KingstonXS2000 4TB High Performance Portable SSD with USB-C | Pocket-Sized | USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 | External Solid State Drive | Up to 2000MB/s | SXS2000/4000G

Works like a champ! Faster and smaller than my small 4GB USB Hard Drive. It also runs cooler. I also don't have to worry about dropping or banging it against something that could cause damage to the platter since it is solid state. Contains storage as advertised.

I bought this about two years ago and saved data on it. Thankfully, I kept another copy, as one should always do. The drive failed literally the only time I needed the data. So why am I giving five stars? That would be because I contacted Kingston, explained the issue, and said, "WTF." They apologized and replaced what was then a 450-dollar drive with no further questions asked. My business requires lots of these portable drives, and this was a welcome surprise. What, I don't need to argue with a non-English speaker after 30 minutes of fighting a dumb bot? I wish I didn't have to pay for shipping and insurance, etc., and I have no relationship with Kingston, but seriously, this type of thing does happen, and my time is worth more than the drive, so I am pleased that they stood behind their drive and sent me a new one. Thanks Kingston.....I'll be buying more if the replacement lasts longer than the original :)

This drive has attractive features: small size, large storage sizes, fast speeds, and a recognizable brand. I used this 4TB drive, formatted as encrypted APFS, for about 4 and a half months without issue on a 2019 MacBook Pro.Soon after, my system occasionally began to hang, and I was unable to open a few files on the drive. I chalked it up to the need to restart or clear Mac OS's memory a bit, and this appeared to temporarily work.Over the next day, though, the drive began to disconnect itself during use. I ran Apple Disk Utility, which found no errors. APFS is not repair software-friendly yet, but there were no other indications that the drive was at fault, so I began to copy files to another disk for testing, and they did not appear corrupted. Then it would not stay mounted for more than 2 minutes and would disconnect, even when sitting idle. It was clear drive failure.I contacted Kingston and received friendly replies, but no real solutions. So now I'm left with an inability to recover a batch of files that had not yet had a chance to be backed up, and I will be required to ship the faulty drive back to receive a replacement... which I'm not sure I will trust. It appears to be a large waste of money in my experience, unfortunately.

Good piece of gear; reliable so far. Super fast on download and upload! Enjoyed it so far!

Small, sturdy, and very durable. My only drawback might be the high price.

Thanks

I like the fast speed, capacity and small size. It is now my #1 external drive for all my storage needs taken from many other older and smaller drives. Great product!

It's quite fast for the price (see screenshot - used without reformating on a Mac Studio)But.. It bricked within 6mo.I used it intermittently to pass large amounts of data between two machines and to access the data (read) while traveling.Overall, did not use it intensively.Drive failed while on the outbound flight of a 10d trip while attempting reading data... That was about 6mo after acquiring the drive.Never have I had an SSD drive fail on me. Note that this is not the result of SSD cell failure (there is a limit in write counts per cell on all SSDs much lower than regular HDDs) but presumably of Kingston's cheap electronic components for its SSD controller.For the experts: after bricking, the SSD is only recognized as a generic USB component, but my mbp/studio won't mount it (diskutil, smartctl etc won't mount it) no matter the cable and machine. This is indicative of the most likely cause being the SSD controller (transcribes USB instructions to NAND flash instructions) being dead. It's likely the NAND is still working and part of the USB controller is still working.It means the data on it is unrecoverable by any "standard" means.None the less, I would not recommend for any serious use.UPDATE: adding 2 stars after the manufacturer made good on the warranty (typically these devices come with a manufacturer warranty of 2 to 3 years, so nothing special, but sometimes it's a bit of maze). It wasn't too hard to submit the request for replacement. I had to send the bricked device back. Sending costs were on me (I think ~30 USD, could have been 20 or so but I requested a signed receipt). Overall it took just about 1mo from emailing their customer support, to getting pointed to site to do so (1 day) to sending it (I did take a week before going to the local Fedex) and receiving back the new drive.I am not going to set it to 5 stars as an HDD that fails that easily and loses your data is not worth your time in general.The main use case for this device is to physically carry data between computers, or for a short trip (though I got bit once)Much recommend instead the U34 BOLT instead. Absolute beast. 2x faster in write, 3x faster in read. A notch larger but still barely larger than a credit card. A bit thicker but still pocket-sized. And WAY more robust it seems.