13 Safe and Sound Storage Devices

March 30, 2016

By Greg Scoblete

Whether you’re in the studio or on location, these storage devices will keep your digital files secure and your workflow rolling.

G-Technology Studio XL
The Studio XL makes room for a total of eight removable, enterprise-class 7,200 RPM hard drives. Storage tops out at 64TB and you’ll enjoy several RAID modes, including 0, 1, 5, 10, 50, 60 and JBOD (for Just a Bunch of Disks). Like other products in the Studio line, the G-Speed Studio XL can be daisy-chained via dual Thunderbolt 2 ports to boost speed and capacity. Its Thunderbolt 2 port and RAID modes ensure you’ll have plenty of speed to edit 4K video and speedily cut through RAW photo editing.
Prices: $3,000- $7,000

Drobo B810n
For serious storage needs, Drobo’s 64TB B810n not only delivers the capacity for large amounts of RAW photos and 4K videos, but the speed as well. Using a process dubbed tiering, it’s able to intelligently allocate file storage based on how frequently you access files so that frequently used files are quicker at hand. You’ll enjoy the maximum speed bump when you mix SSD and HDD drives in the unit’s eight drive bays.
Price: $1,599 (no drives)

Angelbird SSD2go Pocket
Slim and trim, the Angelbird SSD2go portable drive connects to your PC via USB 3.0 to deliver sustained transfer speeds up to 450 MB/s. This drive ships with a nice assortment of software, too, including a full version of Bitwig audio software and a time-limited version of Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac. It’s available in a wide assortment of colors, including silver, black, blue, red, gold and purple. Now all you need is a laptop that matches.
Prices: $209 (256GB), $349 (512GB)

LaCie Chrome
The eye-catching Chrome features a pair of 500GB SSD drives configured in RAID 0. Together, the drives and USB-C Gen 2 connection can deliver transfer speeds up to 940MB/s or, as LaCie put it, the ability to ingest two hours of 4K GoPro footage in just over a minute. To take advantage of this speed, though, you’ll need a computer that supports USB-C. If you don’t, you can still connect the Chrome via its USB 3.0 Type A adapter.
Price: $1,000

Toshiba Canvio Premium
Like many new storage devices, the Canvio Premium is compatible with both USB 3.0/Type A ports and, via an included adapter, the new USB Type-C port. Consider yourself future proofed. The drive is both Mac and PC compatible and ships with password software to keep your files secure. It also includes NTI Backup Now EZ for archiving.
Prices: $85 (1TB), $130 (2TB), 3tb ($160) 

WD My Book Pro
The My Book Pro can accept up to 12TB worth of speedy 7200 RPM WD hard discs. Thanks to its hardware RAID options and pair of Thunderbolt 2 connections, the My Book Pro can keep a Mac user’s 4K editing and RAW photo workflow humming. A pair of front-access USB ports are on hand for charging your phone or tablet. While it’s formatted out of the box for Macs, you can reformat for PCs and use the rear USB 3.0 port to connect to your computer.
Prices: $599$899 (6TB-12TB)

SanDisk Extreme 510 
The Extreme 510 is the portable drive you want by your side for destination weddings or if you just happen to be spectacularly clumsy. Its 480GB SSD is sheathed in a splash- and dust-proof housing. Its rubber bumper protects it from falls as high as 5.9 feet. You’ll enjoy transfer speeds up to 430MB/s as well as SanDisk’s SecureAccess encryption software. The Extreme 510 connects and draws power via USB 3.0.
Price: $265

Samsung T3
There’s portable storage, then there’s the Samsung T3 drive, which is easily the tiniest SSD we’ve ever laid eyes on. Available in capacities ranging from 250GB to 2TB, the petite drive is smaller than an average business card, albeit thicker. It will offer transfer speeds of 450MB/s and is housed in a shock-resistant metal casing capable of surviving a 6-foot drop. It connects via USB Type-C and offers AES 256-bit hardware encryption.
Price: $398 (1TB)

Data Locker DL3 FE
If you’re serious (read: paranoid) about the security of your digital files when you’re on the road (or huddled in your panic room), the Data Locker should ease your anxieties. The SSD drive uses very sophisticated encryption that ensures that each bit of data is encrypted twice. You can password-protect the drive using the keypad on the exterior, set it to self-destruct (virtually) if someone attempts to enter too many passwords, and set different permissions for drive access so that, say, an assistant may only view files, not write them. If this isn’t making you sleep any easier, you can pay an extra $50 to set up two-factor authentication using RFID.
Prices: $450 (1TB)

iOSafe 1515+
Drives are meant to keep files secure from virtual calamities, but it’s the rare product that can defend files from fire and floods. The ioSafe 1515+ is that product. It’s a drive system enclosed in a fire- and water-resistant housing that can withstand 1,550-degree Farenheit temperatures for up to 30 minutes and can be submerged in up to 10 feet of water, including salt water, for up to 72 hours. Beyond its bombproof exterior, this NAS drive has five drive bays with hot-swapping capability, USB 3.0 connectivity, four Ethernet ports and user-upgradeable RAM to improve encrypting speeds. The 1515+ offers a capacity range from 5 to 30TB. The N513X expansion unit will give you a total capacity of 90TB for your digital archiving.
Prices: start at $1,899

TarDisk Pear
We first spotted the TarDisk Pear at CES earlier this year and were struck by how ingenious it was. It’s not like the rest of the drives in our roundup. It’s built to double the available hard drive space on a MacBook (Air and Pro). You simply slip the Pear into your MacBook’s SD card slot, let it configure itself, and voila, more space! You will permanently lose access to your SD card slot, so you’ll need a USB card reader for image transfers, but you will gain a lot more storage. The Pear intelligently allocates your extra storage, too, so that frequently accessed files load faster than less frequently accessed items. It also preserves Time Machine backups to protect your data no matter where it’s stored.
Prices: $148 (128GB), $399 (256GB)

Lexar Workflow SSD
The latest addition to the Workflow family are a pair of portable SSDs. Available in 256GB and 512GB capacities, the drives feature an LED capacity meter to view available storage space. When you’re done filling the drives up on the road, you can pop them into the HR2 to offload your files. The HR2 is a compact storage hub that blends memory card readers with storage drives to streamline image transfers and archiving. It sports four bays that you can load with storage drives (256GB or 512GB capacities are currently available) and/or card reader modules, in any combination you wish. The HR2 features a pair of Thunderbolt 2 ports and a USB 3.0 connection.
Prices: $362 (workflow only), $78 (256GB SSD), $170 (512GB SSD)

NETGEAR ReadyNAS
NETGEAR’s ReadyNAS keeps your stills and video secure in either a 2- or 4-drive RAID array and accessible from any Internet-connected device via Ethernet and wireless networking. Both the two bay (RN212) and four bay (RN214) offer read speeds of up to 200MB/s and write speeds of up to 160MB/s, depending on your RAID configuration. Using NETGEAR’s free ReadyCLOUD app for iOS and Android devices, you can upload content from the road or share links to files stored on your drives. The drives support VPN, folder synchronization and Apple’s Time Machine. The 2-bay model supports a maximum capacity of 12TB, while the 4-bay drive offers up to 24TB worth of storage. Both accept 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA and SSD drives with hot-swapping capability and connect via USB 3.0.
Prices: $217 (2-bay, diskless), $237 (4-bay, diskless)

PLUS: What You Need to Know About USB-C
USB Type-C is the latest generation of the venerable USB connection that is the backbone of a digital workflow. This new version has the same connection on both ends of the cable, so you’ll never again jam the wrong end into your device. This is important not simply to minimize the fairly trivial problem of not plugging things in the right way, but also means that you can (eventually) use a single cable for everything—your phone, tablet, hard drive, digital camera, etc. With apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien, it’s “one plug to rule them all.”

USB-C is not just easier to connect, it’s fast too, with a top speed of 10Gbps (still slower than Thunderbolt 2’s 20Gbps, however). It’s also capable of sending power bi-directionally, instead of delivering a one-way charge like the original USB port. This means you could charge your laptop with your tablet (if you were so inclined). It can pass through a charge, so you can connect a laptop to a USB-C hard drive and that drive to an outlet so that a single wall plug powers two devices.

There are two “flavors” of USB Type-C: Gen 1 and Gen 2. The former is slower, delivering 5Gbps transfer speeds. USB-C Gen 1 connections will typically be used on hard disc drive storage devices, a LaCie spokesperson tells us, since those spinning plates can’t yet keep up with the faster speeds offered by Gen 2. That spec, Gen 2, will be initially available on SSD drives, which can keep up with the 10Gbps transfer rates.