Transcend 1 TB StoreJet M3 Military Drop Tested USB 3.0 External Hard Drive

I have now had my 1TB external drive for five years and very few issues (knock on wood now that Im writing this), none of which have made me curse the hard drive, but only made me rethink how I wanted to use it. Presently, I primarily use the drive to store music and some Steam/GOG/Origin games. Yes, I know that running games off an external hard drive is frowned upon, but I do it on a limited basis. The point is, is that this external hard drive has been doing what I have wanted it to do since day one. I plugged it in, and began to store files on it like it was another drive on my internal hard drive. When I replace this one, I will definitely look into getting another Transcend StoreJet.

USB3 makes USB2 look like USB1.1. This drive appears to be built to last, and the thick rubbery outer case will clearly absorb a significant amount of shock. There doesnt seem to be any problem with cooling, which I had been a little concerned about, since some of my USB drives seem to run rather hot. Note that the drive end of the USB3 cable is of the dual-connector type, so you cant use conventional USB2 or compatible USB3 cables with it. The provided cable is just right for my use, as it allows me to place the drive behind my laptop where it wont get knocked around, but at the same time it doesnt leave coils of extra cable all over the desk. Performance so far has been exemplary, and I routinely shove many gigs back and forth without any sign of taxing the thruput or the mechanics. I have not disassembled it, so I cant vouch for additional internal shock absorption, and I cant confirm the spindle speed. It does seem to be performing like a 7200 rpm drive, but I havent done any formal tests, so I could just be experiencing a large buffer. In any case, its a great choice for hauling a lot of data around in the big bad world.

Okay, high points - this thing is durable as Low points - after more than a year and a half of abuse the usb port on it has gone sort of trash (The usb3.0 cable that came with it originally was misery, so I use a usb micro b <like your cellphone charger androids> that was working for awhile, then I lent the hdd out to a couple friends, it came back, and it doent always register when I plug it in now (I recognize this is down to misuse, but it is supposed to be Milspec drop certified so I was thinking durability when I bought it) Overall I am happy with this purchase, and have the hdd sitting on my desk as I type this.

I have purchased two of these, one for my xBox One and another for my laptop and both work flawlessly. This is a great option for use as an external hdd for gaming consoles or laptops / desktops alike. The storage capacity is more than even I could ever hope to fill, and I am a pretty heavy user. Setup is simple, basically just plug in and go with it. The silicon protective outer layer protects it from slight bumps making it ideal for travelling (ie bringing laptop to cafe, school, work, etc). While its rated as drop tested I really wouldnt recommend performing your own test and just taking it at face value ;) Ive been using the one on my xBox for over a month now and have had no issues. To use with xBox you just connect the USB, turn on the xBox and it will detect it automatically! I have noticed no delays in read/write time when downloading to and loading from the hdd with the xBox in comparison to the internal hdd. Same goes for the laptop. All in all a great product, and the build quality seems substantial enough to last a long time. Excellent bang for your buck!

From the day I plugged it in, this unit has been nothing but trouble. Since the beginning, it would unmount if I moved the cable or gently bumped the device. The cable has some kind of proprietary connection so I couldnt just swap it out with another typical USB cable. I have no idea if the issue is the cable or the device itself. Fine - just dont bump the cable or device - that was a nuisance but I could deal with it. Then I had issues with the storage, which I was able to fix by formatting and re-partitioning the drive... for a while. At some point, a couple weeks after the product return window closed, I bumped my desk hard enough that the drive unmounted and it came back with the largest partition entirely missing... like 1.5 TB just *poof* gone. I dont have the patience to troubleshoot it any further and I dont want to send it back if there is still data on the missing partition. So now I have an expensive paperweight which may or may not still have my personal data on it. Maybe Ill get a SSD thumb drive next, but not from this company.

I dropped this thing down ~15 feet of stairs after taking it out of the box literally the day it was delivered. Plugged it into a USB 3 port on a desktop the IT company I work for was backing up, and it worked beautifully. Read/Write speeds I encountered were consistent with USB 3 when it was plugged into a USB 3 port. Ive seen some reviews complaining about the speed, all I can think is they had it plugged into a USB 2 port on their computer, or have a terrible processor, thus got slower write speeds. The available space upon receiving it was 998GB, which is much closer to a pure Terabyte than most other hard drives give out of the box. Also theres the price, Transcend is giving a hell of a deal for this drive. A terabyte WD or Seagate drive will cost you more money, and not come with any kind of drop protection, or a 3 year warranty. It comes with some free software, of which the encryption & data recovery software which could actually be useful. I havent used the DR application yet, but something like that usually isnt given for free.

I purchased my first Transcend Military Drop Tested 1 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive about four years ago and I have not bought any other brand since. In fact, Ive purchase three in total. And, should I need another, which Im certain I will as I practically live on my computer and my grandson uses one for his X-Box, Ill definitely be purchasing this brand and, if not the exact same one, I may go to 2TBs instead. But, 1TB is plenty. At 3.0 USB, this drive transfers data at an impressively high rate. Ive never had any problems with none of the drives Ive purchased. I believe this to be a reliable and safe method of storing your data. And, at such a reasonably good price, theres no reason not to buy a spare in case you find yourself needing more room or need it for a different device. I highly recommend this product to anyone looking for a safe, reliable, external hard drive and wants to buy from a brand they can trust and get the quality they deserve.

Casing is extremely sturdy just by comparing it to my old external harddrive that broke from a small fall. It comes with a program to help recover files, too, if you ever have an issue. Also you can use the easy backup feature, or...you can just manually backup whatever you want. I prefer the latter form because I dont want everything saved on the harddrive. It doesnt really come with instructions (just one page of notes) but it can be found on the website once you register your product for warranty. Nothing better than paperless! From what I could tell, would not run in a 2.0 USB slot (did not come with cords for the dual-thing everyone is talking about, just one normal cord). Works very fast and efficiently in the 3.0 USB slot. Its all I really wanted was something to put all my files on. So no complaints here!

I have absolutely nothing but love for these external drives. This was my first external drive of a size larger than 500GB. I have never ever had THIS much space, and it is absolutely changing my life! If you are looking for a drive, get this one! It is competitively priced and has the wonderful feature of it probably wouldnt die if you chucked it out your window right this second! The rubber case has saved me a couple times already on dropping. I feel secure and assured that my drive can survive my clumsiness and day-to-day accidents. I really like that it only needs one USB cable, as I found drives with a USB AND Power cable to be bulky and harder to transport. Luckily, I have a lot of really nice, fast USB ports that are capable of powering it with just one cord. Im recommending this model to everybody that I know with storage or archival needs. This drive is a dream come true! Shipped quickly and in secure package. No funny smells, discoloration, or damage when the product arrived. I loved the offer of a 2 year data recovery plan, too!