Customer Ratings & Reviews

Quick Overview ================================= You'll never have enough storage. On top of that, the faster the storage is, the better! The Crucial X9 is a tiny portable (it even has a lanyard hole!) SSD that's flexible enough to use for home or gaming. Overall build ================================= Opening the box, you'll be surprised at how small the Crucial X9 is - it's tiny! It takes up less than half of the box, measuring just under 2" x 3" (specifically 65mm x 50mm). It also comes with a tiny USB-C cable and Quick Start guide that just directs you to Crucial's website. Since this is a plug-and-play device, I wouldn't worry about that too much. It's plastic, but it's a hard, firm plastic with no flex or creaking to it. It's actually drop-rated to survive drops up to 7.5 feet! It can handle extreme temperature, shock and vibration, but it's not IP-rated for water or dust ingress. Still, I think it's a pretty sturdy device as long as you're not taking it off-road or camping. It has a 3-year warranty and I'm happy to say in the rare cases that I've had issues with Crucial devices (SD cards, memory), I've been taken care of. It's listed as compatible with every OS from Windows to Mac to Android/iOS and will work with gaming consoles like an Xbox or Playstation. Not only that, since it's a hard drive, it was detected by my Steam Deck as well. Note - there are a few steps to get it working under SteamOS/Linux, but that's not in-scope for this review, though it's definitely a way to add more storage to your Deck! The most interesting software that's included is Acronis which can be used to back up your PC and migrate the data to another one. I've used Acronis quite a bit as a PC builder and it's always worked reliably for me. Performance ================================= Not all SSDs are the same (SATA, NVMe) and neither are the connectors (USB-A, USB-C) with even more specific variants under each type! It can get confusing, but if you have a new or fairly recent device with a native USB-C port you should get the rated speeds. I've attached a screenshot of my CrystalDiskMark performance and it's nearly the same as Crucial's factory performance ratings. This is great to see since many of the factory or lab tests are under "perfect" conditions that aren't really applicable to the real world. I got the fastest speeds on my most performant device, my Asus Strix 18. I have another Dell desktop with a USB-C port (that's obviously not 3.2) and was getting about half the speeds. Still, this is a super-fast drive if you don't need the ultimate performance from their top-of-the-line X10 Pro. As I've been creating more videos, I have to move large files around quite a bit and some testing with this drive was impressive: ------------------------------------------- 2.77 GB in less than 5 seconds 3.77 GB in 6.5 seconds 5.78 GB in less than 10 seconds This was all hand-timed using my phone's stopwatch feature, but you get the idea. My "deep storage" consists of a larger set of SATA HDDs and copying those same files can be 3-4x longer! Games are getting larger and larger, from 10s of GB to 100s of GB for some of the top AAA games, so more storage is always welcome! With the older USB-A/USB 3.x implementation, you were limited to a maximum of 5 Gbps, but real world could be much slower so it wouldn't be ideal for gaming. Now, with up to 10 Gbps (or even 20 Gbps at USB3.2 Gen 2x2) like in this Crucial X9, gaming is no problem. Adding this drive to my Steam Library on my current gaming PC (Asus Strix 18) was a no-brainer and there was no perceptible difference playing a game that was installed on my internal NVMe SSD or on the Crucial X9. That was a fun way to test the drive! If you're running out of space in your gaming rig and don't have additional internal NVMe/M.2 slots, this drive is definitely an easy way to upgrade your storage without having to open up your PC. Conclusion ================================= Fast storage, that's tiny, portable and fairly rugged at a great price from a company that's known for reliability and performance. I'm not sure what else you could ask for outside of hardware encryption or slightly faster speed offered by the X10 Pro. For gaming, storage of your photos, videos, and other general use-cases, I'd say you can't go wrong with this Crucial X9 portable SSD.

Portable drives are a must for me. I use them as local backups on my computers, and I also like to keep one full of my graphic-design library. I have 1000's of fonts, bitmaps, vectors, and other resources for my graphic design work. While this is a side-hobby and not my career, I still find myself doing my design work on different computers and sometimes in different environments. That means I need to have my library available without having to rely on internet connections, computers with large amounts of disk space, or being at home on my own network. I have been using portable spinning drives for a long time for this because they are inexpensive and have a lot drive space. I know about SSD's in the portable category, but had not considered them before, assuming they were too expensive for the amount of drive space I would need. This Crucial X9 portable SSD opened my eyes. I took it out of the package and realized it was about the same size as 2 of my USB thumb drives next to each other! These things are tiny! Not only that, but because of the technology, I don't have to worry about being extra careful to not let the drive get bumped, especially while using it. They are much more rugged and ideal for portability. The drive itself is so small, I can set my Logitech mouse on top of it and completely cover it. It's also incredibly lightweight, so you won't notice it in a pocket or bag. READING & WRITING The feature I didn't consider until now was the speed. We generally have some form of SSD in our computers now, because they can be read much faster than the old spinning drives. This obviously applies here. When I'm digging through a massive library of files, especially ones that I want to preview without having to open every one of them, the drive read-speed really matters. Previewing files on my previous drives meant waiting for each one to load, which sometimes takes a few seconds per file. This drive, when plugged into a USB-C port on either my MacBook Pro or Dell Inspiron, makes previewing seem to happen almost instantaneously. THE NUMBERS In my pictures, I show the disk read and write speeds. Crucial states that the drive is capable of read speeds of up to 1,050 MB. In my tests, I was just shy of this, and my hardware is much less than that of what Crucial used for their own tests. Performance will likely vary a bit from one user to another, depending on what type of computer hardware you are using. However, both of the computers I tested this drive on are at least 3 years old as of this writing. WHAT THIS MEANS If you are not technical and are just shopping for a portable drive, the numbers you see on these testing results may not mean much to you. To better show why this is such an upgrade over a spinning drive, my pictures show the read and write speeds for my spinning portable drive. This drive sits on my desktop for nightly backups. I have another one of the same that I use for my graphic-design resources. It's not much thicker, but definitely a lot larger than this Crucial X9 drive. For the speed tests, I am showing you the read and write speeds of both the spinning drive, and this X9 SSD, and how dramatic the difference is. USABILITY Crucial markets this drive as being suitable for consumer workloads. This means day-to-day reading and writing of files between the drive and potentially multiple computers, acting as addition drive space on a device that has limited disk space (say, 256 MB or less), acting as a backup drive for your computer, and even running games and software from the device. It will definitely meet those needs for most purchasers. The drive comes with a USB-C cable, USB-C on both ends. The cable is rather short, which is fine if you are using it on a laptop or tablet that is in front of you, but may be too short if the device you are connecting to is under a desk, behind a monitor, or in another hard-to-access location. Plugging this into a USB-C 3.2 or better port will maximize its performance, but if you do not have access to a USB-C port on your device, you will need an adapter to use this, and the transfer speeds will probably be less than what the X9 SSD is capable of. However, purchasing this now will mean that you will likely have USB-C on your device in the future, at which point you will be able to take full advantage of the transfer speeds of this portable drive. OVERALL I am really impressed with this drive! I know that Crucial is a high-quality brand and I have no doubt this will serve me well for a long time. The 2TB storage capacity is sufficient for most users. If your needs are within 500 MB or less of this capacity, upgrade to Crucial's 4TB version so you are good well into the future, as you don't want to max out an SSD because of the way they work. It's small and extremely lightweight, along with being durable. If you have never used a portable SSD (like me), this will reinvent portable storage for you!

I am very computer savvy -- just wanted to make that clear before someone comments that I don't know what I am doing or talking about. I know that the performance of this drive is dependent on the quality of the cable, the speed of the port the cable is connected to, and the speed of the host drive where the data is coming from. The drive is advertised as having speeds up to 1,050 megabytes a second. When plugged in with the original USB-C cable, and transferring files to a M1 Pro MBP, I should not be getting bursts of 300 megabytes of second, with intermittent slowdowns that average 60 megabytes a second. At best when this drive was operating at the fastest speeds, it still fell short by roughly 800 megabytes a second. Additionally, when hooked up to my PC on USB-C and transferring files to a SSD, it's just a slow. To put it into comparison, my external conventional hard drive transferred the needed files faster overall. The connection stayed a solid 150 megabytes a second, and did not sputter out like the X9 did -- with dips to abysmal transfer speeds. Not going to bother exchanging it for another one just to find out it performs just as bad. TLDR: Brand new day old X9 has terrible read/write speeds, old conventional HDD beats it out over long transfers. Returning.

This SSD is just one notch below the top of the line in the Crucial’s line of portable SSD products. There are two great features that this SSD brings to the table: portability and powerful performance. In addition to that, the SSD is also drop, shock and vibration proof as well as resistant to extreme temperature. Just be sure that your device supports USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 interface in order to maximize the potential speed of the SSD. I can’t believe how small SSD these days; even with the capacity of 2 TB, the form factor is so small and thin. The days of USB flash drive should be over. The SSD is encased in a polymer plastic material and it looks sturdy enough to survive accidental drops; though we have to bear in mind that it is still made of plastic after all. The SSD connects to devices with a USB-C cable and the included cable works well as it supports maximum transfer speed that the SSD is capable to. The SSD is rated at about 1 GBPS read speed. As for the write speed, real world test by transferring 1 GBPS of data to the drive shows about half of that theoretical read speed. This kind of speed should be enough for most users. The SSD comes with 3-year warranty. With 2 TB of capacity, this portable SSD is extremely handy not only for storing data externally for your gadgets, but also as backup for your entire computer. One very useful usage scenario for an SSD at this level of speed is for playing games, which will slash-off loading times. Just install as many recent AAA games as you want into this SSD and you still have some space left. Since it’s so small, you may want to store it in a nice little sleeve.

I'm impressed that these portable Hardrives/SSD are getting smaller and lighter. It is impressive. how they can pack all that storage in such a small package. It uses USB 3.2 -Gen 2 or 10Gbps USB-C to connect to the PC/Laptop. Make sure you have at least 1 USBC 10Gpbs connection to get maximum speed out of this drive. On my Ryzen Laptop I'm getting close to 1000 MB/s in Crystal disk mark testing. This speed is great and allows me to treat it as a local drive and not a portable and because of that I can use to not only for document storage and backups but also storing games and play them. Not much to say, but if you need a fast portable small drive that is easy to slip into a pocket/bag and since it is in a strong case. Which is nice since you don't have to worry about the drive getting damaged in a bag. My only complaint is the drive is a bit smaller than I expected so sometimes in my bag with my other cables and cords I can have an time sometimes finding it. Overall I've used a number of portable drives in my time and I can't be happier with this and would definitely recommend it to friends and family.

This little hard drive is very impressive! It is extremely light weight. I love how small and compact it is and can easily fit in your pocket (see pictures). I’m blown away with how incredibly fast it is. I tested it on a windows laptop (running Windows 11), connected it via the included USB C cable and I copied a 4GB video file from the laptop hard drive to this portable SSD in only 7 seconds! It’s 2TB so there is plenty of storage for backup, games, pictures, or general file storage, etc. The specifications say that it can handle a 6.5 foot (2 meters) drop. I didn’t try dropping it 😊, but I believe it - it’s so light weight that I am sure it would be fine and it is SSD so there are no moving parts. It also comes with a nice short USB C to USB C cable. It doesn’t come with a strap, but it does have a pass through small hook on one corner if you wanted to attached it via a thin strap or cable. Note that it doesn’t come with an USB A adapter, but I did test it with one and it works fine (obviously at slower speeds).

I recently purchased the Crucial X9 2TB External USB-C SSD, and I couldn't be more pleased with its performance. Right out of the box, the design stood out—sleek, compact, and lightweight, making it easy to carry around. Transferring files has been a breeze, and the speeds are impressive. I experienced consistent high-speed transfers, whether I was moving large video files or a collection of photos. The USB-C connection works flawlessly with my laptop, and it also comes with a USB-A adapter, which adds to its versatility. Another highlight is its durability. I dropped it accidentally, and it still functions perfectly. The rugged design is reassuring, especially for someone like me who is often on the go. In terms of storage capacity, 2TB is more than enough for my needs. I can store a significant amount of data without worrying about running out of space. Overall, I highly recommend the Crucial X9 for anyone looking for a reliable, high-performance external SSD. It's an excellent investment for both personal and professional use!

I picked up the Crucial X9 2TB External USB-C SSD from Best Buy and couldn’t be happier with the purchase. This drive strikes the perfect balance between performance, portability, and reliability. Right out of the box, setup was effortless—plug and play with no extra software needed. Transfer speeds are impressively fast, making large file backups, photo libraries, and 4K video transfers feel almost instant compared to traditional external drives. It has dramatically improved my workflow and saved me a ton of time. The compact, lightweight design is another big win. It easily fits in a pocket or laptop bag, and the solid build gives confidence that it can handle daily travel without worry. The USB-C connection is modern and versatile, working seamlessly across multiple devices. With 2TB of storage, I no longer have to think about space management. Whether it’s work files, media, or system backups, there’s room to spare. Most importantly, it’s been consistently reliable—no disconnects, no hiccups, just smooth performance every time. Overall, this is an outstanding external SSD and a fantastic value for the quality you get. If you’re looking for fast, dependable storage from a trusted brand, the Crucial X9 is an easy recommendation.

The first thing that caught my attention about this external SSD was its physical size. At 2.5” x 2”, this is easily the smallest SSD I have ever owned. It's just the right size to fit comfortably in your hand and slip into your bag or pocket without any fuss. I can now carry my essential data around without feeling like I'm lugging a brick, which is definitely a win in my book. But don't let its size fool you; it packs a lot of power into this small package. When paired with a high-performance PC, the manufacturer was able to achieve disk speeds of 1050 MB/s. On my mid-tier MacBook, I consistently achieved read and write speeds between 800-900 MB/s in my disk speed test program with the SSD formatted in exFAT, which was still very impressive. In a real-world test, I managed to transfer a hefty 50GB of ProTools sessions in just about 2 minutes. The matte black finish gives it a touch of sophistication without being overly flashy. One unexpected yet practical design feature is the lanyard hole, addressing the real risk of misplacing or dropping it due to its small size. As someone who misses the expandable microSD storage on my previous smartphone, the Crucial X9 provides a straightforward plug-and-play solution for transferring files and backing up my Android phone by directly connecting to its USB-C port. It's great to have a physical backup option instead of always having to rely on cloud-based solutions. In summary, the Crucial X9 2TB External USB-C SSD has made managing my digital life easier. Whether you're a tech enthusiast or just an average person looking for a reliable external drive, this fast, small, and user-friendly SSD is the way to go.

I received a GoPro as a gift last year and quickly realized I needed more storage. I thought I could just buy a big SD card to solve the problem, but I barely made it on a week-long off-roading trip this summer. I ended up deleting a few game files from my laptop, after filling up the card and my laptop's hard drive. The X9 is perfect for holding days of video files, slips right into my GoPro case, and file transfers are really quick (once you get them off the relatively slow SD card). --- Pros --- 1. Reliability. SSDs in general are very reliable. I have Crucial M2 SSDs installed in 2 of my computers. I also installed their RAM in my current desktop and have used it in the past on a few builds. I have never had an issue with any of their products and Crucial is a name I trust with my data. 2. Solid build. Crucial claims it can withstand drops from 6.5ft - after reading this in the specs I thought: Who would do this? Then the next day, I accidently knocked it off the counter which is about 4ft off the ground (there was no visible damage or loss of function). 3. Great read and write speeds with USB 3. Using CrystalDiskMark 8, I got 1040MB/s read and 990MB/s write with a peak temperature of 54C - using a 32GB test file. I also used it to transfer a few hundred GB of video files to and from my computer with sustained read speeds around 750MB/s and write speeds of 630MB/s with a peak temperature of 52C. The drive comes formatted as exFat, but Crucial recommends NTFS for max speed in their literature. While my results were slightly below the quoted max, they are close enough for me not to give up the added compatibility of exFat with all my devices. 4. Small and lite weight. I know Best Buy already has the specs there for you, but for comparison the X9 is significantly lighter and smaller than a pack of playing cards. Really impressive for me, because I have an old 2TB external drive that is the size of a book. - Good support. Crucial has a straightforward and useful support website with QR codes embedded in the packaging and links included on the drive. Crucial also offers the Crucial Storage Executive software, which can give drive health info and check for firmware updates. I normally use CrystalDiskInfo for monitoring drive stats, but I did download the Crucial software to check for firmware updates and had no issues. --- Things to Consider --- 1. The included cable is very short and USB-C. The USB 3 ports on my desktop computer are USB-A, so I had to use a different USB-C to USB-A type cable - the first one I tried caused extremely slow transfer rates, but I had no issues after swapping to a better-quality cable. If the included cable does not fit your needs, make sure you use a quality cable (or adapter) that is rated for USB 3.

I know external storages are getting smaller in size and bigger in capacity but what is this? This Crucial x9 is something I haven't seen before. I own a couple of external storage drives and I thought they were small but this Crucial x9 took it to a different level. The drive itself is so small that it fits in the palm of my hand and even in the smaller pocket of a jean. The small size is not the only advantage this storage drive has but also speed. When I connect the drive to my PC it literally opens up almost immediately. It is rated at a max reading speed of approximately 1050mbs. I can attest that using it with my gaming laptop that is equipped with USB-C 3.2 I was able to get an average of 600 to 750 MBS of writing speed. I was able to transfer game file of 86Gb in a stunning 2 minutes and 6 seconds. I actually used a timer to time the transfer. I ran a few tests using CrystalDiskMark both reading and writing were a little over the 1000mbs. Be mindful to get the full performance you have to format the drive to NTFS. From the factory this storage device is formatted differently. This drive is so versatile it can be connected to pretty much any device. I connected it to my computer, gaming consoles and even my phone and it worked. Overall this little storage device performs like a champ. It is extremely portable, and it writes and reads fast. It comes in various storage sizes from 1TB, 2TB and 4TB. I was definitely impressed with the performance and size. It is also rated dropped proof at approximately 6.5 feet high or 2 meters. A lanyard can be attached but it was not included. In the box you get the Crucial SSD, USB-C cable and manual.

The Crucial X9 External SSD is an excellent option for anyone looking for an external drive. This is a 2TB SSD with a USB-C connection. Crucial claims both read and write speeds of 1,050 MB/s. They also note that these speeds have many factors and were tested on a high performance desktop setup. So your mileage may vary depending on your setup. I have a decently spec'd gaming computer and I was able to get about 800 MB/s consistently while transferring about 90GB of video files. I tested both reading and writing from the drive and both got about the same results. Overall, it took about 2 minutes on average to complete the transfers. I was very pleased with these results. I tested on a couple of other systems and got mixed results. Sometimes the transfers would start fast enough but then slow down greatly. Sometimes I would only get about 375 MB/s. As stated before, I think these variances can be attributed to the different performance of the systems. Since I will mainly be using this to transfer video files to and from my desktop, I am very pleased with the performance and think it will work great. One other thing I will mention that kind of surprised me is the size of this drive. It literally fits in the palm of my hand, as you can see in my picture. This is my first external SSD, so I really wasn't sure what to expect in terms of physical size. Not sure I really needed it this small, but it's good to know for anyone that needs a small drive for portability. Overall, this is a great drive with great performance if you have a computer capable of taking advantage of it.

Obsessed is an understatement with this tiny little drive! I’ve gone through so many over the years (and spent way too much money doing it ), but this one is hands down my favorite. The upload speed is insanely fast, it holds a ton of files (which is a must as a wedding photographer), and it’s been such a game changer for my workflow. I easily go through 4–6 drives a year, so reliability matters big time and this one delivers every time. And the best part? I grabbed a magnetic holder so it sticks right to the back of my computer… no more clutter, no more losing it on my desk. Clean, simple, efficient just how I like it!

The Crucial - X9 2TB External SSD hard drive is lightning fast and incredibly small!!! I am blown away with the speed and stability of the Crucial hard drive. I have owned many different types of hard drives in the past from older powered hard disc drives which have failed and let me down in the past to much larger in size solid state drives, this Crucial - X9 2TB External Hard drive has quickly become my favorite extra storage device ever! My iMac had zero issues recognizing the drive, I reformatted the drive to APFS before using and it’s been working perfectly. I am primarily using the Crucial - X9 2TB drive to back up important files from my computer and to have access to these files on my other computers or iPads at home. I use my iMac’s thunderbolt port with the included cables to transfer files and have been quite impressed at how quickly any file copies over from the computer to the drive. I was able to copy 22GB of music files over to the drive in 29.12 seconds! The drive is so light and small which is great. The only ding I have is the supplied cable is very short, which might be annoying to some consumers. I definitely like the speed and reliability of the Crucial - X9 2TB External SSD hard drive and would recommend this to any friends and family looking for an extra hard drive.

I am absolutely thrilled to have this Crucial X9 external SSD from crucial as part of my technological arsenal! Not only is it a blazing fast device, but it is tough enough for travel and is a perfect bridge between my Windows Gaming PC and 2021 MacBook Pro 14 M1 (MBP) while formatted as an exFAT drive as it came from the factory! One of my idiosyncrasies as a tech nerd is that I am unable to fully commit to one major computer operating system over another. I have loved MacOS devices for all my college and daily usage needs, while also being unable to separate myself from the passion of PC gaming which is to this day, inarguably, still the best experience with highest performance on Windows computers. In the middle ground between these two areas of enjoyment, exists a no-man’s land where I find myself needing to bridge the gap: video editing. I like to record gaming clips on my Windows PC, but I would prefer to edit them on my MBP which I am far more familiar with. Enter the Crucial X9 2TB SSD. Here is a drive formatted from the factory as exFAT with the compatibility between both my devices that allows me to record clips and games from OBS on my Windows PC and simply plug right into the MBP and be able to pull those recordings speedily and easily off and edit them on iMovie (don’t judge me)! My 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Pro with its Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, loves this drive and the best speeds I get are in this modality. Out of the box, I speed tested this drive with the included USB-C to USB-C cable (very high-quality feeling by the way) and was immediately thrilled to see write speeds of over 1600MB/s and read speeds of almost 900MB/s. This is right in line with what I would expect to get on a drive with this connection profile and is acceptably close to the advertised 1050MB/s of this drive (especially when considering differences in computers done with testing, etc.). A 100MB/s here or there difference, all I can tell you is that this drive is plenty fast for my needs and the needs of more casual consumers in general! The good news too is that this drive is formatted correctly (exFAT file system) to be essentially universally plug and play for Mac, Windows, and console users! It also has compatibility for Android devices, so I would be interested to see if this could be used with direct connection to Android tables or phones! Just note that any slower-than-advertised speeds would reflect on your device and not this drive. My windows gaming PC has USB-C ports, but those ports do not have the latest USB-C thunderbolt 4 protocol. It is an older generation and thus my speeds on the drive read and write were no higher than 450 MB/s. This is still vastly sufficient for my needs of recording gaming footage from my Windows PC onto the device and then editing it on my Apple MacBook Pro with all of the great speed it has to offer through its connection! I was able to import a 68.74GB 2 hour and 8 minute 1440p 60FPS MP4 recording off of the Crucial X9 in one minute and 25 seconds onto the MBP! That is honestly so cool and significantly speeds up my hobby workflow! Now, for the drive itself. This drive is unapologetically a consumer computer accessory from 2023, meaning that it is small, tough, powerful, mercifully USB-C oriented, and does not break the bank. It is so small it is hard for my thirty-year-old brain to even wrap around how this can be an external drive compared to the good ol’ days! In one of my pictures, I have it sitting next to a 1TB HDD external hard drive from WD that is almost 10 years old and has served as my main backup drive for years. Now, that WD Passport is as much a dinosaur in sheer size as it is in its antiquated USB-A to USB-micro B 3.0/3.1 connector! The Crucial X9 is 2.5” long, 2inches tall, and only a hair over 1/4” thick. It is the first external drive I have ever owned that could actually fit in that weird little pocket in some jeans, you probably know the one I am talking about! In spite of its miniscule size, it is extremely tough and up to the rigors of even a 6.5 foot drop and extreme temperatures and shocks according to Crucial! Therefore, it could probably ride in your jeans pocket and still protect your precious data! (looking at you, SanDisk, cough cough). It also seems to not get too hot. I ran about 5 minutes of speed tests to stress it and it was only just barely warm to the touch. All in all, I think this drive offers exactly what it is advertised to do at the perfect size, price, speed, and connectivity method this day in age! The only end of the review advisement I think I would say is that the box should probably say more noticeably than the tiny font on the back of the box that it does not include a USB-A connection solution in the box. This is going to confuse and frustration people who may not be as caught up with the march of technology. Thanks for reading and I hope this review has been helpful!

This is a great buy for anybody looking to have a high performing, ultra fast, and extremely portable storage solution. Has enough space to be partitioned for multiple machines and operating systems. I completed a 400gb backup with this drive in under 30 minutes over thunderbolt 4. Definitely a great value when I purchased it at $109. Highly recommended!

I do a lot of GoPro videos and DSLR photos. This is now my go to drive. It is so tiny. Has a pretty solid build for being all plastic. I can transfer video to the drive very quickly. I used it on the top port of my NZXT H7 flow case. Not sure if that is the fastest usb-c port compared to the one on the motherboard. But it hit the advertised 1050 MB/s speed. I am not sure it has a dram cache or if it needs one as I never seemed to slow down the drive. I did some 4K apex legends captures and it transferred very fast to the little drive. I wonder if they could add a litte usb-c port cover to keep the pocket lint out the port when I put it in my pocket. Pros: Tiny Durable Fast transfer and write speeds Comes with usb-c cable Faster than any external drive I have Silent Drive Cons: The usb-c cable in the box is short I did feel if get a little warm after long transfers (not hot) Future Build: Would have been neat to have had a flip out usb-c male connection on the case to direct connect without having to bring along a cable.

The Crucial X9 2TB is an excellent portable ssd. Fast and very portable. The pictures of it don’t give you a real idea of just how small and lightweight this drive is. Easy to pop into a pocket and forget you even have it on you. Yet it still feels solid and durable. 2TB is a lot of memory for portable purposes. Can’t imagine needing more. Speed is what most will be concerned with and it’s plenty fast. I don’t doubt there are faster portable drives, but you will definitely pay dearly for them. The photos I’m attaching show it tested on two different computers. The slower speeds are from my desktop using a USB-C 3.1 slot. Fast for sure, but it gets faster. The faster numbers are from my laptop with Thunderbolt 4. Basically double the speed. Transferring large files of jpegs has been fast and smooth. I’m trying hard to find any negatives about this drive but I really can’t think of any. Maybe it would be nice to have an indicator light to show it’s running but honestly that’s nitpicking. Overall a top of the line portable drive.

This drive, although powerful and expansive, is alarmingly small. It can be easily slipped into a pocket, computer case, or attached to a bag via key-ring or carabiner. Moreover, the X9 comes in three different data sizes, 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB, so that even Goldilocks can find just the right data size while keeping the external case size the same. The read speeds are approximately 1050 MB/S utilizing a fresh formatted drive with NTFS on a reasonably fast PC. The write speeds appear to be similar, but are not officially stated depending where you look. The USB standard for this drive is the USB 3.2 Gen 2 which yields up to 10Gb/s (1,250 MB/s). It’s advised to use the 9” USB cable that came with the drive, as it is rated for this fast speed. The drive has a three-year warranty and weighs in at a mighty 32 grams. To get started with the drive, you can either use your camera to scan the QR code on the packaging, or if you’re using this drive on a laptop (more likely), go to Crucial's website for support for free data transfer software, an installation guide and optimization software and firmware. If using the QR code, one of the first stops is to register the product and then decide if you would like a free month of Adobe Acrobat Pro to try out. I downloaded and then installed the Storage Executive software (for 64 bit systems only) from Crucial to manage the drive and for updates. After plugging the drive into the USB-C port, it popped right up with four internet shortcuts on the drive that led to the Acronis site for backup and cloning software, the Mylio Photo Organizer (free for a month and then $9.95/month thereafter), an X9 support website, and some X9 icons which did not seem to work. The drive appears to come formatted as exFAT, but once you maybe copy the shortcuts to a safe place, you could probably format it to whatever your needs are. Crucial has mentioned that using NTFS might be the fastest, so consider it if speed is a driving factor. My use of this drive is to just store videos and pictures, so I do not really need to literally do anything else to use the drive. Take it right out of the box and plug it into the laptop port and into the drive with the included short cable and I’m done. I’m somewhat curious about the drive, so I have checked out the Crucial Storage Executive software that confirms that the latest firmware is already installed and that the drive is functioning correctly. I may do some overprovisioning of the drive later, if it will let me. For those needing to clone a drive or use a formal backup program like the Acronis, it has always been a good performer, so seeing that it is included here, although a version only working with Crucial drives, is a bonus. I would recommend installing it and using it for the functions mentioned earlier even if you may not need it immediately. In my use of the drive, it functioned perfectly and will be a great addition to a very portable system for video and photographic editing and especially archiving. However, keep in mind that although this diminutive drive is convenient for its large storage size, that much data could easily go missing due to the tiny size, so consider utilizing some form of encryption that may be determined by your operating system. Only a few minor issues that I wish were addressed, would be the inclusion of a lanyard of some type and perhaps a soft fabric pouch to store the drive and cable together. Otherwise, great job, love this drive.

Originally was looking for a New SSD to edit videos out of; I transferred some files over to work on it and the next day it was struggling to show up, then by the end of the week, didnt show anything at all anymore..