Even the best-made storage drives will stop working one day, even if you take good care of them. Yes, it’s true that hard drives and SSD don’t last forever. Unlike hard drives that give audible warning signs that they’re on their last legs, SSDs can fail at a moment’s notice without any kind of overt sign.
Sometimes you can notice the signs of a failing SSD. For instance, the once-quick transfer speed slows to crawl, there are frequent program or system crashes, or file system access errors or SMART errors occur. If you notice these things, especially in combination, there’s a good chance your SSD is on its way out. In that case, it’s time to prepare for the worst and do the following:
Back up critical files
It goes without saying that the first thing you’ll want to do if you think your SSD is on the blink is to back up your critical data. Backups should be done regularly anyway, but even if you’re doing that, you’ll still want to make a new backup of your critical files at this point to have them ready to go should your SSD suddenly die.
Once you’ve backed up everything, you’ll want to run some diagnostics to confirm that the SSD has problems. CrystalDiskInfo is a helpful free utility that can provide insight into your SSD’s health. We wrote a guide about how to use it that’s worth checking out.
You should also try running these commands at the command prompt: wmic diskdrive get status and wmic / namespace:\root\wmi path MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus.
If the failure predict status is False, then no issues were found with the drive. If True, then you have some issues associated with the drive.
If you have your manufacturer’s SSD utility, you can also run that to get SMART data and for guidance on what to do if issues are found.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Attempt software fixes
If you’ve found some errors, it doesn’t necessarily mean the drive is about to fail. There are some fixes you should try before you write off the issue as being too big to fix. Try reinstalling the driver or searching for a firmware update. Glitchy firmware can appear like a failing drive and updating it can often resolve those issues.
Additionally, try checking the SSD for bad sectors. To do that, at an Administrator command prompt type: chkdsk /f /r /x [drive letter]. But ensure your data is backed up before you try this.
Consider the hardware
If you’re still having issues, it’s probably confirmation that your SSD is on its last legs. You should contact the SSD manufacturer for troubleshooting advice and to fulfill the terms of the warranty for a replacement. You might also like to try a soft reboot of your SSD using the power cycle method. That’s only likely to be a temporary fix, so again, a backup is recommended.
Acer/Amazon
Source a replacement
Ideally, you’ll want to source a replacement before the drive dies, so that you are ready with a backup and don’t lose any data.
You’ll also want a drive of the same or similar capacity to have the same level of functionality as you had before. If you intend on buying the same brand and model SSD, be sure you’re not just buying another problem — a replica with an inherent manufacturer fault.
As a rule, you should try to get a longer warranty period in a replacement to ensure you have something to fall back on should your new SSD start to die.
See our roundup of the best SSDs for recommendations.
Very advanced OS with media streaming and backup galore
No hidden charges to enable features
No license needed to connect IP cameras
Cons
Occasional interface rough spots
All-plastic case
Our Verdict
The TerraMaster F2-425 two-bay NAS box is a good value for streaming media over your home network, handling IP cams, and backing up your computer and other device data.
Price When Reviewed
This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined
Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$250 (without hard drives), plus shipping if purchased direct from TerraMaster
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
Millions of people pay month in, month out to store their data in the cloud, seemingly oblivious to the fact they can store their data privately, in their own home, on their own network, without any recurring costs whatsoever. All you need is a NAS box (Network Attached Storage) like the TerraMaster F2-425 reviewed here connected to your router.
You can keep the NAS in a physically safe location, stream movies and music to any of networked display, smart TV, or speakers, as well as back up your the photos, videos, and other data stored on any of your devices to it. And the best part is that you don’t need to trust your data to a broadband conduit and some large corporation that quite frankly–wouldn’t give a darn about your data if you weren’t paying them to store it.
Specifications
If you’re not familiar with a NAS box, it’s basically a tiny computer that’s designed for storing and distributing data–a file server, in the vernacular, although it can do much more.
NAS attaches via an ethernet cable, or in some cases Wi-Fi (the F2-425 is hardwired only). You access the files stored on a NAS box via your operating system’s (Windows Explorer, the MacOS Finder, etc.) network browsing and administer it or access its virtual machines and apps with a Web browser.
In some cases, you can attach a keyboard via the NAS box’s USB port and a display via its DisplayPort or HDMI; however, while the F2-425 has an HDMI port, it’s used for terminal (aka command line) use only. Unlike some NAS boxes, this one has no graphical desktop or direct streaming media output.
The all-black TerraMaster F2-425 is constructed largely from plastic with some metal framing to secure the components inside. It measures around 9-inches long, 5.5-inches high, and 4.6-inches wide, and it weighs just a tad under four pounds unpopulated (i.e., before you add any of the drives that are needed for storage).
I’d love to say it’s ruggedly constructed, but on one of the rubberized feet was falling off after only a few drags across the rough surface you see in the photos. It’ll do, but don’t set it in the back of your jeep while off-roading and expect it to survive.
As you can see in the photo at the top of this page, the F2-425’s front panel is home to the power button, activity and power lights, a single a 10Gbps USB 3.2 Type-A port for quickly copying data from the NAS, and the two quick-change drive bays. There’s no drive-locking mechanism, but we’re hoping you trust everyone in your home. If you don’t, well….
The box’s rear panel features the 2.5GbE ethernet port, two more 10Gbps Type-A USB ports, the power jack, an HDMI port, and a large fan to keep things cool. There’s also a pinhole reset button that I had to use since I couldn’t remember the first password I used. Dummy.
The fastest transfer rate you’ll get from a 2.5GbE network device is 300MBps–only a skosh faster than today’s high-capacity hard disk drives (HDDs) (which can transfer files at around 275MBps), but slower than SATA solid state drives (SSDs) (they can perform file transfers at 550MBps). Streaming even high-resolution 4K video, however, requires transfer speeds less than 50Mbps (that’s megabits per second), so you’ll have bandwidth to spare with the F2-425.
You’ll find two quick-change drive bays inside the F2-425 that can accommodate either 2.5- or 3.5-inch HDDs or 2.5-inch SATA SSDs, and you can hot-swap drives if you so desire. While HDDs and SATA SSDs might seem quaint in the age of NVMe (Non Volatile Memory Express), you can get up to 72TB of storage with the former, but only 32TB with the latter–and then only with a pair of VectoTech 16TB V-MAX drives that cost $1,700 each! Normies can figure on 8TB with two $250 4TB consumer-grade SATA SSDs (4TB if configured as RAID 1).
And in at least the case of HDDs, I would recommend that mirror them (RAID 1) if there’s anything irreplaceable on them. That halves the storage, but it reduces the chance of catastrophic data loss if one drive fails in striped RAID 0.
The processor is a four-core Intel Celeron N5095 and there’s 4GB of DRAM on board–easily enough to run the Linux-based TNAS operating system that’s provided, but not powerful enough to host the Roon music server. (Roon recommends having at least an Intel Core i3 processor and 8MB of DRAM.)
What are the TerraMaster F2-425’s multimedia features?
Of most interest to the average home user will be the F2-425’s video, music, and photo features. For streaming video and music, there’s TerraMaster’s own Multimedia Server, which leverages DLNA. The acronym stands for Digital Living Network Alliance, a trade group Sony founded in 2003, and it’s become the baseline for even the included (and more powerful) Emby, Plex, and Jellyfin media servers. You can click on the preceding links for TechHive’s reviews of those product, but Plex is the most mainstream option.
Setting up Plex on the F2-425.
The Photos app features “AI”, aka pattern recognition, and it will auto-sort photos based on various criteria. Bittorrent clients and an iTunes server are also on board.
Using the F2-425 for client backup
TNAS’s Centralized Backup is one of my favorite NAS backup apps. You can of course install clients for it on your computers and devices, but you don’t have to. If you share the files on your devices, you can access them via Centralized Backup’s SMB (i.e., normal Windows file sharing).
TNAS’s extensive support for backup includes local, network, cloud, and other remote servers.
In other words, turn on file sharing on your computer or device, share the folders you want backed up, then add them as sources to a Centralized Backup file server backup.
From there, you can use TNAS’s online storage backup software to sync your backed-up data to the cloud, and/or sync it from the cloud to the F2-425. The commercial services supported include BackBlaze B2, Google Drive, OneDrive, Amazon S3, Dropbox, Box Baidu Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and others. There’s Time Machine support for Apple users, but iCloud is not supported.
Setting up the F2-425 to back up shared files on my M4 Max Studio.
On a side note, I highly recommend keeping a local copy of your precious photos. There have been no huge losses of data from a major online repository, but it’s an increasingly dangerous online world.
Using the F2-425 for security cameras
Did you know that you don’t need to pay through the nose to have online surveillance vendors monitor your premises? Indeed, before those services were available, local security systems employing hardwired or IP cameras (Internet Protocol cameras that use your local network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi rather than an online service.) were the norm. IP cams are still readily available for not a whole lot of cash.
And you can still access IP cameras remotely, although that requires configuring the ports on your router so that you can reach the F2-425 from outside your home network. Alternatively, you can use the TerraMaster TNAS Web portal/forwarding service, which is a far easier and more secure way to go about it.
The TNAS Surveillance manager, though it doesn’t include a satellite for this view.
To that end, TerraMaster provides its Surveillance Manager app (shown above) which will accommodate multiple ONVIF-compliant (Open Network Video Interface Forum) IP cams without expensive additional licenses as the boxes from QNAP and Synology typically require. Yay TerraMaster!
What are the FS-425’s other features?
While media streaming and backup will be the most important features for the average user, the TerraMaster is also suitable for SMBs (small to medium-sized businesses) and even enterprise use. It supports virtual machines, too, so you can compute over your web browser; and there’s a Docker host, so you can do the same via Docker modules.
As to the basics, the F2-425 runs the BTRFS (Better File System) which features copy-on-write, snapshots, and data scrubbing. There’s also deduplication, MyBB and phpBB bulletin boards, NextCloud shared storage, FTP client, Portainer (like Docker), a web server), Java. iBos, and a lot of other stuff that IT types love.
A reasonably recent (6.7/2024) version of WordPress is included (keep it updated if you decide to use it) if you want to create and host your own website. Be careful with that. I was malware-attacked hosting my own website (I was running a very outdated and vulnerable version of WordPress), and only diligent backup policies saved me.
I’m not totally against hosting your own site, but do so only if there’s nothing else of importance on the box, and keep the site constantly backed up to less vulnerable external media. The open-source ClamAV antivirus engine is available as a TNAS app, though I’m not sure it would protect you from a WordPress exploit.
TerraMaster F2-425 performance
While not quite the fastest 2.5Gbe NAS box I’ve tested, the F2-425 isn’t far enough off the pace to worry about. Generally speaking, with a single 2TB SATA SSD inside, read and write speeds varied between 250- and 300MBps.
Read speeds of 292MBps and 202MBps writing isn’t bad, although other benchmark tools I used gave the F2-425 higher write ratings.
Given that 4K video requires only around 25- to 50Mbps, the the F2-425 should easily stream video to multiple clients simultaneously. And client backups, while not extraordinarily speedy, shouldn’t take more than a few minutes each. At least after the initial slog of a few hours at roughly 250GB per hour. This all, of course, depends on the amount of data involved.
Fast enough aside, if you want to know what 10GbE and NVMe bring to the table, check out my review of the TerraMaster D8 SSD Plus in Macworld. Short story: Almost 1GBps best case, though larger NVMe SSDs are pricey.
Disk Speed Test rated the F2-425’s reading and writing a relatively even 260- and 270MBps respectively.
One thing I don’t like about TNAS is that it doesn’t multitask particularly well. For instance, I couldn’t retreat to the desktop and fire up the file manager while installing an app. That’s not a deal killer, but there are four cores. Let’s use em’!
Should you buy the TerraMaster F2-425?
While I’ve traditionally recommended QNAP and Synology as the go-to vendors in the consumer NAS space, TerraMaster’s TNAS OS has matured to the point where it’s every bit as capable, and the company doesn’t nickel-and-dime you for “extras,” such as security camera license fees the way those other vendors now do.
So yes, I’m recommending the F2-425 as a top choice in a two-bay NAS box for multimedia streaming, backup, home file sharing, and storing video from ONVIF IP cams. Good job TerraMaster.
Getting 1TB of lightning-fast external storage for just $74.99 might seem too good to be true, but there’s a real opportunity for that right now. The Crucial X9 Pro (1TB) portable SSD is still at its Prime Big Deal Days price, one of the best discounts we’ve seen for it so far. If you need a high-performance external drive, you don’t want to miss this one.
One of the biggest perks of the Crucial X9 Pro is that you can transfer data to it and from it super quickly, with read and write speeds up to 1,050 MB/s. Copying large files and folders is a breeze with this thing, and you’ll never have to sit there twiddling your thumbs again—even when moving 4K videos and massive photo collections.
The 1TB capacity is plenty for all but the most hardcore data hoarders, and I love that the Crucial X9 Pro has a compact form (for portability) and USB-C port (for wide compatibility with various devices). Use it directly with your phone or camera to record 4K or even 8K videos without losing any frames, or plug it into your PC or gaming console for storing your huge games and running them with great performance.
Going back to portability, this drive is super small (2.55 x 1.97 inches) and lightweight (only 1.34 ounces). You can slip this into your pocket and forget about it, and you won’t have to worry because it has IP55 water and dust resistance plus drop resistance from up to 7.5 feet.
One of the things that Windows does behind the scenes is run TRIM on an SSD in your PC. TRIM keeps the SSD in top shape and helps it run at optimal speed. This is done automatically but you can modify the schedule for Windows to do it more frequently. Here’s what you need to know.
Why optimize your SSD to a schedule?
SSDs aren’t the same as HDDs — not only is the data not stored on spinning disks, but SSDs are also much faster — therefore the defragmentation that’s used to optimize a hard disk drive is irrelevant for an SSD. But when files are deleted from an SSD a TRIM function is necessary to mark those blocks for future storage. That’s how Windows’ Defragment and Optimize utility is useful. Windows runs scheduled drive optimizations by default on a weekly schedule, but you can decide to change this to daily if you wish.
When Windows optimizes an SSD it retrims the blocks, telling the drive which areas are rewritable again. The function is important to the SSD because an SSD with untrimmed blocks can get sluggish.
How to optimize your SSD to a schedule
Type Dfrag into the Windows Search bar and select Defragment and Optimize Drives.
Here you will get a list of your SSD drives and their status including whether they need to be optimized. You can choose to optimize them right away by selecting Optimize or click on the Change Settings button to see the optimization schedule.
Now select how often you want Windows to optimize the drives – either daily, weekly, or monthly
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
And that’s it! Windows will do the rest. You might like to check back here occasionally to ensure that the optimization is taking place and run manual optimizations when you see fit.
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your computer’s storage, now’s the time to do it! October Prime Day is showing some insane deals, like this lightning-fast 1TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD on sale for $59.99 on Amazon. That’s the absolute lowest price we’ve ever seen for the 1TB model, making this an unmissable deal!
Back when we reviewed the Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD, it earned a solid 4-star rating for its performance and warranty. One of the main reasons why it lost out on that fifth star? Its retail price. It was hard to justify for $109.99. But with this 43% discount, it’s now a no-brainer.
The Samsung 990 EVO Plus offers superb everyday performance, with read speeds up to 7,250 MB/s and write speeds up to 6,300 MB/s. That translates to instant system bootup times, file transfers and backups, and app launches. And this SSD is compatible with both PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 x2, future-proofing your PC for years to come. The 1TB capacity is more than enough for everyone except the most hardcore power users.
If 1TB doesn’t feel like enough, you can instead opt for the 2TB model that’s on sale for $129.99 (was $176.99). The 4TB model was also on sale, but it has since run out as of this writing.
Samsung's lightning-fast 1TB SSD is going to sell out fast
October Prime Day is gracing us with an awesome price drop for one of the best flash drives out there. The 256GB Samsung Type-C Flash Drive is only $21.99 right now, a sexy 33% discount from its original $32.99 price. This deal is only good for today, so jump on it quick!
A great USB flash drive should tick all these boxes: ample storage, fast transfer speeds, and wide compatibility with all (or most) of your devices. With USB-C being the standard connection type these days, it’s about time we all upgraded from USB-A flash drives to USB-C varieties—and if you’re going to do that, you might as well make it this one.
Samsung’s USB-C flash drive offers 256GB of storage space, which is a fantastic value for the price. The USB-C connector ensures that it works with modern laptops, phones, tablets, and even other devices like gaming consoles. And with up to 400 MB/s transfer speeds, it’s darn fast. You can move photos, documents, and save files in a snap.
The cherry on top? It’s robust and portable thanks to its ultra-compact design and protective casing plus cap. Rest assured that your data is safe as this flash drive is waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, and guarded against magnets, X-rays, and extreme temperatures. Drop it, bump it, toss it—it’ll survive and your data with it.
If you want a good-performing SSD that you can stick to the back of your MagSafe device, then the 10Gbps EX300U is the more affordable (albeit slower) choice than the company’s USB4 EX400U.
Price When Reviewed
This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
Small, thin, and squarish SSDs seem to be in vogue these days, with Corsair as active in producing them as any company. Witness the EX300U, a less expensive, 10Gbps alternative to the USB4 (40Gbps) EX400U I reviewed about six months back.
It shares its sibling’s MagSafe magnetic circle on back for easy attachment to devices that allow it, though not its speed.
What are the EX300U’s features?
The EX300U is a 10Gbps USB drive inside a 2.5-inch square that’s roughly 0.5-inch thick. In appearance, it’s exactly like the faster EX400U, with the exception of the model number on the back label.
There’s the same circular MagSafe magnet on the back that will attach to any suitable surface, including many phones. Yes, auxiliary storage for many amateur videographers.
The only other difference is the weight — at only 1.4 ounces, the EX300U is palpably lighter than the 1.8-ounce EX400U. I was a bit surprised I could feel the difference, but I did.
The controller is a Phison PS2217-17 and the NAND is 3D, of course. Corsair wasn’t specific as to whether it’s TLC or QLC, but the minimum write rate in my tests was 450MBps so whatever it is (my guess is the latest QLC), the native write rate isn’t tragic.
The back of the EX300U, with its MagSafe ring. And yes, the label is slightly askew, as is the author’s photography (says the author).
Corsair includes a handy short, gray Type-C to Type-C cable with one of the connectors angled for a less obtrusive connection to phones and the like.
The warranty on the EX300U is three years, which is the usual for external SSDs, but the 250TBW (terabytes that can be written) per terabyte of capacity is a little stingy. Still, the odds of anyone exceeding that limit is rather low in a light-duty external 10Gbps USB SSD.
A three-year/250TBW warranty is more concerning in the EX400U, which is fast enough to see some heavy-duty write loads.
How much does the EX300U cost?
The EX300U is available in 1TB/$100, 2TB/$180, and 4TB/$340 capacities. At the time of this writing, that’s $10 cheaper than the 1TB EX400U, and $20 cheaper at the 2TB and 4TB capacities.
While a penny saved is a penny earned, I was honestly hoping that the EX300U would save you a few more given the reduced performance. Still, if you don’t have the faster port to take advantage of a USB 3.2×2 or USB4 SSD, you might as well save what you can.
How fast is the EX300U?
The EX300U is a good performer for a 10Gbps SSD. It’s different in shape, but comparable in size and weight to the two 10Gbps thumb drives (the Seagate Ultra Compact SSD and SK Hynix Tube T31) it’s compared to in the charts.
As already mentioned, the EX300U is, quite logically, far slower than its 40Gbps EX400U sibling. Even though that drive is itself slow for a USB4 SSD.
Regardless, the EX300U was easily faster in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential tests than the aforementioned 10Gbps competition.
The EX300U was easily faster in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential tests than the competition. Longer bars are better.
In CrystalDiskMark 8’s random tests, however, the Ultra Compact SSD cleaned the EX300U’s clock.
In CrystalDiskMark 8’s random tests, however, the Ultra Compact SSD cleaned the EX300U’s clock. Longer bars are better.
In our real-life 48GB transfers, the EX300U was back on top of the competition in many tests, though fell short in others. Totaled up, it’s still a win for the EX300U.
In our real-life 48GB transfers, the EX300U was back on top of the competition in many tests, while falling short in others. Totaled up, it’s still a win for the EX300U. Shorter bars are better.
While the T31 was a touch faster with FastCopy, the EX300U was tops with Windows Explorer in writing 450GB to its cells.
While the T31 was a touch faster with FastCopy, the EX300U was tops with Windows Explorer in writing 450G to its cells. Shorter bars are better.
Overall, I saw better performance from the EX300U than from the competition.
One aberration: CrystalDiskMark 8 wouldn’t run when the EX300U was attached to my Thunderbolt 5 port. It created the 64GiB file, but the numbers never changed from 0. Whether this was the BIOS, Thunderbolt 5/USB4 implementation, or the SSD is anyone’s guess and Corsair hadn’t determined the cause of the issue by the time of this writing. All my copy tests over Thunderbolt 5 went off without a hitch.
The EX300U also performed as expected with all the synthetic benchmarks when attached to the 10Gbps and 20Gbps USB ports.
Should you buy the Corsair EX300U?
Though not as quick as its 40Gbps EX400U cousin, the EX300U is easily fast enough for most users and most portable devices. And, it’s more affordable than the 20/40Gbps competition, albeit not by as much as I’d hope.
So, yes, if price is paramount or you have no faster USB ports to take advantage of faster drives, think EX300. But go with the EX400U if you want really top-notch small-and-square performance.
How we test
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Crucial 64GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (128GB of memory total).
Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated into the motherboard and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used.Internal PCIe 5.0 SSDs involved in testing are mounted in a Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 adapter card.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8.04 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we only report one) to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what users will see during routine copy operations, as well as the far faster FastCopy run as administrator to show what’s possible.
A 20GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 is used as the second drive in our transfer tests. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk serving that purpose.
Each test is performed on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This issue has abated somewhat with the current crop of SSDs utilizing more mature controllers and far faster, late-generation NAND.
Note that our testing MO evolves and these results may not match those from previous articles. Only comparisons inside the article are 100% valid as those results are gathered using the current hardware and MO.
October Prime Day is here, and we’re excited about all the amazing discounts we’re seeing. We just love the Samsung T7 portable SSD, and we couldn’t ignore the fact that the 2TB model is down to the best price it’s had in years. You can get one of these for $109.99 right now, which is 41% off from its original $187.99 price.
That’s a solid price-performance value, especially given that this is a Samsung drive. It’ll give you the chance to back up all your pics and vids and documents offline rather than relying on spotty cloud services. Even better, you’ll be making all those file transfers in a blink because this thing supports data transfer speeds of up to 1,050 MB/s.
Equipped with a USB-C port, the Samsung T7 is highly versatile, allowing seamless connections to a wide range of devices. Not only can you connect it to your laptop and desktop PC, but it also works with your phone and gaming console. And for those passionate about recording 4K vids, you can just hook this up to your camera and record the vids directly onto the SSD without dropped frames.
For comparison, here are the going prices for all the other Samsung T7 capacities. It highlights how good this 2TB deal is:
Don’t miss out on this chance to get the 2TB Samsung T7 for $109.99 for Prime Big Deal Days because it’s a seriously good price. Or check out more amazing Prime Day deals on SSDs and storage. Here are some other cool portable SSD Prime Day deals we found:
October Prime Day is here, and we’re excited about all the amazing discounts we’re seeing. We just love the Samsung T7 portable SSD, and we couldn’t ignore the fact that the 2TB model is down to the best price it’s had in years. You can get one of these for $110 right now, which is 41% off from its $188 MSRP.
2TB of storage space for $110? That’s absolutely amazing, and it’s going to give you the chance to back up all those pics and vids offline, rather than rely on cloud services. Even better, you’ll be doing all those transfers in a blink because this thing offers transfer speeds of up to 1,050 MB/s.
Equipped with a Type-C port, the Samsung T7 is highly versatile, allowing seamless connections to a wide range of devices. Not only can you connect it to your laptop and desktop PC, but it also works with your gaming console. And for those passionate about recording 4K vids, you can just hook this up to your smartphone or camera and store the vids directly on the SSD without dropped frames.
If 2TB is either too much or too little for you, other Samsung T7 models are on sale too:
My laptop’s desktop used to be a dumping ground for all and sundry files. From images to spreadsheets to word documents, they’d all find a home there and in doing so clutter up my PC. That was before I decided to do something about the clutter. Here are my top tips to having a clean, clutter-free laptop.
Start a ‘use it, lose it’ rule
I’ve implemented a “use it, lose it” rule now. That means if I touch a file for anything at all, it has to be sorted immediately afterwards into a folder. That way I don’t accumulate random files that just build up and prevent me from finding the things I need.
Start by cleaning up the downloads and the desktop
Have you got drawers at home full of batteries, screws, tape measures, and all sorts of other oddities? They’re the equivalent of the downloads folder and your PC’s desktop. It’s where everything is dumped quickly on the way to somewhere else.
Why not give both locations a quick scan to identify any files that might be of high importance. Obviously, you’ll want to sort and save those important files immediately on an external drive like one recommended by PCWorld.
But chances are you’ll find lots of junk and duplicates, otherwise you’d already have saved it elsewhere on your computer, right? So, delete, delete, delete!
Automate for the future
You don’t necessarily need to do all the sorting of files yourself. Tools like File Juggler can take all the effort out of the process by automating the sorting based on rules that you set. For example, you can tell File Juggler to send all images to an image folder, and the app will monitor your images and do just that.
You can also ask the software to rename files for you. It’s just like having a personal assistant at your beck and call.
Remove any unused apps and programs
If the downloads folder and your desktop are drawers full of oddities, then the apps folder is the garage full of forgotten junk. You probably have a handful of unused apps and programs just taking up useless space on your storage drive, not to mention real estate on your desktop too. But think of it like this, every app and program you uninstall will make your PC run better. So, let’s clean it up!
Pexels: picjumbo
Disable start up programs
If you’ve done an audit on your apps, you may have come across some that you want to keep but that load into Windows automatically on startup. An app loading into Windows automatically can slow down your PC and clutter up your desktop, not to mention they can just be extremely tiresome to close all the time. The simple solution is to disable them loading automatically.
To do that open Settings and navigate to Apps > Startup. Toggle the switches to Off next to the apps you don’t want to load automatically at startup.
Create a logical folder structure
When it comes to folders, the word “hierarchy” is an apt term. Start off with broad categories like work, vacation, finances, and admin and then make subfolders within those folders, until you have an organized system. For example, a subfolder in the work folder may be “current projects.” It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should at least make sense to you.
Group files by type and purpose
Keep it simple. Start by grouping files by type, for example, documents, spreadsheets, and photos and then bring purpose into it — spotlight presentation, vacation photos, work photos. Doing this will most likely uncover a heap of duplicates. If you suspect you have lots of duplicates, tools like Duplicate Cleaner can help you find and delete them.
Rename files for clarity
If you take a look at your files now, chances are they have random names like Document_File01.docx. Rather than this, change the name to something that makes sense to you like: CompletedProject_Sep2025.docx. Be sure to keep the naming convention consistent (for my example, I used [topic][date]) so that they’re easy to identify in the future.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Have an icons folder on your desktop
You don’t need all your app icons taking up space on your desktop. Instead, have a single folder that you can duck into and launch an app when you need to. Then you can sit back and enjoy the images on your desktop background for once.
You can use Orico’s PCIe 4.0 OS5 NVMe SSD in the PS5 it’s marketed towards, however PS5 doesn’t support HMB so it will operate off secondary cache. Workable, but not as quick as a DRAM design.
Price When Reviewed
This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
The OS5 NVMe SSD from Orico is a looker thanks to its stylish and beefy heatsink. It’s moderately fast for its ilk and will work fine, if not optimally in the PS5 it’s marketed for. That gaming console doesn’t support the host memory buffer (HMB) technology that the OS5 uses for primary caching duty on a PC.
Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best SSDs for comparion.
What are the Orico OS5’s features?
You’ll notice from the photo at the head of the article that the OS5 ships with a rather hefty heatsink to fit its 2280 (22mm wide, 80mm long) form. It’s a PCIe 4.0, NVMe SSD using a host memory buffer (HMB) for primary caching in place of DRAM.
The OS5’s controller is a Maxio 1602A and its NAND is 144-layer TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3-bit). Seemingly around 35 percent of that can be dedicated to secondary cache (Orico claims 20 percent), i.e., writing the NAND as single-bit SLC (Single-Level Cell).
Another view of the OS5 and its handsome heatsink.
Orico warranties the OS5 for five years, which is mitigated by a 600TBW (terabytes that may be written before read-only commences) per terabyte of capacity. That’s about average for the industry and 144-layer TLC.
Should you ever want to know how close you are to your TBW limit, download CrystalDiskInfo or a similar utility and check the “percentage used” number. As this only increases with writes, it’s likely going be a lot less than you might imagine. My last main computer was only at 1 percent after two years, albeit with heavy use of external storage for many tasks.
How much is the Orico OS5?
The OS5 is $90 in the 1TB capacity, $150 for 2TB, and $280 for 4TB (prices on Amazon are about $20 less than that). That’s quite a bit of capacity for a reasonable price given that the included heatsink is generally a $10 to $15 option with most SSDs. I wouldn’t call OS5 an outrageous bargain, but it’s certainly competitive.
How fast is the Orico OS5?
Using our new test MO and equipment, the OS5 turned in the fourth fastest PCIe 4.0/HMB score out of six SSDs. Not great, though the difference isn’t vast in most tasks, as you’ll see below. The upshot is that even slower NVMe SSDs are really, really fast.
The OS5 we tested was hurt by the fact that it’s only 1TB and nearly all the SSDs we test are 2TB or 4TB. Because of that, it ran out of secondary cache more quickly. This really took a toll in the 450GB write.
But the OS5 was certainly competitive in CrystalDiskMark 8, including the sequential transfer tests shown below.
The OS5 offers quite a bit of capacity for a reasonable price given that the included heatsink is generally a $10 to $15 option with most SSDs.
The OS5 was competitive in CrystalDiskMark 8, including the sequential transfer tests shown here. Longer bars are better.
CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K numbers were much the same story. Hardly awesome, but good enough for government work.
CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K numbers were much the same story, not ground-shaking but close enough for rock n’ roll. Longer bars are better.
When shuffling only 48GB around, the Orico OS5 was largely on par with the more capacious Lexar 2280 Play SE (another heatsink/HMB design marketed for the PS5), Teamgroup MP44Q, and WD Blue SN5100. Faster in some cases, a tad slower in others.
Note that FastCopy is a highly recommended file transfer utility that operates far nearer the pace you see in synthetic benchmarks than Windows Explorer.
When shuffling only 48GB around, the Orico OS5 was competitive with the more capacious PCIe 4.0/HMB SSDs. Faster in some cases, a tad slower in others. Shorter bars are better.
The 450GB write is where the OS5 was body-slammed by its competitors. The result of the already discussed lower capacity and lack of secondary cache. However…
Arrgh! With only 1TB on board, the OS5 was at the mercy of other 2TB/4TB SSDs with more secondary cache. Shorter bars are better.
…the long write news isn’t all bad. Once secondary cache is exhausted, the TLC still transcribes data to cells at a livable pace of around 1GBps. Believe me, I’ve seen worse. How about 75MBps in the early days of QLC?
This really isn’t that bad a pace for native writing. Twice SATA. Not ideal, but not one of the 75MBps to 150MBps horror stories we used to see.
Should you buy the Orico OS5?
Though not optimal for the PS5, like other HMB designs, the OS5 will get the job done adequately and for a lot less than a DRAM model. I like the look of the heatsink, so if you find the right price, have at it.
But to be honest, slapping a heatsink on HMB and then marketing the SSD as ideal for PS5 is not my favorite marketing schtick. That goes for Orico, but also Lexar with its Play 2280 series.
How we test
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Crucial 64GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (128GB of memory total).
Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used.Internal PCIe 5.0 SSDs involved in testing are mounted in a Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 adapter card.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8.04 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we only report one) to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what users will see during routine copy operations, as well as the far faster FastCopy run as administrator to show what’s possible.
A 20GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 is used as the second drive in our transfer tests. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk.
Each test is performed on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This issue has abated somewhat with the current crop of SSDs utilizing more mature controllers and far faster, late-generation NAND.
Note that our testing MO evolves and these results may not match those from previous articles. Only comparisons inside the article are 100% valid as those results are gathered using the current hardware and MO.
When it comes to performance tweaks, we tend to think of slight changes we can make to our CPU or GPU settings that will make a difference. But it’s also possible to squeeze more performance from your SSD. Here are some awesome ways to get more throughput from your SSDs.
Keep the capacity to less than 80 percent full
SSDs tend to slow down considerably when more than 80 percent capacity is used up. For that reason, you’re going to want to keep capacity below that limit. For example, if you have a 1TB SSD don’t have more than 800GB of files loaded on it.
Adjust the power plan in Windows
Adjusting your PC’s power plan prevents the SSD from going to sleep, removing the wait time for it to wake up.
Part 1:
Type choose a power plan into the search box and click Enter. Select the top result.
Now choose Change plan settings on the right. In the next window select Change advanced power settings.
Now change Turn off hard disk after to 0.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Part 2:
This prevents the PCIe bus from downclocking, which slightly affects the SSD performance.
Under PCI Express > Link State Power Management change the setting from Maximum Power Management to Off.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Install the latest firmware update
Firmware updates for SSD frequently deal with bugs and can also provide performance updates. The classic example of this is the 5B2QGXA7 firmware for Samsung 980 Pro SSDs. This update stopped a problem where the 980’s health status deteriorated to the point where the SSD was unusable.
Make sure you know what utilities to use to download the latest firmware updates. For Samsung SSDs you can use the Samsung Magician app.
Enable TRIM in the command prompt
TRIM helps the SSD clean junk files regularly. A clean SSD naturally runs faster. To check if the TRIM is on type cmd in the Search Bar and press Enter to open it. Now type: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify and click Enter. If the result is 0, TRIM is enabled. If the result is 1, TRIM is disabled, and you’ll want to turn it on.
You can manually turn on TRIM by running the following command in the Command Prompt window: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0.
Conversely, to disable TRIM on SSD, enter the command: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 1.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Add a heatsink
If your SSD doesn’t have a heatsink, you should get one, especially if you’re running a PCIe Gen 4 or PCIe Gen 5 SSD. A heatsink can siphon heat off the SSD and keep it cooler. If your SSD is running hot, that will allow it to once again operate in its standard temperature range for optimal performance.
You can never have too much external storage on hand, especially when it’s as portable and performant as this one. I’m talking about the 2TB SanDisk Extreme Pro Dual Drive, which is an eye-catcher for two reasons (more on that below). It’s currently on sale for $149.99 on Amazon (was $189.99), and that’s a great price for this absolute winner.
The first big advantage of this portable SSD is that it’s smaller than pocket-sized—extremely compact, extremely fast. You’re basically getting SSD transfer speeds in a flash drive form factor. With read speeds up to 1,000 MB/s and write speeds up to 900 MB/s, you’ll be transferring files (folders, videos, archives, etc.) in a snap. It also has 128-bit AES encryption, keeping your data safe against snoopers.
The second big advantage of this portable SSD is that it’s double-sided with both USB-A and USB-C connectors. That makes it supremely versatile, able to connect to pretty much any modern device. Just spin it around as needed, no adapters required. (The clever casing design keeps the unused end protected while it’s plugged in.) It’s the perfect all-in-one portable SSD for use with laptops, phones, gaming consoles, and more.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro Dual Drive is okay at retail price, but it’s downright fantastic with this discount. Get it now for $149.99 before this limited-time Amazon deal expires!
Get 2TB of ultra-portable SSD storage for $40 off while you can
If you’re looking for a cheap, fast, durable, and reliable way to store or transfer your files, then you can’t go wrong with a trusty USB flash drive. The 256GB Samsung Bar Plus is a standout option in this category, and right now it’s on sale for just $21.99 on Amazon, down 33 percent from its original $32.99 price. Not bad, not bad.
Speed is one of this drive’s biggest strengths. The Samsung Bar Plus can hit transfer rates of up to 400 MB/s, which means you won’t be twiddling your thumbs while waiting on large files. (You can move a massive 100GB folder in under five minutes at that speed.) While 256GB might not sound like a lot of capacity in this day and age, it’s still plenty for a flash drive. Whether you’re dealing with 4K videos, photo albums, huge collections of documents, or massive ZIP files, this drive can handle it all.
I also love how durable this flash drive is. The Samsung Bar Plus has a rugged metal casing that protects your data against drops, bumps, water, dust, shocks, magnets, X-rays, and extreme temperatures.
Kingston’s new Renegade G5 aced our performance testing, falling a hair shy of the overall top spot. But it took the top spot in Consumer grade SSD warranties with a 1PB per terabyte TBW rating.
Price When Reviewed
This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
I find Kingston to be an amazing company. Not only does it produce outstanding bargain hardware, it also vends products that soar to the top of the charts. One example of the latter is the Fury Renegade G5 NVMe SSD. It’s not cheap, but it’s not prohibitively expensive either. It also has the most generous TBW rating outside of Seagate’s pro SSDs.
Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best SSDs for comparison.
What are the Kingston Renegade G5’s features?
The Renegade G5 (will it escape from your system to go on the warpath? Hopefully not!) is a PCIe 5.0 x4, NVMe SSD featuring a Silicon Motion SM2508G controller and stacked, 218-layer BiCS8 TLC NAND.
It’s also a DRAM design with, according to the chip number (Micron D8CJG) in our 4TB review unit, 1GB of the precious primary cache for every terabyte of capacity.
If you haven’t read it elsewhere, DRAM as primary cache is far faster at random operations than host memory buffer (HMB) designs, though the latter are just as fast in most cases with large file transfers.
Kingston provides a five-year warranty on the Fury Renegade G5. This is “limited” by one of the most generous TBW (terabytes that may be written) ratings in the industry — one petabyte (1PB/1000TB) per 1TB of capacity. 600TBW is the industry average, though that seems to be creeping up with the BICS8 NAND. Go, Kingston, go!
Note that TBW only applies to writes and deletions, there’s no limit to reads, which check the voltage of cells rather than changing it.
How much is the Kingston Fury Renegade G5?
The Renegade G5 is currently available in 1TB/$165, 2TB/$240, and 4TB/$450 capacities, with an 8TB version slated to show up in November. Those prices are the “discounted” ones we found on Kingston’s Amazon store as of this writing.
The discounted prices are competitive with the like-performing PCIe 5.0/DRAM rivals listed in the performance charts, and considering the generous TBW ratings, a pretty good deal.
How fast is the Kingston Fury Renegade G5?
The Fury Renegade G5 came within a cat’s whisker of wresting the top spot on the PCIe 5.0 chart from the WD Black SN8100. It was only fastest in a couple of tests, but placed near the top in all the others.
The G5 was excellent in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential throughput tests — as fast or faster than its rivals in three out of the four tests.
The Fury Renegade G5 was excellent in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential throughput tests. Longer bars are better.
Queued random performance wasn’t bad, but not as strong as the Renegade G5’s sequential writing (or the other drives). The WD Black SN8100 stood out here as likely the best SSD to run an operating system on.
Bearing in mind, of course, that Windows doesn’t use multiple queues with NVMe as it should. A sad situation.
Queued random performance from the Renegade G5 wasn’t bad, but not as strong as some others. The WD SN8100 stood out here. Longer bars are better.
It was a couple of wins in the Explorer portion of the 48GB transfer testing that gave the Fury Renegade G5 a good result. However, it was not quite as fast in FastCopy as the others.
As to that, though the results may look to be erroneous, the difference in copy speed between Windows Explorer and FastCopy is absolute fact. FastCopy has what Explorer should have — code from this decade. Grab it for large data transfer operations. See my comparison of Windows Explorer, FastCopy, and Xcopy to learn more.
It was a couple of top results in the Explorer portion of the 48GB transfer testing that gave the the Fury Renegade G5 a good result here. But it was not as fast in FastCopy as the others. Shorter bars are better.
The Fury Renegade G5 was top dog (by that whisker) in the 450GB write test. Again, the difference between Windows Explorer and FastCopy is readily apparent: 3GBps as opposed to around 10GBps.
The Fury Renegade G5 was top dog in the 450GB write test. Shorter bars are better.
As to sustainable sequential writing, I wrote a 950GB VHD three straight times in Explorer with no break in between and only managed to slow the Renegade G5 from 2.85GBps to between 1.8GBps and 2GBps. I can live with that. So can the average videographer.
The Renegade G5 is basically as fast, or faster in most ways as the PCIe 5.0 DRAM competition. Of course, you need a still-not-ubiquitous PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot to take advantage. Or a free PCIe 5.0 slot and an adapter card such as the Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5.
Should you buy the Kingston Fury Renegade G5?
Yes, you should buy it. The super-generous TBW rating breaks what is basically a performance tie in our books, even if the average user will never touch the limit of any of the drives. Still, it’s a winner from Kingston.
How we test
Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit running off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Crucial 64GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (128GB of memory total).
Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are integrated and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used.Internal PCIe 5.0 SSDs involved in testing are mounted in a Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 adapter card.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8.04 (and 9), AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 synthetic benchmarks (to keep article length down, we only report one) to find the storage device’s potential performance, then a series of 48GB and 450GB transfers tests using Windows Explorer drag and drop to show what users will see during routine copy operations, as well as the far faster FastCopy run as administrator to show what’s possible.
A 20GBps two-SSD RAID 0 array on the aforementioned Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 is used as the second drive in our transfer tests. Formerly the 48GB tests were done with a RAM disk.
Each test is performed on a NTFS-formatted and newly TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This issue has abated somewhat with the current crop of SSDs utilizing more mature controllers and far faster, late-generation NAND.
Note that our testing MO evolves and these results may not match those from previous articles. Only comparisons inside the article are 100% valid as those results are gathered using the current hardware and MO.
TL;DR: For a limited time, you can grab this 2TB external hard drive for only $64.99 (reg. $79.99). It’s fast, compact, and easy to use with USB 3.0 speeds and a plug-and-play setup.
Need more space for your games, media, or backups? The WD Elements 2TB Portable External Hard Drive is on sale for just $64.99 (reg. $79.99) for a limited time via PCWorld Deals.
This plug-and-play drive delivers simple, fast, and reliable storage with USB 3.0 speeds up to 5 Gbps. It’s formatted for Windows out of the box, but can be easily reformatted for macOS or Linux if needed. Whether you’re offloading large video files, expanding your Steam library, or just backing up your system, 2TB gives you room to breathe.
It’s also highly portable. Weighing under half a pound and roughly the size of a smartphone, it slides easily into any backpack or desk drawer. And while the plastic casing isn’t ruggedized, it’s solid enough for daily carry.
There’s no software to install, no subscriptions to worry about, and no flashy gimmicks—just reliable storage that works when you need it. It also includes a limited three-year manufacturer warranty for extra peace of mind.
Grab your own WD Elements portable 2TB hard drive for just $64.99 while supplies last and keep your files exactly where you want them—under your control.
WD Elements Portable USB 3.0 External Hard Drive (2TB)See Deal
When it comes to performance tweaks, we tend to think of slight changes we can make to our CPU or GPU settings that will make a difference. But it’s also possible to squeeze more performance from your SSD. Here are some awesome ways to get more throughput from your SSDs.
Keep the capacity to less than 80 percent full
SSDs tend to slow down considerably when more than 80 percent capacity is used up. For that reason, you’re going to want to keep capacity below that limit. For example, if you have a 1TB SSD don’t have more than 800GB of files loaded on it.
Adjust the power plan in Windows
Adjusting your PC’s power plan prevents the SSD from going to sleep, removing the wait time for it to wake up.
Part 1:
Type choose a power plan into the search box and click Enter. Select the top result.
Now choose Change plan settings on the right. In the next window select Change advanced power settings.
Now change Turn off hard disk after to 0.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Part 2:
This prevents the PCIe bus from downclocking, which slightly affects the SSD performance.
Under PCI Express > Link State Power Management change the setting from Maximum Power Management to Off.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Install the latest firmware update
Firmware updates for SSD frequently deal with bugs and can also provide performance updates. The classic example of this is the 5B2QGXA7 firmware for Samsung 980 Pro SSDs. This update stopped a problem where the 980’s health status deteriorated to the point where the SSD was unusable.
Make sure you know what utilities to use to download the latest firmware updates. For Samsung SSDs you can use the Samsung Magician app.
Enable TRIM in the command prompt
TRIM helps the SSD clean junk files regularly. A clean SSD naturally runs faster. To check if the TRIM is on type cmd in the Search Bar and press Enter to open it. Now type: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify and click Enter. If the result is 0, TRIM is enabled. If the result is 1, TRIM is disabled, and you’ll want to turn it on.
You can manually turn on TRIM by running the following command in the Command Prompt window: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0.
Conversely, to disable TRIM on SSD, enter the command: fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 1.
Dominic Bayley / Foundry
Add a heatsink
If your SSD doesn’t have a heatsink, you should get one, especially if you’re running a PCIe Gen 4 or PCIe Gen 5 SSD. A heatsink can siphon heat off the SSD and keep it cooler. If your SSD is running hot, that will allow it to once again operate in its standard temperature range for optimal performance.
If you’re about to spend money on a USB flash drive, maybe hold your horses and think about getting something even better for the same price. I’m talking about this SK Hynix Tube T31 portable SSD that’s fast, has tons of storage space, and is shaped just like a flash drive. Right now, you can grab the 2TB model for just $118.99, which is a 26 percent discount and the all-time lowest price it’s ever been!
In our review of the Tube T31, we gave it a 4.5-star rating and praised its ultra-compact design that resembles the oh-so-familiar USB flash drive and maximizes portability. It was so convenient that our reviewing expert Jon Jacobi adopted it as his own daily-use storage drive. If that isn’t a glowing recommendation, I don’t know what is!
And this portable SSD is no slouch when it comes to performance. It claims to offer transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps, and we independently confirmed those claims in our own speed tests. Between its sleek design, fast data transfers, travel-friendly form factor, and extra-large capacity, it’s the best of all worlds—especially so with this discount.
Backing up your files can be a lifesaver when data gets corrupted, or in the case of total drive failure. But it must be done right. Too often I hear stories of well-meaning people trying to back up their data only to still lose that data because they’ve made mistakes along the way. Here are the main backup pitfalls you want to avoid, and some suggestions for what to do instead.
1. Storing backups in one place
Backing up to just one drive or flash drive means that if anything happens to that one backup, which is not a stretch to imagine, you’ve lost all your data.
Instead of having a single point of failure, you need to have more backups. When deciding how many copies of the data to back up I recommend you go by the 3-2-1 rule. That is, have 3 copies of your data, two on different media types, and one offsite in another secure location like in the cloud.
Backing up sporadically or only occasionally means you stand to lose any data that you’ve accumulated since your last backup. The thing about PC errors and drive failures is that they can be quite random, you never know when they’re going to happen. So, you need to always be prepared for the worst.
Instead of haphazardly backing up data, perform regular daily or weekly (if you work with less data) backups, i.e. create a defined schedule for your backups. Some backup software / services even often real-time backup to ensure that there’s no gap in data preservation.
Pexels: MIguel A Padrinan
3. Backing up data manually
Let’s face it, manually backing up data takes time and effort and we’re less likely to want to do it if we’re short on time or feeling lazy. That’s why I suggest having an automatic backup active, either via cloud services or backup software. You can schedule it to run during off hours when it won’t interfere with your regular activities.
Automating the process will mean you don’t have to worry about doing it yourself and your data will still be backed up no matter how you feel or how much time you have to spare.
4. Forgetting about security
It’s one thing to back up your data frequently, it’s another thing to ensure that the data is safe and isn’t stolen or accessed without authorization. To prevent that, it’s important that the software and cloud services you’re using encrypts your data and that you have a data decryption key available.
If possible, also use multifactor authentication (MFA) to access the data when it’s stored online. This will provide an extra layer of security should hackers attempt to gain access.
Pexels: Arina Krasnikova
5. Overwriting old backups
Having a recent backup that works means your data is safe, but every time you back up your data you risk the data becoming corrupted. That’s why you should never overwrite an older intact version, you could lose that data forever.
Versioning is a better way to ensure you never lose a copy of your data. This involves keeping several versions of your data at any given time, a newer version alongside older versions. If you’re using cloud services or backup software, you’ll want to ensure they offer versioning too.
6. Not testing backups
Too often I hear people saying they’ve backed up their data, only to later discover that the backup was corrupted and can’t be restored. To prevent that happening you need to ensure that your backups actually work. One way to do this is by opening a few files after a backup to test it immediately, or by periodically opening files and/or performing a full test recovery to check that you can actually restore the files from a backup when required.
Doing so will give you peace of mind that your data is safe and that if the worst happens, you still have a working backup to restore from.
Login
