Seagate - DJI Fly Drive 2TB External USB Type-C Portable Hard Drive - Gray

Was in the market for a 2-3 TB portable, small form factor HDD. Saw this on the Daily Deal. Read the specs, understood the specs, pulled the trigger. READ THIS PARAGRAPH. Read and understand the specs. This is your due diligence. This product is marketed as having a very limited compatibility and scope of use. It clearly states that this will only work with latest-gen computers that have a built-in USB-C connection and Windows 10. It clearly states that you must use a laptop, and this will not work on its own to transfer from the memory card slot to the HDD. There is no mention that this will work with USB A to C cables, as a stand-alone device, Android compatibility, older windows compatibility, Mac compatibility, and so on. Understand these limitations before buying this product. Having said that, I am happy to report this works with my Dell laptop that has Windows 10 and a USB 3.0 C port built in flawlessly with the included cable. It also works with a USB A to C cable when plugged into a USB 3.0 A port of any of my Windows 10 computers flawlessly. It also works with the included USB C to C cable with my Samsung Note 8 which has a USB 3.0 C port, though with a limitation (more below). The drive itself is pretty ordinary, aside from having a UHS-II capable memory card slot. It is significant to note that this is not a run-of-the-mill memory card slot. It is the high speed version, that is not included in most latops/desktops. Those usually get the slow speed version. The drive itself is nothing special. 5400RPM, and 2TB is nothing to write home about. Yeah, having a full sized memory card slot would offer more flexibility, but I understand the need for compact form factor. I would not have bought this if the case were larger, so Im glad they didnt go with the full size memory card slot to keep it small. For my laptop with Windows 10 and a built in USB 3.0 C port, the product works well beyond my expectations. You can access both the drive and the memory slot at the same time and transfer directly. As for transfer speeds, when going to/from the memory card you are limited by the memory card. With my Sandisk Extreme Plus, that means 90MB/s reads and 70MB/s writes. Excellent! When going from the drive to the laptops drive (a high performance SSD in my case), I am getting 120MB/s sustained writes to the external, and 400MB/s plus sustained reads from the external on large videos. A 3.5GB video took 5 seconds to transfer, which is god-like for a plug in external drive. Its hard to gauge speeds when using the Note 8, but I found the transfers with that device to be pretty fast as well. We are talking a few seconds to transfer 1 GB videos. Its pretty fast. The limitation on the Android side is that while you can access both the external drive and the memory card slot at the same time, you cannot transfer between them directly. You have to go SD to Android memory and then to external HDD, or back the other way. Small files are ok, but large files encounter a problem. I suspect its because the Note 8 cannot deliver enough power to keep this going. On large transfers it starts ok but the drive powers down after about 4-5 seconds. Works fine if you transfer to the Note 8 memory first and then back to wherever. Its an extra step, but manageable. Overall, this product is fantastic if you understand what you are buying. This is not meant for older computers or other old tech. Not sure if it works with Mac, as I dont have one. It 100% works with my newer Dell laptop with built in USB 3.0 C port and the USB 3.0 A port (and third party cable) on any computer with a USB 3.0 A port and Windows 10. It works with my Note 8, which is a huge bonus. I dont mind bringing the laptop with me as its nice to preview field videos and photos with it anyway, but knowing I can also do the transfers with just phone is game changing. My phone is coming with me no matter what, so its nothing extra to bring. Alternatively, you can buy a stand alone device that can transfer from SD to external drive on its own. They cost $350 plus, have limited battery life, are bulky, crappy interface, and seem to be mired with problems. Good luck!

I originally went to purchase one 2 Terabyte Drive to put on my external docking station but this piece was the deal of the day :) Although it does use USB type C for the Drive it'll still run fine with Type A plug to the Puter. I also hooked it with Type C on both ends using USB 3.1 2nd gen and saw no change in speed as compared to USB 3.0. I will put up some test charts , keep in mind the the Fly Drive is all but 50gig full already!

I needed a hard drive solution that I could take out into the field to copy my camera video to without lugging around my computer. I thought this DJI Fly drive would do exactly that. But it does not. This drive still requires you to connect it to a computer to copy files from the Micro SD card. This drive is just an external hard drive with a Micro SD card reader built in. This drive does not have a battery to allow it to function by itself in the field. I should have done better research. I like the USB-C connection. This drive is fairly fast at 123 MBs read and write, which is about 25-30 MBs faster than another external drive that only uses USB 3.0. All in all, it is a good external drive to connect to a newer computer that has the USB-C/Thunderbolt connection. You will still have to lug your computer with you however if you want to copy files from your camera to this drive. The tag line... "Back up your drone footage before you even leave the site with the Seagate DJI Fly Drive" is a little misleading. You can do the same thing with a Micro SD card reader attached to your computer.

Overall great product to use. I love the feature of USB-C cord and also the ability to easily store my cord with the drive. Another feature I really like is the ability to put the micro sd card right into the drive.

I use this drive as a backup device for a laptop that is used for video and photo rendering. My laptop has a USB 3.1 type C port. There is a noticeable improvement in backup speed with this drive compared to a USB 2.0 drive. Also like the ability to store the cable in the drive protector jacket.

Standard but great little hard drive. Micro SD card reader is a convenient add the rubber bumper makes it nice to hold the cable. Didn’t cost anything more than a standard 2tb drive so all the extras were a bonus. The rubber bumper is removable so it can be used as your standard drive if you want the more compact size.

Great hd. It has a micro sd slot so not need to carry a reader or extra card. I use it with my mavic and gopro cards. Works great. Also the price is good for 2 tb of storage.

One of the best features is that you can put your Micro SD card directly into the device to download content. This also lets you review your content before choosing to save it. You don't have to move any of these files to your computer first. The only down side was that the cable provided was not compatible with the MacBook Air. You should review this when purchasing the device.