Customer Ratings & Reviews

It's small lightweight and didn't get too warm when plugged into my MacBook Pro for long periods of time. I just wish I could transfer things from this SSD drive to my Micro SD card when connected to my MacBook Pro. Transfer speeds on my Samsung 360 book 3 is not as advertised but I had three transfers coming out of this thing and it handled the transfers without burning up. I call that a win. Even if it was not as fast as advertised.

This drive is tiny and fast! Was able to backup my files in no time at all. Easy to store and take with you on travel trips for work. Adds almost aero weight! Price was insane because it was on sale! Great work Best Buy and Crucial!

This 2TB Crucial External Hard Drive is very fast and that definitely works well when I’m working in the recording studio. It’s also compact and sturdy. Love it!

'm a filmmaker, and I do my own editing, so I'm in constant need of LARGE hard drives to transfer projects to different production departments, as well as deliver films to distributors. These small but huge portable hard drives are perfect for what I need. Reliable with a great price.

I am very computer savvy -- just wanted to make that clear before someone comments that I don't know what I am doing or talking about. I know that the performance of this drive is dependent on the quality of the cable, the speed of the port the cable is connected to, and the speed of the host drive where the data is coming from. The drive is advertised as having speeds up to 1,050 megabytes a second. When plugged in with the original USB-C cable, and transferring files to a M1 Pro MBP, I should not be getting bursts of 300 megabytes of second, with intermittent slowdowns that average 60 megabytes a second. At best when this drive was operating at the fastest speeds, it still fell short by roughly 800 megabytes a second. Additionally, when hooked up to my PC on USB-C and transferring files to a SSD, it's just a slow. To put it into comparison, my external conventional hard drive transferred the needed files faster overall. The connection stayed a solid 150 megabytes a second, and did not sputter out like the X9 did -- with dips to abysmal transfer speeds. Not going to bother exchanging it for another one just to find out it performs just as bad. TLDR: Brand new day old X9 has terrible read/write speeds, old conventional HDD beats it out over long transfers. Returning.

Great storage Unit. Very light small and very fast. It doesn`t get hot like many others and always working very well. Much better than the last one X6

Great build quality and transfer speed, and budget-friendly compared to competitor brands like Samsung.

The bundled USB cable does not work at all. Windows showed malfunctioned device. When I connected with another new USB cable, the SSD is good in performance. It took me an hour to find out the problem.

Use it for all more music production storage. Can get any better

Easy to use and has a tremendous amount of storage. I would buy another.

It's TEENY TINY but performance is BIG! Use it with my s21 wayy more than my t7. The one with the rubber outer shell~ ...feels light as a feather and if your cord is new/stiff enough it can hold it up abit lol Stash it in a ziplock with the rest of my cords whenever make a Disney trip (=

Great add on to my MacBook Air! I use it to store Parellels and the programs I run on parellels.

This drive, although powerful and expansive, is alarmingly small. It can be easily slipped into a pocket, computer case, or attached to a bag via key-ring or carabiner. Moreover, the X9 comes in three different data sizes, 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB, so that even Goldilocks can find just the right data size while keeping the external case size the same. The read speeds are approximately 1050 MB/S utilizing a fresh formatted drive with NTFS on a reasonably fast PC. The write speeds appear to be similar, but are not officially stated depending where you look. The USB standard for this drive is the USB 3.2 Gen 2 which yields up to 10Gb/s (1,250 MB/s). It’s advised to use the 9” USB cable that came with the drive, as it is rated for this fast speed. The drive has a three-year warranty and weighs in at a mighty 32 grams. To get started with the drive, you can either use your camera to scan the QR code on the packaging, or if you’re using this drive on a laptop (more likely), go to Crucial's website for support for free data transfer software, an installation guide and optimization software and firmware. If using the QR code, one of the first stops is to register the product and then decide if you would like a free month of Adobe Acrobat Pro to try out. I downloaded and then installed the Storage Executive software (for 64 bit systems only) from Crucial to manage the drive and for updates. After plugging the drive into the USB-C port, it popped right up with four internet shortcuts on the drive that led to the Acronis site for backup and cloning software, the Mylio Photo Organizer (free for a month and then $9.95/month thereafter), an X9 support website, and some X9 icons which did not seem to work. The drive appears to come formatted as exFAT, but once you maybe copy the shortcuts to a safe place, you could probably format it to whatever your needs are. Crucial has mentioned that using NTFS might be the fastest, so consider it if speed is a driving factor. My use of this drive is to just store videos and pictures, so I do not really need to literally do anything else to use the drive. Take it right out of the box and plug it into the laptop port and into the drive with the included short cable and I’m done. I’m somewhat curious about the drive, so I have checked out the Crucial Storage Executive software that confirms that the latest firmware is already installed and that the drive is functioning correctly. I may do some overprovisioning of the drive later, if it will let me. For those needing to clone a drive or use a formal backup program like the Acronis, it has always been a good performer, so seeing that it is included here, although a version only working with Crucial drives, is a bonus. I would recommend installing it and using it for the functions mentioned earlier even if you may not need it immediately. In my use of the drive, it functioned perfectly and will be a great addition to a very portable system for video and photographic editing and especially archiving. However, keep in mind that although this diminutive drive is convenient for its large storage size, that much data could easily go missing due to the tiny size, so consider utilizing some form of encryption that may be determined by your operating system. Only a few minor issues that I wish were addressed, would be the inclusion of a lanyard of some type and perhaps a soft fabric pouch to store the drive and cable together. Otherwise, great job, love this drive.

The Crucial X9 2TB is an excellent portable ssd. Fast and very portable. The pictures of it don’t give you a real idea of just how small and lightweight this drive is. Easy to pop into a pocket and forget you even have it on you. Yet it still feels solid and durable. 2TB is a lot of memory for portable purposes. Can’t imagine needing more. Speed is what most will be concerned with and it’s plenty fast. I don’t doubt there are faster portable drives, but you will definitely pay dearly for them. The photos I’m attaching show it tested on two different computers. The slower speeds are from my desktop using a USB-C 3.1 slot. Fast for sure, but it gets faster. The faster numbers are from my laptop with Thunderbolt 4. Basically double the speed. Transferring large files of jpegs has been fast and smooth. I’m trying hard to find any negatives about this drive but I really can’t think of any. Maybe it would be nice to have an indicator light to show it’s running but honestly that’s nitpicking. Overall a top of the line portable drive.

I know external storages are getting smaller in size and bigger in capacity but what is this? This Crucial x9 is something I haven't seen before. I own a couple of external storage drives and I thought they were small but this Crucial x9 took it to a different level. The drive itself is so small that it fits in the palm of my hand and even in the smaller pocket of a jean. The small size is not the only advantage this storage drive has but also speed. When I connect the drive to my PC it literally opens up almost immediately. It is rated at a max reading speed of approximately 1050mbs. I can attest that using it with my gaming laptop that is equipped with USB-C 3.2 I was able to get an average of 600 to 750 MBS of writing speed. I was able to transfer game file of 86Gb in a stunning 2 minutes and 6 seconds. I actually used a timer to time the transfer. I ran a few tests using CrystalDiskMark both reading and writing were a little over the 1000mbs. Be mindful to get the full performance you have to format the drive to NTFS. From the factory this storage device is formatted differently. This drive is so versatile it can be connected to pretty much any device. I connected it to my computer, gaming consoles and even my phone and it worked. Overall this little storage device performs like a champ. It is extremely portable, and it writes and reads fast. It comes in various storage sizes from 1TB, 2TB and 4TB. I was definitely impressed with the performance and size. It is also rated dropped proof at approximately 6.5 feet high or 2 meters. A lanyard can be attached but it was not included. In the box you get the Crucial SSD, USB-C cable and manual.

Portable drives are a must for me. I use them as local backups on my computers, and I also like to keep one full of my graphic-design library. I have 1000's of fonts, bitmaps, vectors, and other resources for my graphic design work. While this is a side-hobby and not my career, I still find myself doing my design work on different computers and sometimes in different environments. That means I need to have my library available without having to rely on internet connections, computers with large amounts of disk space, or being at home on my own network. I have been using portable spinning drives for a long time for this because they are inexpensive and have a lot drive space. I know about SSD's in the portable category, but had not considered them before, assuming they were too expensive for the amount of drive space I would need. This Crucial X9 portable SSD opened my eyes. I took it out of the package and realized it was about the same size as 2 of my USB thumb drives next to each other! These things are tiny! Not only that, but because of the technology, I don't have to worry about being extra careful to not let the drive get bumped, especially while using it. They are much more rugged and ideal for portability. The drive itself is so small, I can set my Logitech mouse on top of it and completely cover it. It's also incredibly lightweight, so you won't notice it in a pocket or bag. READING & WRITING The feature I didn't consider until now was the speed. We generally have some form of SSD in our computers now, because they can be read much faster than the old spinning drives. This obviously applies here. When I'm digging through a massive library of files, especially ones that I want to preview without having to open every one of them, the drive read-speed really matters. Previewing files on my previous drives meant waiting for each one to load, which sometimes takes a few seconds per file. This drive, when plugged into a USB-C port on either my MacBook Pro or Dell Inspiron, makes previewing seem to happen almost instantaneously. THE NUMBERS In my pictures, I show the disk read and write speeds. Crucial states that the drive is capable of read speeds of up to 1,050 MB. In my tests, I was just shy of this, and my hardware is much less than that of what Crucial used for their own tests. Performance will likely vary a bit from one user to another, depending on what type of computer hardware you are using. However, both of the computers I tested this drive on are at least 3 years old as of this writing. WHAT THIS MEANS If you are not technical and are just shopping for a portable drive, the numbers you see on these testing results may not mean much to you. To better show why this is such an upgrade over a spinning drive, my pictures show the read and write speeds for my spinning portable drive. This drive sits on my desktop for nightly backups. I have another one of the same that I use for my graphic-design resources. It's not much thicker, but definitely a lot larger than this Crucial X9 drive. For the speed tests, I am showing you the read and write speeds of both the spinning drive, and this X9 SSD, and how dramatic the difference is. USABILITY Crucial markets this drive as being suitable for consumer workloads. This means day-to-day reading and writing of files between the drive and potentially multiple computers, acting as addition drive space on a device that has limited disk space (say, 256 MB or less), acting as a backup drive for your computer, and even running games and software from the device. It will definitely meet those needs for most purchasers. The drive comes with a USB-C cable, USB-C on both ends. The cable is rather short, which is fine if you are using it on a laptop or tablet that is in front of you, but may be too short if the device you are connecting to is under a desk, behind a monitor, or in another hard-to-access location. Plugging this into a USB-C 3.2 or better port will maximize its performance, but if you do not have access to a USB-C port on your device, you will need an adapter to use this, and the transfer speeds will probably be less than what the X9 SSD is capable of. However, purchasing this now will mean that you will likely have USB-C on your device in the future, at which point you will be able to take full advantage of the transfer speeds of this portable drive. OVERALL I am really impressed with this drive! I know that Crucial is a high-quality brand and I have no doubt this will serve me well for a long time. The 2TB storage capacity is sufficient for most users. If your needs are within 500 MB or less of this capacity, upgrade to Crucial's 4TB version so you are good well into the future, as you don't want to max out an SSD because of the way they work. It's small and extremely lightweight, along with being durable. If you have never used a portable SSD (like me), this will reinvent portable storage for you!

I work to pass the files, then it doesn't start anymore, I used it only once

This SSD is just one notch below the top of the line in the Crucial’s line of portable SSD products. There are two great features that this SSD brings to the table: portability and powerful performance. In addition to that, the SSD is also drop, shock and vibration proof as well as resistant to extreme temperature. Just be sure that your device supports USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 interface in order to maximize the potential speed of the SSD. I can’t believe how small SSD these days; even with the capacity of 2 TB, the form factor is so small and thin. The days of USB flash drive should be over. The SSD is encased in a polymer plastic material and it looks sturdy enough to survive accidental drops; though we have to bear in mind that it is still made of plastic after all. The SSD connects to devices with a USB-C cable and the included cable works well as it supports maximum transfer speed that the SSD is capable to. The SSD is rated at about 1 GBPS read speed. As for the write speed, real world test by transferring 1 GBPS of data to the drive shows about half of that theoretical read speed. This kind of speed should be enough for most users. The SSD comes with 3-year warranty. With 2 TB of capacity, this portable SSD is extremely handy not only for storing data externally for your gadgets, but also as backup for your entire computer. One very useful usage scenario for an SSD at this level of speed is for playing games, which will slash-off loading times. Just install as many recent AAA games as you want into this SSD and you still have some space left. Since it’s so small, you may want to store it in a nice little sleeve.

The Crucial X9 Portable SSD is my favorite portable storage device. I had no idea it would be this small. It is a small NVME. Think of two USB-A flash drives stacked next to one another and you have a basic idea of how big this drive is. Performance has been solid; I get transfer rates near 1,050MB/S read and write. I am sold. This is an easy drive to recommend. Unboxing: Users should know that in addition to the drive, you get a small, 9-inch USB-C to USB-C cable. If you only have USB-A ports, you will need some type of adapter. You also get a one-month trial of Adobe Acrobat Pro and links on the drive to Mylio Photo Organizer and Acronis backup software. Experience: A lot of what I love about this drive is centered on the packaging. This thing is small and convenient. But with 2TB of storage, it can store a lot of data. I assessed the X9 on my Android devices, on my Windows 11 PCs, and on my network router. It worked well on everything. Transfer rates are good. Transfer rates can vary from device to device, but I got close to the specs posted by Crucial. This drive hits the right balance of performance and price. Conclusion: This is a solid drive. I really like it and it will be my portable storage of choice going forward. Highly recommended. 5/5

I am absolutely thrilled to have this Crucial X9 external SSD from crucial as part of my technological arsenal! Not only is it a blazing fast device, but it is tough enough for travel and is a perfect bridge between my Windows Gaming PC and 2021 MacBook Pro 14 M1 (MBP) while formatted as an exFAT drive as it came from the factory! One of my idiosyncrasies as a tech nerd is that I am unable to fully commit to one major computer operating system over another. I have loved MacOS devices for all my college and daily usage needs, while also being unable to separate myself from the passion of PC gaming which is to this day, inarguably, still the best experience with highest performance on Windows computers. In the middle ground between these two areas of enjoyment, exists a no-man’s land where I find myself needing to bridge the gap: video editing. I like to record gaming clips on my Windows PC, but I would prefer to edit them on my MBP which I am far more familiar with. Enter the Crucial X9 2TB SSD. Here is a drive formatted from the factory as exFAT with the compatibility between both my devices that allows me to record clips and games from OBS on my Windows PC and simply plug right into the MBP and be able to pull those recordings speedily and easily off and edit them on iMovie (don’t judge me)! My 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Pro with its Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, loves this drive and the best speeds I get are in this modality. Out of the box, I speed tested this drive with the included USB-C to USB-C cable (very high-quality feeling by the way) and was immediately thrilled to see write speeds of over 1600MB/s and read speeds of almost 900MB/s. This is right in line with what I would expect to get on a drive with this connection profile and is acceptably close to the advertised 1050MB/s of this drive (especially when considering differences in computers done with testing, etc.). A 100MB/s here or there difference, all I can tell you is that this drive is plenty fast for my needs and the needs of more casual consumers in general! The good news too is that this drive is formatted correctly (exFAT file system) to be essentially universally plug and play for Mac, Windows, and console users! It also has compatibility for Android devices, so I would be interested to see if this could be used with direct connection to Android tables or phones! Just note that any slower-than-advertised speeds would reflect on your device and not this drive. My windows gaming PC has USB-C ports, but those ports do not have the latest USB-C thunderbolt 4 protocol. It is an older generation and thus my speeds on the drive read and write were no higher than 450 MB/s. This is still vastly sufficient for my needs of recording gaming footage from my Windows PC onto the device and then editing it on my Apple MacBook Pro with all of the great speed it has to offer through its connection! I was able to import a 68.74GB 2 hour and 8 minute 1440p 60FPS MP4 recording off of the Crucial X9 in one minute and 25 seconds onto the MBP! That is honestly so cool and significantly speeds up my hobby workflow! Now, for the drive itself. This drive is unapologetically a consumer computer accessory from 2023, meaning that it is small, tough, powerful, mercifully USB-C oriented, and does not break the bank. It is so small it is hard for my thirty-year-old brain to even wrap around how this can be an external drive compared to the good ol’ days! In one of my pictures, I have it sitting next to a 1TB HDD external hard drive from WD that is almost 10 years old and has served as my main backup drive for years. Now, that WD Passport is as much a dinosaur in sheer size as it is in its antiquated USB-A to USB-micro B 3.0/3.1 connector! The Crucial X9 is 2.5” long, 2inches tall, and only a hair over 1/4” thick. It is the first external drive I have ever owned that could actually fit in that weird little pocket in some jeans, you probably know the one I am talking about! In spite of its miniscule size, it is extremely tough and up to the rigors of even a 6.5 foot drop and extreme temperatures and shocks according to Crucial! Therefore, it could probably ride in your jeans pocket and still protect your precious data! (looking at you, SanDisk, cough cough). It also seems to not get too hot. I ran about 5 minutes of speed tests to stress it and it was only just barely warm to the touch. All in all, I think this drive offers exactly what it is advertised to do at the perfect size, price, speed, and connectivity method this day in age! The only end of the review advisement I think I would say is that the box should probably say more noticeably than the tiny font on the back of the box that it does not include a USB-A connection solution in the box. This is going to confuse and frustration people who may not be as caught up with the march of technology. Thanks for reading and I hope this review has been helpful!