Something is disappointing with this product. (The actual speed vs claimed speed). I bought the Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 4 TB (CHF499) for my iMac Pro. The SSD claims a read/write speed of 2000MB/s, which is around double the claimed speed for the previous Extreme Pro Portable SSD (not V2). However when I plug it in to the back of my iMac Pro (Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port to USB C on the SanDisk), the maximum speed I can get is 971MB/s write and 952.5 MB/s read. This compares to the speeds from the very similar Samsung X5 SSD which reports 1962 MB/s Write and 2498 MB/s Read, when using the same cable and the same Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port on my iMac Pro. The Thunderbolt port can handle 40MB/s. so its not a failing of my hardware and the higher speeds on the ... MoreSomething is disappointing with this product. (The actual speed vs claimed speed). I bought the Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 4 TB (CHF499) for my iMac Pro. The SSD claims a read/write speed of 2000MB/s, which is around double the claimed speed for the previous Extreme Pro Portable SSD (not V2). However when I plug it in to the back of my iMac Pro (Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port to USB C on the SanDisk), the maximum speed I can get is 971MB/s write and 952.5 MB/s read. This compares to the speeds from the very similar Samsung X5 SSD which reports 1962 MB/s Write and 2498 MB/s Read, when using the same cable and the same Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port on my iMac Pro. The Thunderbolt port can handle 40MB/s. so its not a failing of my hardware and the higher speeds on the Samsung x5 prove that. I googled and found the answer in a review. Here is an edited extract: "Here is something important the consumers should be aware of before buying the newer Extreme PRO Portable SSD V2. This portable SSD doesn’t use Thunderbolt technology. Instead, it uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface that is capable of up to 20Gbps of transfer speed. There's not a lot of motherboards PC (desktop/laptop) that have a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface. As far as I know, only the new motherboards based on the (also new) Intel 500 series chipset natively supports USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface. So, for older systems, you will have to use a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 add-in-card like the SilverStone ECU06". Simply put, The SanDisk isn't going to work at the full speed with your 40MS/s Thunderbolt (USB-C) port. It will run only at the USB-C speed depending on which generation it is. Most people do not have a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port. For example, the Thunderbolt (USB-C) port on the iMac Pro is compatible with USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s). Most people will only have a USB-A (USB 3.0 maximum speed 5 Gbits/s), so if you plug it into one of those ports you will see a speed of only around 450 MB/s. So the message here is that this drive is deficient because it does NOT support Thunderbolt. You are unlikely to have the latest USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 on your computer, meaning that you will see speeds of less than 1000 MB/s on the new computer models and less than 500 MB/s on older models. It's not worth paying the CHF 100 extra to get the v2 of this drive unless you really know your USB port can handle 2000 MB/s speeds.

A Fine Drive -- Confusion about Speed

I've been using Samsung T5s and T7s, but I wanted to get a larger drive to hold photos and Lightroom Catalogs. I have a Mac Studio with TB 3/TB 4 usb 3 ports. When I got the drive I reformatted it with Apple's latest filing system. It works well -- stays connected and after transferring lots of data to the drive, mine did not get hot as many have reported.I assumed that with the Mac Studio, I would get approximately 2,000 MB/s read and write speeds. I'd read lots of reviews, but I did not fully understand the situation. In fact, this drive reads and writes at around 900+ MB/s using Blackmagic disk speed test. After playing with cables, I sent a query to SanDisk, and, amazingly, after a couple of days I got a long reply. Their contention is that you need a USB 3.2 ... MoreI've been using Samsung T5s and T7s, but I wanted to get a larger drive to hold photos and Lightroom Catalogs. I have a Mac Studio with TB 3/TB 4 usb 3 ports. When I got the drive I reformatted it with Apple's latest filing system. It works well -- stays connected and after transferring lots of data to the drive, mine did not get hot as many have reported.I assumed that with the Mac Studio, I would get approximately 2,000 MB/s read and write speeds. I'd read lots of reviews, but I did not fully understand the situation. In fact, this drive reads and writes at around 900+ MB/s using Blackmagic disk speed test. After playing with cables, I sent a query to SanDisk, and, amazingly, after a couple of days I got a long reply. Their contention is that you need a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C connection. I'd assumed that my Mac's TB 4 port would be downwardly compatible with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C. This is an incorrect assumption! Unless you are using a computer that has exactly the 3.2 Gen 2x2 port, your drive will revert to a max of 1,000 MB/s. Forget trying a thunderbolt cable -- you need to have exactly the right port, and based on lots of B&H reviews, new Mac Studios and MacBook Pros don't have the correct port.The good news: on my Mac, the 4TB Extreme Pro is around 50% faster than a Sandisk 2TB T7. And, at least for now, the B&H prices on the Extreme and Extreme Pro are almost identical. Perhaps we'll get lucky, and Apple will start supporting USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C. The descriptions of the drive state that you need a particular flavor of port -- I wish someone had been more explicit about the fact that very few computers actually support this standard. But I remain pleased with the drive.

Big Plans, Horrible Performance

I bought this SSD to do large, fast transfers from an aging iMac to a brand new MacBook Pro. However, the 2021 MBP wasn't to have the same drive-space, so this was going to be a long-term, off-site, secure storage. Notice, I mentioned "Secure." A coupe things really turned me off quickly: 1) The Password protection app did nothing. Literally, I tried installing it and it loaded into the Applications folder, but nothing happens when clicked...ever. Additionally, I might add, there are no instructions with this SSD. No hints on how best to format the drive, what to do with the Password software, etc. Nothing...no support. 2) I don't know how an SSD became so fragile, but, nearly everything I saved to this SSD just disappeared! Spend hours going from an spinning HDD to ... MoreI bought this SSD to do large, fast transfers from an aging iMac to a brand new MacBook Pro. However, the 2021 MBP wasn't to have the same drive-space, so this was going to be a long-term, off-site, secure storage. Notice, I mentioned "Secure." A coupe things really turned me off quickly: 1) The Password protection app did nothing. Literally, I tried installing it and it loaded into the Applications folder, but nothing happens when clicked...ever. Additionally, I might add, there are no instructions with this SSD. No hints on how best to format the drive, what to do with the Password software, etc. Nothing...no support. 2) I don't know how an SSD became so fragile, but, nearly everything I saved to this SSD just disappeared! Spend hours going from an spinning HDD to this SSD with the intent of quick transfer to the MBP...nada. I would see the folders and files once. Then I would start a transfer back from the SSD to the MBP and I think I may've had one folder finally transfer. The majority of the time the Folders and files were there, then later, without disconnecting the SSD, they would disappear...just disappear. GOne, hours of transfer time, gone...Between work and this hobby of moving my entire life from one computer to another, I have wasted nearly 2 weeks hoping another Formatting would do the trick. Try again...partial transfer...blank drive! I really feel like I've been taken at the cost of this mini-brick. Don't buy. I was worried about the reviews I had read, but how could an SSD be this big of a problem...its all Solid State...It's now much better as a door stop than a storage device.

Buyers be aware: Very slow and Misleading Disk Speed

BIG Let down is: It says this disk is Up to 2000 MB/s Read & Write Speeds, yup I know it's UP to, but this was way slower than the expectation. I ran multiple tests and disk formats, via USB-C and thunderbolt 3 ports, never exceeded 1000mb/s, best result is hanging around 900 mb/s MAX.I brought this external SSD for video editing and reviewing, clearly cannot handle 4K 50p or more. I bought the 4TB version of this PRO SSD v2, and the funny thing is that this is supposed to be better than the SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD V2, which is labeled as Up to 1050 mb/s and $200 less. I simply can't understand why this PRO version cannot go beyond 900 mb/s but still cost $200 more than the standard version, especially since the standard version is labeled for1050 mb/s?? ... MoreBIG Let down is: It says this disk is Up to 2000 MB/s Read & Write Speeds, yup I know it's UP to, but this was way slower than the expectation. I ran multiple tests and disk formats, via USB-C and thunderbolt 3 ports, never exceeded 1000mb/s, best result is hanging around 900 mb/s MAX.I brought this external SSD for video editing and reviewing, clearly cannot handle 4K 50p or more. I bought the 4TB version of this PRO SSD v2, and the funny thing is that this is supposed to be better than the SanDisk 4TB Extreme Portable SSD V2, which is labeled as Up to 1050 mb/s and $200 less. I simply can't understand why this PRO version cannot go beyond 900 mb/s but still cost $200 more than the standard version, especially since the standard version is labeled for1050 mb/s?? I can't say that the standard version is maybe also fake labeled(?) but I don't feel like I want to make another purchase to just test it.My bottom line is, if you're looking for a faster SSD for your video editing over mac, maybe better off looking somewhere else. if the Blackmagic disk test does not approve it, you should avoid it. I end up ordering the SanDisk Professional 2TB G-DRIVE PRO SSD Thunderbolt 3 External SSD instead right away after the testing. I know it's still from SanDisk and 2TB less with the same price point, but I would like to try once more since I trust the name of G-DRIVE from my previous experience. I'll run parallel tests for both before I return this one and we will see...

No Mac has the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 to get the 2000Mb/s

Beware! To get the 2000MB/s Extreme Pro speed needs USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, no M1 Mac has this. After much testing with an Agent from Western Digital, who own SanDisk, reformatting several times - which does make a significant difference to speeds, the best I could get on either an HP ZBook with thunderbolt 3 (so capable of 5000MB/s) or on a M1 Max MacBook Pro with its USB4, (also 5000MB/s) was around 950MB/s. Even the WD agent did not know that this drive needs a machine with a very rare USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 to get anywhere near the 20000MB/s speeds (not just USBC, but this specific variant of it). No Mac M1 or Intel, has this connector. Ironically, SanDisk uses an image of a MacBook Pro in their marketing shots, as shown on this website. I don't think I can include a link ... MoreBeware! To get the 2000MB/s Extreme Pro speed needs USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, no M1 Mac has this. After much testing with an Agent from Western Digital, who own SanDisk, reformatting several times - which does make a significant difference to speeds, the best I could get on either an HP ZBook with thunderbolt 3 (so capable of 5000MB/s) or on a M1 Max MacBook Pro with its USB4, (also 5000MB/s) was around 950MB/s. Even the WD agent did not know that this drive needs a machine with a very rare USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 to get anywhere near the 20000MB/s speeds (not just USBC, but this specific variant of it). No Mac M1 or Intel, has this connector. Ironically, SanDisk uses an image of a MacBook Pro in their marketing shots, as shown on this website. I don't think I can include a link here, but there is a good article on Premiumbeat called Pushing Today’s Speed Limits: SanDisk’s Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2, which explains in full. A very well-made little drive, but what a shame it's not Thunderbolt 3 or 4 (also in USBC format). If you have a Mac, learn from my expensive mistake, save yourself some money and go for the Extreme, not Extreme Pro. You will get the same performance. Or search for a thunderbolt drive that can give the 2000MB/s speeds and more. There are also a review on here from people with Mac Studio with response from Will at WD suggesting he tests the cables etc. That might change something, but his Mac just doesn't have a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, nor does any Mac ever built as far as I'm aware, so he will only ever get half the claimed 2000Mb/s whatever cable he uses, so poor advice from WD there too.

Optimistic - Still working for me

After reading the bad reviews and good reviews, I was worried about "buying a ticket on the titanic" or being pleasantly surprised. I work entirely on PC's and it has worked very well for me. I am currently filming a documentary and was using the 4TB for footage archiving between shoots and locations. LA to NY. And yes, we are also using Frame.io as a back up but its extremely slow.We have formatted the Extreme Pro's to exFAT for mac and pc users. PC uploading and downloading worked very well... but one of our editors lost an entire 4TB trying to upload onto a Mac M1... it seems there is a trend here, however, I have noticed that after ejecting the drive, it gets extremely hot if you drop a lot of data all at once. Again, I have not had a failure on my end but ... MoreAfter reading the bad reviews and good reviews, I was worried about "buying a ticket on the titanic" or being pleasantly surprised. I work entirely on PC's and it has worked very well for me. I am currently filming a documentary and was using the 4TB for footage archiving between shoots and locations. LA to NY. And yes, we are also using Frame.io as a back up but its extremely slow.We have formatted the Extreme Pro's to exFAT for mac and pc users. PC uploading and downloading worked very well... but one of our editors lost an entire 4TB trying to upload onto a Mac M1... it seems there is a trend here, however, I have noticed that after ejecting the drive, it gets extremely hot if you drop a lot of data all at once. Again, I have not had a failure on my end but others using the same drive did after I mailed it to them. Hope this helps anyone looking to buy. It's definitely not the most comforting thing to think about will working so that's my 4/5 star rating/rant. Good luck everyone. Thanks Sandisk, I look forward to a better product that I'm sure you are already working on.

Slow R/W even with Thunderbolt 3, crashed after 1 week

I've used this with a 2022 Macbook Air M2 and 2019 MBP i9 for the last week. I got this disk to have faster R/W speeds than my Samsung T7s. The claimed R/W speeds on the M2 Air was to my surprise as low as 950/911 mb/s with the supplied cable, even with 40GB Thunderbolt 3 as referred to in the top critical review. The R/W are identical on the M2 and the Intel MBP, and identical with APFS and ExFAT file systems. That is a bummer. Anyway, onto my biggest issue. The disk was used for assembling time lapses and drone shots on set (Air) and then offloaded in the office (MBP). So a lot of files, but less than 2 TB for the week. On the last day of the week the disk was mounted in the intel MBP and I was going to copy some more files to it before doing a clone backup with ... MoreI've used this with a 2022 Macbook Air M2 and 2019 MBP i9 for the last week. I got this disk to have faster R/W speeds than my Samsung T7s. The claimed R/W speeds on the M2 Air was to my surprise as low as 950/911 mb/s with the supplied cable, even with 40GB Thunderbolt 3 as referred to in the top critical review. The R/W are identical on the M2 and the Intel MBP, and identical with APFS and ExFAT file systems. That is a bummer. Anyway, onto my biggest issue. The disk was used for assembling time lapses and drone shots on set (Air) and then offloaded in the office (MBP). So a lot of files, but less than 2 TB for the week. On the last day of the week the disk was mounted in the intel MBP and I was going to copy some more files to it before doing a clone backup with Sync Folders Pro. I got error codes in Finder (-36) that some information could not be read or written. I unmounted it, and tried to re-connect it. It shows up in Disk Utility, First Aid completes like it should, but the disk does not mount on the 2019 MBP, the 2022 M2 Air, a 2021 M1 Air on an older MacOS (the two first is 13.2, M1 Air is 13.0) File system on the disk was APFS. I tried a number of online advices like First Aid, deleting old time machine copies (this disk was not used for this), mounting to older versions of the OS, killing fsck on Activity Monitor, running /sbin/fsck -fy from Terminal - all to no avail. This may very well be a MacOS bug, but this has never happened to any of my Samsung T7s during the last 2 years of intensive, similar use. So the obvious variable left is the Sandisk Extreme. The disk was mounted on Thursday, critical files were backed up like normally, and then Friday afternoon the disk and its content was simply inaccessible. It was connected to the intel MBP the whole time. I will not trust this disk for any important footage from now on and frankly with its dissappointing R/W speeds with the M2 it has lost its intended purpose. If this had happened one day earlier all my work from that day would have been gone. I could have put time lapses together again from the camera cards of course, but it would have caused me 8h of extra work. I did a full scan with my Nexto Di device after the eventual format (image) and it does not seem to be anything wrong with the storage modules itself. Don't know what went wrong here but this disk failed when the Samsung T7s did not.

Unable to reach advertised speeds on 2021 MacBook Pro (M1 Max)

If you are hoping to reach advertised speeds of 2000 MB/s on your Mac using a USB device, think again. It's not possible.This drive is capable of 2000 MB/s, but your computer must support dual-lane USB 3.2 Gen 2X2, essentially using both lanes of USB-C connectors to deliver speeds up to 20Gbps (or 2.5GB/s). Mac products do not support the new USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard. They only support USB 3.2 gen 2, which is one lane at 10Gbps (or 1.25GB/s).Unfortunately, SanDisk Extreme PRO uses USB and not Thunderbolt. So if you have an Apple/Mac machine, the transfer speed of the SanDisk Extreme PRO will max out at 10 Gbit/s which is exactly the same as the cheaper SanDisk Extreme.Another thing to keep in mind: If you use disk encryption, expect the transfer speeds to drop ... MoreIf you are hoping to reach advertised speeds of 2000 MB/s on your Mac using a USB device, think again. It's not possible.This drive is capable of 2000 MB/s, but your computer must support dual-lane USB 3.2 Gen 2X2, essentially using both lanes of USB-C connectors to deliver speeds up to 20Gbps (or 2.5GB/s). Mac products do not support the new USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard. They only support USB 3.2 gen 2, which is one lane at 10Gbps (or 1.25GB/s).Unfortunately, SanDisk Extreme PRO uses USB and not Thunderbolt. So if you have an Apple/Mac machine, the transfer speed of the SanDisk Extreme PRO will max out at 10 Gbit/s which is exactly the same as the cheaper SanDisk Extreme.Another thing to keep in mind: If you use disk encryption, expect the transfer speeds to drop about 20%.For example, using AmorphousDiskMark with the disk unencrypted, I get the following speeds:Read: ~1026 MB/sWrite: ~1020 MB/sWith the disk encrypted (APFS Encrypted) I get the following speeds:Read: ~870 MB/sWrite: ~880 MB/s

Works great, but 99% of people will only get half speed

The drive works great, but 99% of people don't have a computer with a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port (not the same as USB 3.2 Gen 2) and would be better off getting the *non-PRO* Extreme SSD V2 and not this Extreme PRO V2. I'll explain with some bullet points.- At some point they changed the names of the USB standards: USB 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 are now known as (respectively) 3.2 Gen 1, 3.2 Gen 2, and 3.2 Gen 2x2 (extremely confusing).- USB 3.2 Gen 1 has a maximum of 5Gbps- USB 3.2 Gen 2 (what the *non-PRO* Extreme SSD V2 uses) has a maximum of 10Gbps- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (what this Extreme PRO SSD V2 uses) has a maximum of 20 Gbps.- USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 (the ports on new MacBook Pros) have a maximum of 40Gbps, but they're not backwards compatible with 3.2 Gen 2x2, ... MoreThe drive works great, but 99% of people don't have a computer with a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port (not the same as USB 3.2 Gen 2) and would be better off getting the *non-PRO* Extreme SSD V2 and not this Extreme PRO V2. I'll explain with some bullet points.- At some point they changed the names of the USB standards: USB 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 are now known as (respectively) 3.2 Gen 1, 3.2 Gen 2, and 3.2 Gen 2x2 (extremely confusing).- USB 3.2 Gen 1 has a maximum of 5Gbps- USB 3.2 Gen 2 (what the *non-PRO* Extreme SSD V2 uses) has a maximum of 10Gbps- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (what this Extreme PRO SSD V2 uses) has a maximum of 20 Gbps.- USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 (the ports on new MacBook Pros) have a maximum of 40Gbps, but they're not backwards compatible with 3.2 Gen 2x2, meaning that if you plug this drive into a USB4 port you'll only get 3.2 Gen 2 speeds of 10Gbps.- The *non-PRO* version of this drive has USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds of 10Gbps and costs a lot less than this Extreme PRO.- No laptops that I'm aware of have USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, and most desktops don't have it. Most likely if you want 3.2 Gen 2x2 speeds you have to buy a one-port USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 PCIe card for around $50 (which is what I did).- Because most upcoming devices will likely have USB4 and *not* 3.2 Gen 2x2, it basically makes no sense to get this drive vs the non-PRO version (unless they're the same price).So, unless you're one of the extreme few that already have USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 or you want to buy a $50 PCIe card for your desktop, you'll almost certainly be better off with the *non-PRO* Extreme SSD V2 and saving a couple hundred dollars.If you *do* have 3.2 Gen 2x2 (again, not the same as 3.2 Gen 2!), then this drive works very well! I get great speeds with my $50 Gen 2x2 PCIe card (~1800MB/s--yes megabytes not megabits) and have had no issues so far.

thank god I shot on film

Just got this drive a couple weeks ago to use as the main drive for storing / editing everything related to my thesis film. Formatted the drive, put a couple audio files on it, and sent it to Kodak Film Lab NY. Fast forward to today, I get my negatives back and the prores 4444 file of my 16mm scans. Watched it over once from the drive, put it into adobe premiere pro 2022, put on an adjustment layer with a basic curve to add some contrast so I wouldn't just be watching a flat scan. Closed all the programs and ejected the drive, yes I ejected it. Flash forward a couple hours, I'm all giddy about getting to see my thesis film scans that I spent all spring break filming, but it's not there. The file was gone, I didn't delete it, I didn't rip the drive out my computer, ... MoreJust got this drive a couple weeks ago to use as the main drive for storing / editing everything related to my thesis film. Formatted the drive, put a couple audio files on it, and sent it to Kodak Film Lab NY. Fast forward to today, I get my negatives back and the prores 4444 file of my 16mm scans. Watched it over once from the drive, put it into adobe premiere pro 2022, put on an adjustment layer with a basic curve to add some contrast so I wouldn't just be watching a flat scan. Closed all the programs and ejected the drive, yes I ejected it. Flash forward a couple hours, I'm all giddy about getting to see my thesis film scans that I spent all spring break filming, but it's not there. The file was gone, I didn't delete it, I didn't rip the drive out my computer, it just disappeared. I ejected it, plugged it in again, tried other computers, still gone. I downloaded a utility to recover files and it found it, but I still had no way to access or recover it.Luckily, Kodak Film Lab NY had a copy and the lab manager (big shoutout to Tony Landano) told me he could upload it to google drive and not to worry. If it weren't for him and the lab, and the fact that I have a physical celluloid copy of my film, I'd be totally screwed.Do yourself a favor and do not buy this SSD.