rewritten or overwritten but the files will be read a fair number of times over the years. This product is absolutely perfect for this purpose. Remember, and this is important, you do NOT want to use this device to store files that you are constantly rewriting or overwriting since flash memory does have a lifetime for constant writing/rewriting.

I can't believe how small this SSD drive is, barely larger than a book of matches. I use this to store and access approximately 11,000 songs stored in uncompressed .flac and .wav format. This SSD is attached via USB to a desktop computer on my home network, and I access it as a shared drive for my Sonos system. It is always visible on the network (unlike the SSD it replaced, which would disappear if not accessed for a while). I have had no issues with speed or file access, although I am certainly not stressing it for its reading and writing capabilities or speeds.The drive came formatted as exFat, which works with all versions of Windows and modern versions of macOS. It can be formatted as Fat32 or NTFS if necessary.I have used Crucial memory and storage drives for years and have always found them to have rock solid reliability, and the pricing is competitive with other less reliable or no name brands. They are a division of Micron, and were the first company to sell memory directly to the consumer. I cannot speak to the longevity as I have not had the drive very long, but based on my past experience with Crucial I am confident it will last.

I don't believe in trusting my data to the clouds. This is a perfect SSD mini drive that holds so much, works so fast, and is so portable. Love this even more than the previous version which I LOVED as well.

So far still working

Great product, I have three of these and use them for video editing and graphic design projects. I have also recommend to friends and family also.