Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great product it’s amazing fast drive I love this one comes good plastic durable case and a small size pocket version

Small Form- Reduced Footprint— powerful write speed and read speed. Overall very satisfied with this SSD. I have it attached to my laptop so I don’t have to keep moving it

Super compact designed with blazing fast speed. Very convenient to hook up with my USB port on my laptop. Easy to expand your capacity for laptops. I like to keep my Game files on this one. Would buy again.

The Crucial X10 Pro 2TB USB Portable Solid State Drive (SSD) is a new model in the Crucial product line with large capacity, a compact and lightweight profile and a specification of up to 2,100 MB/s sequential read speed and 2,000 MB/s sequential write speed. The Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSDs are Crucial’s fastest external, USB drives. The other available capacities offered for the Crucial X10 Pro are 1TB and 4TB models. All of the X10 Pro drives have the same specifications, other than capacity. In addition to the very impressive read/write speeds claimed by Crucial, they all have a USB 3.2 Gen-2x2 interface (SS 20), rated for 20Gbps. USB 3.2 Gen-2x2 uses two lanes of 10 Gbps (standard USB 3.2 Gen-2) to achieve the 20 Gbps rate. The X10 Pro drives use 3D TLC NAND flash memory. Crucial, whose parent company is Micron, is a well-established and well-respected manufacturer of flash memory and SSD consumer products. I have purchased Crucial memory for several PCs through the years, and the factory installed SSD in one of my Dell laptops is a Crucial SSD. I have also been using Crucial X6 SSDs for a couple of years. Those older X6 drives provide me with great capacity and good read/write speeds, but the new X10 Pro is represented as being more than twice as fast, and when accessing or transferring large files, like RAW images or videos, the extremely fast read and write speeds of the Crucial X10 Pro coupled with the USB 3.2 Gen-2x2 20 Gbps interface make a world of difference. The Crucial X10 Pro case is fabricated of black, anodized aluminum with a rubberized coating on the bottom. The aluminum case has chamfered edges all around. There is an integral lanyard hole (although no lanyard or clip is included) and a white drive activity LED light in the lanyard hole. To my chagrin, some other external drives lack a drive activity light, and I really appreciate having one on the Crucial X10 Pro. The overall dimensions are a very compact 2.6” (65 mm) long x 2” (50 mm) wide x 0.4” (10 mm) thick. The only apparent opening for potential admittance of dust or liquid is the single USB-C connector port, and the device carries an IP 55 rating for water and dust resistance. A rating of IP 55 indicates that the unit is Dust Protected (but not Dust Tight, which is the highest rating), and protected from water jets (but not powerful water jets or any submersion in liquid). Crucial claims that the X-10 Pro can withstand a drop of up to 7.5 ft (2 m) on a carpeted floor without impact to data, but there is no listing of testing certifications or standards in support of that claim. The Crucial X10 Pro weighs only 1.4 oz (41 g). It is both lightweight and compact. Furnished in the box with the Crucial X10 Pro is an almost 9-1/2” (22.6 cm) long USB-C to USB-C cable. There is no USB-A cable or adaptor included. The multi-language printed insert which is also included provides nothing more than the terms of the Crucial Warranty, and the Crucial website URL for support. The Crucial X10 Pro carries a five (5) year warranty. Portable SSDs are extraordinarily convenient and useful for many purposes. Video content producers and photographers find them to be essential. Given their large capacity and high data transfer rates they are ideal for those purposes as well as data backup and storage, and notably, for use as a portable file store when using multiple computers, and particularly when travelling away from home or primary workplace. The Crucial X10 Pro is particularly well-suited for working with large files and applications. The fast read/write speeds greatly facilitate my transferring large image files and video files, and also allows me to edit and work with those files on the Crucial X10 Pro using Adobe Creative Cloud applications. The fast Crucial X10 Pro makes even video workflow tasks efficient. I work with multiple computers, lots of large files and numerous resource demanding applications. I am very reliant on external, USB SSDs for using my data files across multiple computers. Additionally, it is essential for me to have complete portability. I take the laptop or tablet that I need, accompanied by the external USB SSD, or multiple SSDs that I need for the day and have complete flexibility and portability. An important aspect of the selection criteria for portable drives can be data security. When I am on the go with a laptop and external SSD, it is absolutely crucial that my data remains secure if a drive should be lost, stolen or accessed without proper authority. The potential for compromised or exposed sensitive or private data, through loss or theft of the drive is a critically important consideration, particularly when travelling. The Crucial X10 Pro does not offer any physical security, such as a biometric fingerprint reader. The Crucial product webpage states, “Protect sensitive data in the studio, in the field, or while traveling with password protection and 256‐bit AES hardware encryption8”. The referenced footnote clarifies, “Works with Bitlocker To Go on Windows and FileVault on macOS. Crucial Portable SSD Utility application for Windows and macOS launching September 2023”. If you are using Windows 10 or 11 Home Editions, you probably are aware that Bitlocker / Bitlocker To Go are not available on the Home Edition OS versions. I am anxiously looking forward to seeing what the Crucial Portable SSD Utility application offers when it is released, particularly since it is expected to be OS agnostic. The Crucial X10 Pro is preformatted in exFAT, which is appropriate for Windows PCs, Chromebooks, Macs and many gaming systems. It can easily be quick formatted to NTFS if desired. The X10 Pro can be used with multiple platforms including Windows, Mac, Android, iPad, PC, Linux, Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles. Crucial has a very useful drive management application named Storage Executive, which is available for download from the Crucial website for use on Windows 64 BIT systems, only. In fact, the dedicated Welcome page for the X10 Pro SSD on the Crucial website encourages you to “Manage Your X10 Pro” and provides the hyperlink to the download for Storage Executive software. After I dutifully downloaded and installed Crucial Storage Executive, I discovered that Storage Executive does not recognize the X10 Pro SSD! Imagine that! Ironically, it did however recognize the internal Kioxia SSD that Dell had factory installed in the laptop that I was using. My prior experience with Storage Executive was the same; it did not recognize my older Crucial external SSDs either. The 2,100 MB/s sequential read speed and 2,000 MB/s sequential write speed advertised for the Crucial X10 Pro is an excellent specification. In fact, I believe that is the fastest read/write speed of any USB SSD currently available. Of course, that range of high data transfer rates is only achievable when the attached computer is similarly equipped with a USB 3.2 Gen-2x2 (20 Gb/s) (aka SS 20) or faster interface. My primary laptop, which I used for benchmarking the X10 Pro, has Thunderbolt 4, 40 Gbps ports, therefore I hoped to see speeds approximating the advertised 2,100 MB/s sequential reads and 2,000 MB/s sequential writes. Data transfer rates were measured with Crystal DiskMark 7.0, with the best speeds measured at 1,072.61 Mb/s Sequential Reads and 990.84 Mb/s Sequential Writes. I benchmarked using both of my Thunderbolt 4 ports and I utilized the short USB 3.2 cable that Crucial supplied with the X10 Pro. Obviously, the data rates that I obtained are not slow, but they are only about 50% of the expected speeds based on Crucial’s specifications. Evidently the controller for the Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 ports in my relatively new Dell laptop, while being backside compatible with USB 3 Gen 2, does not support Gen 2x2 (SS 20) and is only supporting 10 GB/s USB 3.2. The Crucial X10 Pro does become slightly warm when attached to a computer and generates heat in proportion to activity when it is actively in use. Large data transfers generate palpable, but not uncomfortable or concerning levels of heat. Typically, this type of drive employs a layer of PCM (Phase Change Material) to somewhat mitigate the heat generated by active use (presumably encapsulated paraffin wax). Overall, the Crucial X10 Pro 2 TB Portable SSD is excellent! It offers large capacity, extremely fast data transfer rates, if your computer supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, and a compact and lightweight profile. Even with 10 GB/s speeds attributable to my laptop’s USB interface, I find it to be an excellent drive for photography and videography. The Crucial X10 Pro 2TB Portable SSD is certainly worthy of serious consideration and I am comfortable with recommending it!

Works great , fast enough for Xbox games on PC. installed to this drive and perfect size

I caught it on sale and am very happy with the performance. Small size, 2TB, and very fast transfers. What's not to like?

works good, use it on my Mac mini. super simple. takes up no desk space.

One of the thinks I like about this particular portable storage devise is the dimensions

The Crucial X10 Pro is solid device rugged and very portable.

Very small and fast. Games are easily playable from drive. Bought at $155 which is a great deal!

Receiving an error message after 2 weeks. Backed up all my clients files to this when I first got it (500GB data). 1 week later I started getting an error that read: "MacOS can't repair the disk". The problem has persisted and I can't add write to the disk anymore. What a joke.

The X-10 Pro is Crucial’s latest and greatest external drive. It and the included 9” cable comply with the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard allowing up to 20 Gbps of data transfer speed. That said, the entire USB naming system has gotten more confusing in the last couple of years, so here’s a synopsis of the current nomenclature and potential data speeds. USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 / SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps / 20Gbps max speed (USB C connection) USB 3.2 Gen 2 / SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps / 10Gbps max speed (USB C or A connection) USB 3.2 Gen 1 / SuperSpeed USB / 5Gbps max speed (USB A connection) When connected to a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port, the X-10 can reach real-world read/write speeds of around 2000 MB/s. When connected to the much more common USB 3.2 Gen 2, the speed will be around 1000 MB/s, and if you have a 3.2 Gen 1 port (the original USB 3), it’s going to be 500 MB/s. The point is that you are paying for the highest USB speed currently available, but you’ll only realize that speed with the new computers having 2x2 ports. You need to check carefully what ports your computer has if you want to realize the full potential of this drive. My new XPS 8960 desktop has only one 2X2 port, and it’s on the rear panel. With that out of the way, let’s talk about this little gem of an external drive. The build quality is first-class. It’s solid and built to be rugged. It’s tiny at shy 2” by 2.5” and a quarter inch thick. It’s smaller and lighter than its competitors. There’s a lanyard opening at one corner if you want to tether it to you. It’s made to travel, and even the 9” USB C to C cable is built solidly. My speed tests confirmed that it reaches the advertised speeds. Besides storage and data transfer, this drive has the speed needed to allow you to process photos and videos on the drive. You can leave those files on the drive and do your work without transferring them back and forth. Keep in mind that the 2000 MB/s speed is dependent on having a fairly new PC, and that you’re running the most current Windows 11 build. If you don’t, you could opt for the less expensive X-9 Pro which is rated at 1000 MB/s. Solid-state storage is a bargain right now, so why not go first class and future-proof yourself with the X-10 Pro? It’s an amazing little drive.

Crucial - X10 Pro 1TB USB-C External SSD - Black Summary: Spacious, performant, portable, and svelte. Pros: * Spacious. This 2 TB external SSD provides ample storage to take with you on the go. It exceeds the size of most manufacturer default configuration SSD internal storage. * Performant. External SSDs can be tricky because you won't get the performance of internally drives such as NVME SSD. But USB-C 3.2 can get us closer than we've ever been. * Portable. The portability, and general durability, of this unit is unparalleled for its class: IP55 water/dust proof, 7.5 feet drop-proof, extreme temperature and shock/vibe proof. * Svelte. The form factor for this drive is unlike anything I've ever seen. It looks sweet. The indicator light is tucked into the key-ring loop. Unless you know what it is, you wouldn't know what it is. * Brand. Crucial is a household name for SSD in our home. It's a trusted brand and this unit doesn't disappoint. Special Note: * Even my latest laptop doesn't feature the newest USB-C 3.2 g2 2x2 standard (Alienware m17 R5). So achieving the maximum performance from this unit will have to wait a tad. In the meantime, I'm a bit future-proofed. Use: I use this drive to store some relatively static large documents. But the primary use case is the moving of large video files from devices such as my GoPros, or DSLR cameras and my computing devices such as my desktops and laptops. Though I typically transfer from this device for manipulation and final storage, this allows me to view and edit, transform, and process files directly stored on the device. It's hard not to think of this device as a USB Thumb drive along with the slow poke nature of that type of storage. It is portable, sure, but it is an external hard disk and the capacity and USB-C mean that we have speeds and capacities that blow the old stuff away without lugging around a large device. Though I use cloud storage for long term archives, these units make storing precious and critical data and keeping it safe/on-hand really easy. Definitely worth the price tag.

The Crucial X10 Pro by Micron is durable, fast, and takes up less room in my pocket than my car keys. The X10 Pro is IP55 Certified meaning that pocket lint, dirty bags, and rain showers should not pose a threat to the normal operations of the drive. Which is good. I carried mine around all day in a linty pocket and even banged it against a table a few times to see what would happen. The drive worked perfectly every time. Transfer speeds are fast but dependent on what I was working on, the speed of my USB port, or the method by which I was transferring data. I was able to run 15-to-20-minute videos from the drive, including randomly moving the player slider bar around, without any hiccups or buffering. Overall, this is a fast, durable, and dependable drive. Speed: Let’s get straight to speed. I benchmarked the drive using Crystal Disk Mark. I used the Anime edition simply because it looks better. I used a 2023 Alienware laptop that, as stated by Dell, has three USB 3.2 Gen 1 drives. The transfer speed should top out at 625MB/s. The benchmark achieved 2140MB/s sequential read and 1790MB/s sequential writes. Random reads and writes were significantly lower than this. I included screenshots of the benchmark run as well as a benchmark of my internal NVMe drive for reference. Next, I copied a 100GB folder with 22 video files from the local drive to the X10 Pro. From my C: drive to the X10 Pro I hit an average of 397 MB/s. From the X10 Pro to my C: drive I saw 348MB/s. I ran the transfer a few times, both ways, and got the same or similar numbers. See included screenshot. Enabling encryption slowed things down to 350 MB/s download from the X10 Pro and 280MB/s on the upload to the X10 Pro. This is a little disappointing but not unexpected. Encryption tends to add overhead to drive operations. Performance: As mentioned before, playing and navigating running videos was seamless and without any kind of lag, artifacts, or buffering issues. I loaded up Corel Paintshop Pro and went to work editing photos directly on the drive. Loading, editing, saving, and manipulation of the files was fast and did not interrupt my workflow. I switched the drive to my MS Surface tablet where I could use my touch screen and stylus as an art tablet. Connecting to the Surface was simple and seamless. And just like with my gaming laptop, my experience on the Surface was lag free, no buffering issues, and bouncing between projects was seamless. The only oddity was I had the little X10 Pro dangling from the side of my surface by its 9-inch USB cable when working with the Surface on my lap or when I kicked out the foot for desktop mode. Heat. The drive remains cool under most operations. Under heavy load, such as encrypting the whole drive, the X10 Pro did get warm but never hot. The drive quickly cooled down once the operation was complete. Flexibility: The durability of the unit makes this an ideal choice for travel. The outer shell is metal, inflexible, and will survive a fall if you should drop it. The IP55 Certification guarantees that a certain amount of dust, dirt, and water will not penetrate the X10 Pro’s shell up to a certain threshold as defined by the IP55 standard. IP55 certification also signifies the drive will survive bumps, bruises, scratches, and some impacts. The drive is solid state which means impacts will not damage your data. So, if you want to dangle this from your key chain using the conveniently included eye hole, your data will most likely be fine. Finally, the bottom of the drive is rubberized to reduce the possibility of the drive slipping off the table or a slightly inclined surface. The drive ships with a 1.8 TB exFAT partition. The drive sports 256 AES HW + PP hardware-based encryption. The drive supports BitLocker and Apple’s MacOS Firevault. Unfortunately, BitLocker is only available on Windows 10/11 Pro. I was able to enable BitLocker, setup a password, backup the security key to my Windows account, and encrypt the drive without any issues. Crucial will be releasing a password utility in September 2023 that will allow password setting without the need for BitLocker. However, I do not know how this impacts data encryption on the drive. I guess we will have to wait and see. Finally, the drive can be re-partitioned and reformatted using NTFS or whatever Apple uses. NFTS will give you greater control of file security and management over exFAT. The X10 Pro ships with a 9-inch USB C cable. This will limit placement when using the drive. This will not be an issue with a laptop since the USB ports can be measured in half inches from the table or desk surface. A desktop tower case will present special challenges due to where the USB ports are usually located. For my tower, I had enough cable to easily reach the USB C port while the X10 Pro rested on the top of the tower case. Management Software: Crucial makes an application named Crucial Storage Executive available on their website. As of this writing, version 9.04 does not recognize the X10 Pro. No idea why. I tried on three different computers and none of them would recognize the X10 Pro. This is disappointing because this is the only way, that I could find, to enable special drive features or perform firmware updates. Storage Executive will also monitor drive temperature. Crucial does provide Arconis True Image available from their support page. This will allow you to format the drive, change partitions sizes, and clone the drive from an existing drive. If you are replacing a drive then Arconis is a great way to quickly clone the drive. Final thoughts: The X10 Pro is tough, fast, and flexible. It will survive my backpack and a rainstorm. Password protection and Encryption support are welcome features in an age where data protection is a necessity. The drive is fast enough to stream videos and support photo editing. The only downsides are Crucial’s own software compatibility and the lack of a USB C to A converter in the shipping box. Crucial will sell you the adapter if you really need it. Overall, this is a fantastic little drive.

Easily the smallest of my external drives and just as fast as any I put against. This will/has been great for any field work that comes my way. Whether it's in my bag or pocket, it takes up little to no real estate, and if you're not careful, it's very easy to misplace. I've attached a picture to compare with my Samsung portable drive. Easily a quarter size smaller with double the drive space and equivalent speed. About the speed. It should be noted, if not evident, there are different speed USB-C drives that widely vary in speed, just like the good old standard USB 2/3. I used this drive on my work laptop and nearly gave a negative review based on the transfer speed. But after double checking the specifications, I plugged it into my Gaming PC, and the blazing speeds lived up to it's reputation. I transferred a 3GB video back and forth and each time took between 3-5 seconds. Impressive considering the speeds I'm normally used to. Portable power that's sturdy enough to be tossed around. Great drive that lives up to the hype, just make sure you don't misplace it!

The Crucial X10 Pro External SSD is a fast drive in a nice compact form that will suit most people. But let’s get one thing out of the way, most people will not see the marketed 2100MB/s (read) & 2000MB/s (write) speeds. To get that, you have to have a computer that supports USB 3.2 Gen2 2x2 Type-C ports. These fast ports are not typically found in mainstream computers. The good news is the drive is backwards compatible with older standards. In my case, I tested the drive on a 2022 Mac Studio M1 Max and a 2021 Dell XPS 17 9710, neither of which has the port needed to achieve 2Gbp/s speed. I tested them with the drive formatted in ExFAT, APFS, and NFTS using testing software. The differences were minor, though the OS specific formats edged out the cross compatible ExFAT. See attached images for full results, but at a high level: Mac Studio Results (5 iterations; 1GB data) - ExFAT Sequential read/write: 806.86MB/s & 787.70MB/s - APFS Sequential read/write: 1012.17MB/s & 964.23MB/s Dell XPS Results (5 iteration; 1GB data) - ExFAT Sequential read/write: 1044.12MB/s & 977.89MB/s - NTFS Sequential read/write: 1057.40MB/s & 981.04MB/s Since the Mac Studio is my primary machine, I also did a “real life” test of transferring 283.76GB of photos from the computer to the Crucial SSD, and that took 10 minutes 36 seconds or 446.16MB/s - nowhere near the idealized test case. As the saying goes, your mileage may vary because there are a lot of factors involved. The SSD got warm but not untouchably hot. What surprised me is it stays warm even if it’s not being used when plugged in. One nice feature on the SSD is there’s a white LED light that indicates when it’s plugged in and turned on. There’s no on/off switch, it just uses port power. But the light helps you know it’s plugged in correctly. Crucial plans to release free utility software in September that will let you set a password on the drive. The good news is it will be OS-agnostic. The current software Storage Executive that supports other devices is only available on Windows.

Storage space is quickly becoming a hot commodity, and as someone who is a video content creator, I can never have enough. In addition to the 1TB storage I have on my newer MacBook Pro, I have a 4TB external HDD plus 3 more external SSD drives for an additional 4TB. On top of that there's all my microSD cards used between all my various cameras and devices that are too many to count. So now we're adding one more external SSD to the mix, this Crucial 2TB X10 Pro, which is also my first Crucial storage product. First thing you notice when you get this drive is its size. It's easily the most compact drive I have. It's not as thin as my other external SSDs, but it's smaller in both length and width, making it easier to travel with. And although it's very lightweight, it still feels solid with excellent quality. The added hole to attach a lanyard to is a nice addition as well, not to mention the unique way they integrated the device LED into it.. Given its small size it's also nice that they kept the packaging minimal to go along with it. Using the supplied cable, which I've learned a long time ago is very important as not all cables are created equal, I plugged it in to my MacBook Pro and it instantly showed up as "X10 Pro". Without installing any type of software or doing any kind of formatting, the drive worked right out of the box. Pre-loaded on the card is a pdf with some links and info, including a link to Crucial's Storage Executive software which helps optimize and update the drive. Unfortunately, this software is only available for Windows PCs, so if you're using this drive with a Mac like me, you're out of luck on that front, but at least it's not required to use the drive. With the X10 Pro plugged in and working, I decided to run some basic comparison tests against my other drives using files I typically work with. So I grabbed a folder containing 60 GB of mp4 video files and wrote them to the drives and then did the opposite, writing the files back to my MacBook from the drives. In these tests the Crucial X10 Pro came out on top, with its closest competition being another 2TB external drive that I just bought a couple months ago, and therefore is basically the same generation of tech. Here's the actual results I got: Writing 60 GB of files to the drive - Crucial X10 Pro finished in 1 minute and 9 seconds - Brand S finished in 1 minute 14 seconds Reading 60 GB of files from the drive and writing to my MacBook - Crucial X10 Pro finished in 1 minute and 1 second - Brand S finished in 1 minute and 16 seconds Keep in mind this is with both drives being used as they came out of the box without any reformatting, and using the supplied cables for each while connected through a Thunderbolt 4 port, which actually allows for faster transfer rates than the recommended USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. This all comes into play with how I typically use an external drive. Often times, I'm filming content while on the road at weekend events. At these events I start filling up my camera cards fairly quick and need to transfer files. Problem is where these events are usually held, I have no access to power, so the time I can use my equipment and laptop is limited. With faster transfer rates I can be done quicker and save some battery life. Between the blazing fast transfer rates and compact size, this Crucial X10 Pro has now assumed primary responsibilities for that task now. Overall, I honestly can't find anything negative about this drive, aside from the lack of Mac support for the Storage Executive software. Crucial wasn't on my radar before as far as storage options go but it definitely is now.

The Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSD is a solid-state, external hard drive which resides at the top of the product line by Micron Technology, the parent company of the Crucial brand of end-user memory and storage products. Crucial products have been in the marketplace since 1996, so I believe it is safe to assume they know a thing or two about this product category. The X10 Pro is aimed at professionals that desire fast write and read speeds combined with large capacity in a small form factor, but is also for us commoners such as myself with more modest requirements. The X10 comes in 4TB, 2TB, and 1TB capacities, with a claimed and documented (by Crucial) write speed of 2000 MB/s and read speed of 2100 MB/s. At roughly 2” by 2.5” by 3/8” and weighing 42 grams (about 1 & 1/2 ounces), the X10 Pro is portable enough for use in the field such that it contains a slot to attach it to a key ring or lanyard. The drive’s activity light is integrated into this hole in the case. The backside of the X10 Pro is coated in a rubberized finish that helps minimize it sliding around on hard surfaces, and the other five sides are black-anodized with a slight texture that should help to prevent or mask scuffing and scratching. The X10 Pro boasts IP55 water and dust resistance and Crucial claims drop-proof durability up to 7.5 feet, but the product’s case does not contain any sort of cover or plug to protect the USB Type-C port from debris. The package contains in addition to the drive and a quick start guide, a 9 inch long USB-C to USB-C cord that curiously contains absolutely no markings alluding to the cable’s data transfer capabilities. A cable from a competitor’s drive is shown for comparison in one of my photos. Crucial recommends using the included cable to assure the fastest data transfer speeds, but we all know how many cables we accumulate over time and how so many of them look alike. Having some identifying info molded into the cable, even the name “Crucial” would be such a simple thing to do and make it easy to identify that we are using the right cable. The sticker on the drive’s plastic wrap contains a QR code which takes you to their web site and makes registration of the product quick and easy. My primary computer is a 2021 MacBook Pro with an M1 chip and Thunderbolt 4 ports, so I was expecting to see specs close to the claimed ones, but my simple, non-scientific testing showed only about half the claimed write and read speeds (see photo). Doing some internet searching on MacBook port speeds I discovered some reports about the Thunderbolt 4 port speeds not meeting the standard’s specifications, so I’m sorry to say I can give no first-hand, conclusive evidence of the validity Crucial’s claims. However, when I copied over my entire photo library of thousands of pictures, the time it took was very acceptable, and based on the manufacturer’s stellar reputation I have no reason to doubt the data they present in support of their product. The X10 Pro works with BitLocker To Go on Windows and FileVault on Macs, plus Crucial’s website states that there will be a release in September of 2023 (for download) of a portable SSD utility that will offer 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) hardware encryption. The Crucial X10 Pro SSD has compatibility with Windows, Mac, Android, iPad, PC, and Linux, a five-year limited warranty, a variety of sizable capacities, tested and documented speed and durability, and pricing competitive with other brand names in the marketplace, so it should be on anyone’s short list when shopping for additional or local back-up storage.

I was really surprised when I received and opened the box for my new Crucial by Micron X10 Pro 2TB USB-C External SSD. I didn't expect it to be so petite. This 2TB drive is about 2 inches long by 1.5 inches wide and 1/4" thick. It actually has a hole in the corner designed to place the drive on a keyring or lanyard. It weighs less than an ounce and a half (42 grams) And it is designed sturdily enough to withstand the abuse it would take if it were placed on a keychain and taken out and used extensively in the field by nature photographers like me, who needs a high capacity, super fast solid state drive that can handle the file transfer of hundreds of stills in enormous RAW files and high frame-rate videos with huge file sizes. The X10 Pro is rated IP55 water and dust proof; drop proof up to 7.5 feet (2 meters); and shock, vibration and extreme-temperature proof. This is Aerospace level technology from a best in class manufacturer Micron. They are so sure of their product quality that they placed a 5-year limited warranty on this device. When it comes to performance the X10 Pro is touted to have tested Read speeds up to 2,100MB/s and Write speeds up to 2,000MB/s. Those speeds are best case scenario and totally dependent on your system type, CPU type, Operating System type and USB port type. The X10 Pro is designed to run on a USB 3.2 Gen2 2x2 Type-C port, which optimally runs at a 20Gb/s transfer rate using the specifically designed 9.5" USB C cable provided. Be aware that if you don't have a Type-C port that runs at that rate or better, all USB devices are backwards compatible and will run but at much lower speeds. (You can also get a USB type A cable from Crucial that will work with the X10, but the best transfer rate you can get with it is 10Gb/s.) I tested my 2TB X10 Pro SSD out on my laptop that has an AMD Ryzen 7 7736U Processor with Radeon Graphics 2.70 GHz; Installed RAM of 16.0 GB; running Windows 11 Home Version 22H2 OS build 22621.2134 and with the X10 Pro empty and formatted in NTSF. The laptop has a USB4 Type C port that runs at max speed of 40Gb/s and is backwards compatible with this 20Gb/s drive. This is a premium setup for a laptop, yet I was (only) able to achieve a Read rating of 1017.4 Mb/s and a Write rating of 941.8 Mb/s. I jest at the 'only'. These rates are super fast for file transfers to and from this drive and much better than I have seen other people post for their results. Obviously, conditions can be improved to gain a rate closer to the illusive 2100 Mb/s rating that the drive is capable of doing, but for my purposes this is blazing fast. I was able to transfer 26.5GB of video files to and from the drive in about a minute. That is awesome. So, if you have the need for lots of storage and lots of speed, then I highly suggest the Crucial by Micron X10 Pro USB-C External SSD.

This little external drive checks off all the boxes for me, it’s fast, holds a lot and is durable. In the past, I’ve used memory sticks (slow) and traditional external drives, this is my first external SSD drive. I was surprised how this drive is! At 2”x2.5”, this is slightly larger than a set of AirPod pros and smaller than a credit card. Not only is it small, but it’s durable. It is rated at IP55 and is water and dust resistant. It’s also drop resistant up to 7.5’, making it much more durable than traditional drives. With traditional drives, I’m always extra careful when handling them as they have moving parts inside that is definitely not drop resistant. Speed: One of the standout features of the X10 Pro SSD is its remarkable read and write speeds. The read/write speed of this drive is rated at 2,100/2,000 MB/s! While this sounds really fast, I wasn’t able to get these speeds in my tests. I formatted the drive using ExFAT format so I can use the drive in both my Mac and Windows laptops. Using the USB-C cable that came with the drive, I plugged it into the USB-C ports thunderbolt 4 ports on my Dell XPS 13” laptop. I copied a 71GB video folder to the desktop (the laptop has a NVMe SSD drive as well). I tried both copying and moving the folder to the Crucial X10, the transfer speed fluctuated between 400-550 MB/s and took about 2 mins 18 seconds to complete. While it did not achieve the. 2,100MB/s, it’s still very fast. I than ran CrystalDiskMark on the drive to see what the software would benchmark the drive at, the results were 1,072.58 for read and 983.63 for write. Usability: After copying the video files to the drive, I was able to play the videos directly from the drive with no issues. This can come in handy when you want to play movies directly from a TV, but you may need a USB- to USB-A adapter. I also copied my photo collection (thousands of photos) to the drive and used Lightroom to manage the library. This took a bit longer as I was copying it from a traditional external drive. I love how the Crucial X10 does not required separate power and is so small compared to the old external drive I was using, In conclusion, the Crucial X10 SSD drive is a compelling option for anyone seeking a blend of speed, durability, and a compact design. Crucial is a brand that I’m familiar with, I’ve purchased RAM upgrades from them in the past. I’ve already recommended this drive to several friends looking for a small backup drive they can leave in a safety deposit box.