Customer Ratings & Reviews

So whenever you are reviewing something, price is a factor that matters a lot. I purchased this drive on a deal from bestbuy and I also own crucial x8 as well. For the price, this drive is an absolute steal, you don't even need to look at portable hdds at this price. The performance gap between the two is hardly noticeable when you aren't using sequential/single large file.

Thanks! I enjoyed this Storage I genuinely love your products!! I would put emojis here but sadly it will not let me.

Great, highly portable storage. It’s wild how small and fast storage has gotten.

Good SSD, really fast and did what I required it to do!

The Crucial SSD is portable and very efficient to use. Great product.

So far I cannot complain. Needed to move some files from my work computer due to an upgrade from a 2017 Macbook Air to a 2020 M1. This has fit the bill perfectly. The adapter is nice so that it fits your usb and usbc ports. Perfect size for my bookbag. Oh yeah, 1TB for $60!

I try to find out the exact features and quality I need to achieve my goals,this product does what it say it will do,I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Good quality and performance for price point. Using as backup drive for music files

It has given me 0 issues since I got it. Fast write speeds and clean look!

Very disappointed in the actual vs quoted file transfer speeds. Advertised as 800 Mbps I’m getting anywhere from 90 MBps to 100 KBps. (Averaging about 8 to 10 MBps). That’s not a typo. This is transferring 56 GB of data from a Surface Pro 8 which has a PCIe SSD, not SATA, so the transfer speeds should be much much higher. I am using the USB cable that came with the Crucial external drive. Windows Task Manager shows CPU is at 28% and Memory 58% so neither are pegged out. Disk utilization (internal SSD) is only at 14%. Very disappointing performance.

One of the best products on the market, not one thing to complain about, easy to use. Small and portable. A++ Product.

Perfect for what I was looking for. No-nonsense, plug and play storage.

I purchased this drive in 2023 but never used it until now. When I finally plugged it in, there was no response at all. I even tried it on a couple of different computers with no luck. It’s pretty concerning that just sitting on a shelf for some time can cause it to completely fail. Very disappointing and honestly a bit scary if you plan to save important files and discover years later that the drive is dead.

This drive is only useful if you need to transfer relatively small files. If you need to transfer huge files, such as feature length movies or shows for a studio, this is garbage. AVOID and don't waste your time if you've got no time to waste trasnfering huge project files in exccess of 20gb. The estimated time for two 120gb files went from 14 minutes to nearly 2 hours. 2 hours! Why did a I buy a portable (USB 3.2 Gen2 for this? It seems like it has a write cache that fills up and it slows to the worst speeds I've ever seen in a portable drive. Sure, it starts off at 600Mbps+ but as soon as that write cache fills up (in about 5 seconds), it slows to a crawl. A 125 gig file was going to take less than 10 minutes...and a minute later, it recalculates to over an hour. Unnacceptable. Just for the record, I was using this in Windows 11 and used "better write performance" settings on the read and write drives. Both ports I was using exceeded the spec (USB4), in fact I saw speeds in excess of 800Mbps before it would dive down to 30.1Mbps. Everytime. 2 different PCs. I expected more from you Crucial! Your MX500 drives have been magnificent! This X6 is hot garbage!

when i first got this drive and ran a speed test, the results were impressive, with 700mb read and write. however, i copied over 250gb of data and the transfer speeds plummeted down to 40/260. definitely returning this garbage immediately

For many, storage size and price are the two main driving factors when choosing an external storage solution. As such, it has become easier in recent years to acquire fast solid state drives for a reasonable price. In addition, with the advent of NVMe based storage, performance and pricing may not always be clear cut. For mainstream drives, it has become harder to differentiate which drive has the faster performance. In an attempt to try and find a fast SSD solution, we must first take a look at the latest SSD offering in Crucial's excellent line of storage solutions, the X6. With capacities ranging from 500 GB - 4 TB of storage, I was excited get my hands on this new drive and could not wait to compare it with other popular solid state drives. If anyone has already owned a portable SSD, then you are probably familiar with the unbelievably small nature of these units. Simply put, it still amazes me that so much storage can be packed in a small and lightweight solution. In the box, you will find the SSD, a quick start guide, and a USB 3.2 Type-C cable. It did not come with a Type-A adapter, but I already had several from previous SSD drives. Physically, the X6 stands on its own. It is a uniquely square design, clocking in just under 3 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall. Performance wise, crucial has listed the read speeds up to 540 MB/s over USB 3.2 Gen 1, which is comparable to other mainstream models. Setup should be relatively easy. The X6 comes already formatted in eXFAT. For my tests, I wanted to encapsulate all the Crucial X6 has to offer, as well as compare its blazing speed with other similar models. I decided I would compare the newly released Crucial X6 1TB drive with my SanDisk 500GB Extreme (Model: SDSSDE60-500) as well as the ever popular Samsung T5 1 TB (Model: MU-PA10B). Additionally, for data transfers, I wanted to keep my tests relatively simple to focus on an out of box experience. Aside from doing a quick format, nothing else was changed. As with anything computer related, data and benchmarks can quickly become complicated, especially when you factor in the different ways USB is implemented across a wide range of chipsets. Your results will differ! With this in mind, I wanted to give you an idea on what to expect with this drive given two drastically different computer environments. My first test was to run all drives in a non-USAP environment using Windows 7 Ultimate. I ran all drives over USB 3.0 using a USB Type-C to USB Type-A adapter on my Asus Maximus V Extreme Z77 motherboard. I used the same USB 3.0 port that is tied directly to the Intel Z77 chipset (not the AsMedia chip). My second test was to then use my Asus Flipbook 15 Q538 laptop (2020), this time over Thunderbolt /USB Type-C using Windows 10. The port is rated for 40 GBPS. All tests were conducted with the AC power plugged in. The power mode was set to best performance. Lastly, to compliment my Crystalmark 8.0.2 tests, I manually copied two sets of data. My first data test is one large 37.3 GB bluray image. The second transfer is one large 30.6 GB music folder, but features 5,446 files and 1,166 folders to test the random 4K performance. Here is the data for all drives using Windows 7 Ultimate from my desktop. Please keep in mind UASP is disabled due to not being supported in Windows 7. To shorten the data, I will only list the Sequential values and Random 4K at a queue depth/ thread of 1 (full results in the pictures). Crucial: Sequential Read: 371.82 MB/s / Sequential Write: 363.88 MB/s Crucial: 4K Read (Q1T1): 32.46 MB/s / Random 4K Write (Q1T1): 72.95 MB/s Samsung: Sequential Read: 368.51 MB/s / Sequential Write: 371.18 MB/s Samsung: 4K Read (Q1T1): 27.82 MB/s / Random 4K Write (Q1T1): 73.13 MB/s SanDisk: Sequential Read: 367.25 MB/s / Sequential Write: 371.03 MB/s SanDisk: 4K Read (Q1T1): 30.76 / Random 4K Write (Q1T1): 74.70 MB/s As you can see, all the drives perform equally. Despite not supporting UASP, Windows 7 still allows the drive to flex some muscle during my manual transfers. Starting with my 37.3 GB Bluray image, the Crucial X6 transfer started off really high around 540 MB/s mark before falling to 400 MB/s. Half the file was transferred before it leveled off in 360-370 MB/s range before finishing in roughly a minute. This was extremely fast. For my 30 GB music folder, the Crucial X6 was able to hold steady around 180-200 MB/s range. As you can see the transfer was a bit more aggressive, but nonetheless fast. The same behavior was noted on the Samsung T5 on the 37 GB bluray image. The transfer started off around the 540 MB/s range and slowly decreased to around 370 MB/s. The transfer completed shortly thereafter. For my 30 GB music folder, the T5 shot up to around 250 MB/s before slowly dropping to around the 200 MB/s mark. It held consistently for a little bit before holding around the 185-190 MB/s range. Both drives would continue to hold around the same range as the transfer duration prolonged. On my SanDisk 500 GB, the 37 GB bluray image was not as fast as the others, but more constant despite showing similar benchmark numbers. The transfer held steady around 270 MB/s. As for my 30GB music folder, the SanDisk was able to climb just under 200 MB/s and held consistently before dropping to around 190 MB/s. Overall, the Crucial X6 is certainly impressive. Moving on, the next set of transfers were done on my Asus Flipbook 15, which has a 1 TB Intel SSD. It is accompanied by an additional 32 GB SSD for an Intel Optane configuration. All drives were connected via the 40 GBPS Thunderbolt over USB Type- C port. It is powered by the Intel i7 1165G7 CPU. The results are as follows: Crucial: Sequential Read: 568.16 MB/s / Sequential Write: 511.74 MB/s Crucial: 4K Read (Q1T1): 35.78 MB/s / Random 4K Write (Q1T1): 74.32 MB/s Samsung: Sequential Read: 567.48 MB/s / Sequential Write: 512.26 MB/s Samsung: 4K Read (Q1T1): 30.07 MB/s / Random 4K Write (Q1T1): 80.85 MB/s SanDisk: Sequential Read: 567.85 MB/s / Sequential Write: 531.17 MB/s Sandisk: 4K Read (Q1T1): 29.50 MB/s / Random 4K Write (Q1T1): 56.19 MB/s Once again, the drives are fairly identical to each other. As expected, the drives were no longer bottlenecked by the operating system. There was a notable difference on the Random 4K (Q32T1) between the Samsung/SanDisk versus the Crucial. I assumed that it could be chipset related, despite having current specifications. As for my manual transfers, all drives were finally able to stretch their legs as they were no longer bottlenecked by the operating system. Starting with the Crucial X6, my 37GB bluray image held consistently between 385-390 MB/s, despite one instance around the 60% mark of the transfer where it dropped all the way down to 250 MB/s for a few seconds. I still am not sure what caused the dip. My guess would be either the X6 controller, my Intel controller, or the chipset . It may even have been a cache dump on one of the SSDs. I also tried swapping cables but the result was still the same. It certainly should not correspond with the Q32T1 numbers as this is more of a sequential transfer. Regardless, the X6 still finished in respectable time. The 30 GB music folder had no dips and held consistently between 335-350 MB/s. On my T5, the bluray image held consistently around 400-405 MB/s. The 30 GB music folder transferred around 360 MB/s before dipping much like the X6 did on the other transfer to around 250 MB/s. It eventually went back up to 360 MB/s. As for the SanDisk, the 37 GB bluray image dipped sharply in the beginning of its transfer, but quickly shot up to 400-405 MB/s and held it for the whole duration. However, the 30 GB music folder was much more inconsistent. The transfer ranged around 100-280 MB/s before peaking briefly around 315 MB/s but would drop sharply again. It would continue up and down for the remainder of the transfer. Overall, I am impressed with the Crucial X6. Its behavior is certainly on par with the other drives and is more consistent than my SanDisk on the music transfer. In addition, it is very competitive with the T5. In conclusion, the Crucial X6 is another fabulous entry in the external SSD market. While certainly not targeted as the fastest option, it certainly provides competitive speeds to other models within the same price range. It is compact and sporting a sleek square design allows you to easily move tons of data on the go. While your results will certainly differ, you should see comparable results, if not better depending on the chipset configuration. As it stands, the X6 performed as expected and will certainly please those looking for a fast external SSD. With that, the Crucial X6 comes highly recommended.

Love this little drive. So fast and lightweight without worry of bouncing it around and losing data.

I really like this little SSD from Crucial. I have another internal SSD from Crucial in my desktop and I have also been very happy with its performance. This portable version is ideal from a performance and size standpoint especially if you travel. It’s small enough to fit into any pocket (only 2.5 inches square and thin). Performance is great. It’s rated at 540 MB/s and when I tested it performed admirably. I used Crystal Disk Mark version 8 to test it. On my Dell I7 with 12 gig of Ram and a 512 Internal SSD using the USB C connection I could get 568 MB/s of READ data. Testing the WRITE transfer I could still get 512MB/s. On my HP laptop with an I3, 8 gig Ram and an internal 256 Gb SSD using the USB C connection the number dropped slightly to 457 READING and 443 WRITEING. Still great performance degraded slightly by the computer system not the Crucial drive. I have attached photos of those test results. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone wanting a fast and compact backup source. Out of the small and simple packaging, this drive is ready to go. Its small, sleek, and easily connected to USB-C connections. And the 3 year warranty is there if you need it. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

After short time speed goes down significantly and definitely not as described on the packaging.

I got this hard drive with the wrong impression: I thought getting an SSD external drive was supposed to lessen the time it took for me to copy large amounts of data from one system and possibly speed up the time to upload the data from the external drive to another system. However, I realized the real value was the read speed. When I first received the drive, I copied 138 GB of music from one of my old laptops with an internal PCIe M.2 SSD drive and found that the time it took didn't look much faster than doing so using an external HDD. Mind you, the laptop port I used supposed Thunderbolt 3 support so I thought that would factor. The transfer took about 25-30 minutes. Still pretty good. However, I soon realized that the real value to having an external SSD drive like this model is the READ speed. Crucial's Crystal Disk Mark 6.02 Benchmarks showed read speed of up to 558.9 MB/s with a new drive, out of the box, and quick formatted to NTFS. The scores from my drive, after having copied 138 GB of music files onto it, then copied files off of it, scored a 562.7 read. In fact, the first two read scores fared better than Crucial, but fell off afterwards (comparatively). In practical use, the drive provides what Crucial intended to offer: an extension to storage without feeling the pain of using a slower external hard drive. I have two laptops running on PCI2 M.2 internal 512 GB SSDs (of course in reality that means I'm only really working with 458 GB max each, before accounting for OS). That may be more than enough space for most people, but work with large volumes of files on a regular basis. Previously, in using external HDDs, I learned to live with the lower read speeds where I could. Where I couldn't I would have to copy files from the external HDD to internal space. Using this drive, I haven't run into any cases of the latter yet. This drive gives me peace of mind to know that external storage doesn't have to be file-dumping areas anymore; they can truly be an addition to internal space. What makes things even better is the size! My previous experience with external SSD drives have been with the likes of G-Drives and others whose sizes match those of the familiar external HDD. This thing is less than HALF of those. I have a Seagate 2 TB external HDD that I thought was small, but man was I blown away with this Crucial drive! For me, the Seagate is pocket-sized, but this Crucial is pocket-sized to the point where I might forget it in my pocket and put it in the wash. I'm really happy that they included a 1 inch USB C cord with it too. Even with a cord that size, the drive tends to hang off the side of whichever system you're connected to in a bit of an awkward fashion, but due to it being as light as it is, it's more about its presence than any weight pulling down. For anyone looking to add more quickly accessible drive space to their system, I would highly recommend this drive.