Customer Ratings & Reviews

At about 4” x 4”, a height of 1.5”, and 13.7oz weight (with cable and power adapter), the SanDisk Desk Drive is actually portable if you need it to be. Its small footprint takes up little space on a desk or work environment. The 12V power adapter is relatively slim at 2.5” x 1” x 1.5” (2.25” with the non-retractable prongs). The cable length of the power adapter is 5.5’. The length of the USB-C cable is 3’ 3”. With the USB-A adapter it comes to 3’ 4.5”. Full disclosure: The adapter that came with mine was defective which caused the speeds of the drive to be dramatically slow (44MB/s read and writes instead of 1000MB/s). I don’t know how prevalent my issue is, but if you experience the same, exchange your drive at the place of purchase or contact SanDisk and they will replace it under its limited 3 year warranty. The USB cable is pretty rigid, which is normal with high-speed cables such as this USB 3.2 Gen 2 cable, so you’ll need 2.5” of clearance space between the connection and an obstruction like a wall or the back of a desk. You might be able to flex the cable down to 2” of clearance, but I’d worry about the damaging of the cable at that point. The bottom of the Desk Drive has a silicone feeling base that does a decent job of keeping the drive in place on a flat surface. It’s more likely to slip on laminated surfaces when the cable is tugged on but it’s still able to establish a grip and it’s nothing terrible. Since the Desk Drive uses an SSD the drive has no moving parts. There is zero vibration and no noise while it is in operation, which tells me it’s probably not using a fan for cooling. I suspect it’s just using a heatsink, which probably accounts for most of the drive’s height and weight. Besides the power and USB-C connector, the only hole in the device is located on the back-left corner of the drive. I suspect it’s the Desk Drive’s only vent but I’m not sure since there’s no air blowing out to feel, again suggesting that there is no fan. After a sustained use of the Desk Drive for 1 hour, the drive never gets hot to a point where I can’t handle it. During operation the Desk Drive is at its hottest on the top of the device, but it’s still safe to touch. The Desk Drive is preformatted in exFAT so it’s compatible with Windows and macOS out of the box. On the drive itself is a single folder labeled “SanDisk Software” and it’s only 1.49 MB with 3 files: Software downloader for Mac (dmg), Windows (exe), and instructions for the software downloader (pdf). It doesn’t host the actual software itself. You will need an internet connection. You can always download the backup software, Acronis True Image, from Western Digital’s support website so you don’t need the included software downloader. Bear in mind that you’ll need almost 1 GB of free space to install Acronis. -=CrystalDiskMark 8.0.5 x64 test=- Sequential speed is the speed of a transfer of a single file. Random speed is the speed of a transfer when transferring many different files at once. Using the included USB-C cable plugged into Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 port: Sequential read: 1050.12 MB/s Sequential write: 1054.42 MB/s Random read: 126.93 MB/s Random write: 123.39 MB/s Using the cable with included USB-A adapter plugged into USB 3.2 Gen 2 port: Sequential read: 965.04 MB/s Sequential write: 900.53 MB/s Random read: 235.62 MB/s Random write: 215.50 MB/s Repeated tests will differ slightly but it lives up to its 1000 MB/s max read claim. I find it curious that the random speeds were slower on a USB 4 port but this may be a case of “your mileage may vary (YMMV)” and could just be my motherboard (ASUS ProArt X570-CREATOR WIFI). It’s not slow by any means, but just a glaring difference to me. It’s still dramatically faster than any mechanical drive solution out there. SSD is on a different class. -=Real life tests=- My PC’s NVMe SSD used in the following tests does 5000 MB/s read, 2200 MB/s write so it’s significantly faster than the Desk Drive and won’t be a bottleneck (a bottleneck is the thing that causes an output to be less than what you expect it to be). 34.4 GB of data comprised of 1095 files and 24 folders using USB-C cable: Desk Drive to NVMe SSD: 45 seconds NVMe SSD to Desk Drive: 57 seconds The same test using the USB-A adapter with the cable were pretty similar: SSD to NVMe SSD: 41 seconds NVMe SSD to SSD: 53 seconds 784 GB of data comprised of 64 files and 13 folders using USB-C cable: Desk Drive to NVMe SSD: 17 minutes NVMe SSD to Desk Drive: 21 minutes As you can see in all instances, the write speed takes slightly longer than the read speed. My read speeds typically range around the 930-960 MB/s My write speeds range around 575-700 MB/s Over a 10 minute span, the speeds were consistent, not showing any sign of thermal throttling. Acronis full backup of 706 GB from the NVMe SSD: 25 minutes Other external SSDs on the market at this price range with this storage capacity are only about half as fast as the Desk Drive (540 MB/s). The external SSDs that do run as fast as the Desk Drive typically don’t have a model with a storage capacity as high as the Desk Drive at 8TB. Spinning drives, while affordable, are nearly 5x slower than the Desk Drive. The SanDisk Desk Drive is currently the best bang for your dollar when it comes to high capacity AND high-speed storage. I highly recommend it.

A serious interest in photography and videography results in the need for very significant digital storage capacity for the many large files. Resultantly, maintaining full backups of all data requires a lot of storage real estate. The SanDisk Desk Drive has a large 8 TB capacity in a compact solid state drive unit with a claimed Read Speed of 1000 MB/s. The SanDisk Desk Drive is constructed of black ABS plastic, with an orange plastic band in the center where the top and bottom shells are joined. The drive measures approximately 3-7/8” x 3-7/8” x 1-5/8” tall. The sides are rounded bevels and the corners are radiused. It weighs 9.6 oz. (272 grams). The rear of the housing has a barrel connector for attaching the power connector from the included low-voltage power supply, as well as a USB-C connector. There is also a small, approximately 1/4" x 1/8” window in the rear, left radius of the bottom shell. I presume that this may be for ventilation. There is no drive activity lamp (LED) on the SanDisk Desk Drive. SanDisk includes a nice, thick jacketed 39” long USB-C to USB-C cable, and also includes a USB-C to USB-A adaptor if you choose to use that slow interface. The 12 Volt, 1.5 Amp power supply is equipped with a low voltage cord extending almost 6’ in length. The power supply is marked with a UL approval. The prongs on the power supply require horizontal orientation of the power block, which may be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on the orientation of the taps in the surge suppressor utilized. I wonder why the SanDisk Desk Drive requires an external 12 volt power supply when all of the portable SSDs that I own (up to 4 TB) are USB powered, which is of course more convenient. The only performance claim made by SanDisk is that of 1000 MB/s Read Speed. There is no claim for the Write Speed, which is typically slightly slower. Every other drive that I own has a specification for both. I benchmarked my SanDIsk Desk Drive using CrystalDiskMark 8, and included the test results in my review photographs. Using the included USB-C cable, connected to a Thunderbolt 4 port on my laptop, the SanDisk Desk Drive achieved 1077.14 MB/s on a sequential read test. It also had a very respectable sequential write speed. In fact, the Desk Drive benchmarked slightly better than my SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD, which claims slightly higher Read (and write) speeds. I also repeated the benchmarking using the supplied USB-C to USB-A adaptor in conjunction with the supplied USB cable, connected to a USB-A port of my laptop. Using that interface, the scores were, of course, dismal. The SanDisk Desk Drive ships with exFAT formatting, making it usable with both Windows and MAC OS. It can of course be reformatted to NTFS. On the root partition is a link to the Western Digital Support site, Software Downloads page. The site offers several utilities, including disk security, disk management and backup. Interestingly, none of the software available on that site indicate their compatibility with the DeskDrive. Evidently, the site has yet to be updated to reflect the new DeskDrive product. I chose to install the Western Digital Dashboard utility on my laptop. Using the “Dashboard” I was able to check for updated firmware. The Dashboard reported that the original firmware was up to date. The Dashboard also reports the internal temperature of the Desk Drive. The utility reported an operating temperature of 111° when the drive was idle. After performing a 14 minute transfer of some video files, the internal temperature peaked at 141°. The exterior of the Desk Drive’s enclosure was only slightly warm to the touch at all times. There is a paucity of information available about the SanDisk Desk Drive. I located a webpage dedicated to the Desk Drive. Unfortunately, the digital assets listed on that webpage, such as a PDF product Data Sheet are not available due to broken links. Both the Desk Drive dedicated support page and the WD Software Download page offer the download links for Acronis True Image for Western Digital backup utility software for a five year licensed subscription period. I have reservations about the Acronis software, and elected not to install it at this time. Users are restricted to a 90 day interval from the date of the Desk Drive purchase in which to download and install the Acronis True Image software. My trepidation regarding the Acronis software is based on initial online research, as well as information contained in the Acronis Knowledge Base regarding a potentially problematic removal process when uninstalling the software from a Windows system and endeavoring to get a clean and complete removal of the application and its artifacts, including Windows Registry entries. Therefore, I have deferred installing Acronis pending further investigation. The SanDisk Desk Drive carries a three year warranty, which is of course two years shorter than the five year warranty that my SanDisk portable SSDs are covered by. The side panel of the SanDisk Desk Drive package lists Compatibility with Windows10+, Windows 8.1” and Mac OS 11+. Addressing the “elephant in the room”, I am of course very familiar with the catastrophic failures of SOME SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD drives. In fact, I had a 1 TB SanDisk Extreme drive that was replaced under warranty. My drive could not be reflashed with the new firmware that SanDisk released to address some drive failures. My drive was no longer recognized by the OS at all. It was a paperweight. Fortunately, I did not lose irreplaceable data which was not stored elsewhere. I have read that some people no longer trust the SanDIsk or Western Digital brands as a result of that product failure. I am not among those abandoning this well established and long-trusted company. Western Digital has been one of my preferred sources for hard disk drives, and SanDisk has been among my favorites for flash memory products. In fact, all of my digital cameras, action cameras and drones currently have SanDisk SD or MicroSD cards in them and I just purchased several more. The reliability of any product is an unknown variable, and many, many companies have failures with one or more of their products. Western Digital and SanDisk have been trusted, reliable brands for a very long time. I continue to select SanDisk storage products and of course my hope is that my SanDisk Desk Drive will be as reliable as all of my other SanDisk and Western Digital storage have been, with the single exception discussed herein. I have always endeavored to maintain redundant backups of data, because any electronic device may potentially fail. I have performed a full backup and a few incremental backups using the SanDisk Desk Drive. I have also worked on some large graphic files and video files that I placed on the Desk Drive, to assess how working on live files with this drive’s read/write speeds would be, compared to working from the internal SSD. I have been very impressed. I acquired the SanDisk Desk Drive because it is a large, 8 TB capacity, solid-state drive capable of fast access/transfer speeds. The USB 3.2 Gen 2, 10 Gbps interface and 1000 MB/s read speed are real advantages. On benchmarking, the fast speeds are validated, and in use I am indeed finding the SanDisk Desk Drive to be a good, fast external drive. The only shortcoming from my perspective is the external power supply, rather than the drive being USB powered. A drive activity LED would also have been a nice touch. Overall, I am pleased with the SanDisk Desk Drive. It has the large capacity of a Hard Disk Drive, combined with the fast speeds of a Solid State Drive, which is a genuinely beneficial and attractive package.

You need space? This gives space. Lots of space. Not only did does this drive carry all my backups, pics, games and console HDD images, it is ridiculously small. The SanDisk SSD Desk Drive is a literal one-stop shop if you need to store and backup anything and everything. The portability part is just a huge bonus. Included in the box, you get your SSD, power cord, USB-C cable and a USB-C to A adapter. I even went to WD/SanDisk's website and downloaded Acronis to clone a couple of PCs hard drives. I connected via USB-C and hit the advertised the 1000 MB/s read speeds constantly. The footprint is small. I even place it right by my mouse to show its size. Saying the drive is massive is an understatement. I have backed up my phones files, 3 tablets, 1000s of pictures and videos, my entire Steam and Epic library and still have TBs free. I created separate partitions and stored images of 2 PCs. Just know, like every other HDD and SSD, you will get roughly 7.27TB of the full 8TB available (which is still a crazy amount). If you are in need of space albeit personal or even for workstations, this SSD is definitely a looker for sure.

Very small and very fast! I love that the 8TB storage perefctly matches the 8TB storage of my MacBook Pro.

The SanDisk 8 TB desk drive is a compact SSD storage device that remains on your desk and is connected to your computer by USBC or USBA. It has a fast transfer speed, SanDisk claims up to 1,000 MB per second; I got a speed of 280mb/s over USB A 3.1 transferring files to and from the drive using a Windows 11 PC. It can be used as an external backup disk by simply dragging and dropping your files into a folder on the desk drive or with the included Acronis true image for Western digital. With the Acronis you can backup your entire PC or specific files and folders. I love the small form factor and large storage space. I use it primarily to store backups of my photos and videos from my PC and our smartphones. I also use it for video and photo editing project storage workspace as 4k video editing requires quite a lot of space and this 8TB drive has it! The drive can be used on Linux, Mac, Android, IOS, and Windows. The drive comes formatted with Exfat which is compatible with everything but NTFS is recommended if you use Windows only which is how I formated mine. Fast compact abundant storage is just what I needed thank you SanDisk

The SanDisk 8TB hard drive is a solid storage solution. It offers plenty of space for all my files, and the transfer speeds are reliable. I like its compact design, though it’s not the most portable. Overall, it’s great for backups and organizing large media collections.

This Desk Drive works great. I do sports videography and save many projects on here, including all the edits of the season and highlight tapes at the end of the season. If you are working on large projects this is a great tool to have. I've had zero issues with it.

Absolutely amazing Perfect for what i was in need!

Small and fast, good price! Delivers the promised read and write speeds!

As someone constantly juggling multiple digital devices with tons of files to manage, I recently tried out the SanDisk Desk Drive Desktop SSD 8TB, and it has made a noticeable difference in how I manage and secure my data. With its blend of high capacity and swift performance, this SSD is poised as a necessary staple for anyone needing reliable, high-volume storage right at their desk. Firstly, the 8TB capacity of the SanDisk Desk Drive is a game changer. For context, this is enough space to store thousands of high-resolution photos, videos, extensive music collections, and important documents—all in one spot. Having previously struggled with multiple external drives, consolidating everything into one unit simplifies my workflow immensely. The freedom to expand my file library without worrying about space constraints is incredibly relieving. Speed is another critical factor, and the Desk Drive does not disappoint. With read speeds reaching up to 1000MB/s, it's up to four times faster than a typical desktop HDD. This enhancement is evident when transferring large files or accessing archived content—it’s rapid and seamless, which cuts down on the frustration of waiting times dramatically. The physical design of the drive also merits praise. Its compact footprint is perfect for a clutter-free desk, sitting unobtrusively alongside my laptop and other peripherals. Despite its small size, there's no sacrifice in performance, making it an ideal solution for anyone with limited space who doesn't want to compromise on speed or capacity. Setting up the SanDisk Desk Drive was straightforward, especially given its compatibility with both Windows and Mac right out of the box. The simple plug-and-play functionality via a USB Type-C cable meant I was able to start transferring files almost immediately. This ease of use is a big plus for someone like me who appreciates efficiency. However, the necessity of using a separate power adapter does introduce a minor inconvenience, particularly for those who prefer a more streamlined setup. The automatic backup feature with the included software offers peace of mind. Knowing that I can set my system to regularly back up my most important files means one less thing to worry about in my busy schedule. This feature is particularly handy, ensuring that I always have access to my latest content without additional effort. SanDisk’s reputation as a trusted brand is well-earned, and the 3-year limited warranty that comes with the Desk Drive adds an extra layer of security to the investment. Having used other SanDisk products in the past, I expected nothing less than the robust reliability and customer support that they consistently provide. In conclusion, the SanDisk Desk Drive Desktop SSD 8TB is an impressive blend of capacity, speed, and design. It has significantly improved how I manage and back up my files. Whether you're a professional needing extensive storage solutions or a casual user looking to secure a vast array of digital memories, this SSD is a worthy addition to your tech arsenal. It’s a solid investment in securing your digital life, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone seeking a top-tier storage solution.

I love the small form factor. It fits almost anywhere. Data transfers happen at a very good 1000MB/second and the 8TB size makes it more than adequate for most users. The setup is extremely easy. Just plug it in it’s automatically recognized. When you open the drive in Windows (or mount on a Mac) you will see instructions and the included Acronis True Image installer. You can use your favorite backup software (my motherboard manufacturer includes a drive backup utility in it’s software tools, however I find that the included Acronis True Image does a very good job giving me peace of mind that my important files and digital keepsakes are safely backed up. I set Acronis True Image to do complete drive images with transfers happening around 3 AM each morning. The software makes it easy to schedule whenever you like. You can even have it setup to backup constantly so each time you change or add a file it automatically gets backed up to the SanDisk Desk Drive. You can also use as a mass storage device and share the drive on your home or office network. I’ve copied all my digital music files, photos, movies and videos to the drive and made it accessible to anyone in my house that is connected to my network. I would imagine that you could even connect it directly to your home router if it supports mass storage devices although I haven't tried this yet but I have used a NAS before so this shouldn't be any different that a mapped network drive. I've been looking for an affordable local backup solution with the added bonus of a mass storage device and this SanDisk Desk Drive is a solid choice and the 3 year limited warranty is as good or better than most external drives.

I have multiple drives from SD and this is by far the worst. requires it to be powered yet still doesnt have the read and write speed of its other SSD. On top of that this one was corrupted all of my files. This was meant to be a back up to all my files yet I was lucky that I had my other drives

The first thing I noticed about this drive is that it's not tiny, nor is it large: It's a small, plump little fella. But its small size also led me to believe that it ran with just the one USB-C cable. This is not the case. This drive needs to be plugged into power. This makes it not as portable as one might expect (although you can still take it places, just don't forget the power adapter - which, by the way, is a standard round power plug, not a USB plug.) In other words, one should consider this more of a desktop backup drive and not something you'll use in the field. But that's about the extent of my disappointment with the drive. Yes, it's apparently only SSD, and I can confirm I was getting about 1,075 MB/s (In contrast to my 8TB NVMe drive with Thunderbolt 4 enclosure that's 3 times as fast but cost about twice as much.) The drive seems sturdy, and the data was delivered consistently. It's a good device to use for backups and archiving; and since it's so small, it's easy to keep it out of the way.

In a world where cloud storage has become incredibly popular, there is still use for massive external drives for professionals. Whether you are a photographer, videographer, or a passionate amateur, reliable storage of your data is paramount. SanDisk has been one of the clubhouse leaders in computer storage solutions for as long as I can remember. This new external drive from SanDisk focuses on large data storage, using the latest connections like USB-C, blazing speeds, and a strong warranty. When there’s not much to say about your computer storage solution, that’s probably a good thing. There’s not much to say about this SanDisk 8TB external SSD. It reads at a mind numbing 1000 MB/s and features modern connection points. The device itself is small enough to go unnoticed on your desk and sports a sleek modern look. So far I have stored pictures, videos, and even video games from Steam. This makes a great gaming storage solution for those who don’t want to upgrade their internal storage. In conclusion, despite the rise of cloud storage, the demand for high-capacity external drives remains strong, particularly among professionals in fields such as photography and videography. SanDisk's new 8TB external SSD is a testament to the ongoing relevance and necessity of such devices. It combines large storage capacity with high-speed data transfers and modern connectivity options, such as USB-C, making it an ideal solution for professionals and avid gamers alike. The drive's compact and sleek design, coupled with its performance and reliability, ensures that it stands out as a top choice for anyone in need of dependable external storage. Whether you're looking to safely store large multimedia files or enhance your gaming setup, the SanDisk external SSD proves that sometimes, the less you have to worry about your storage solution, the better it is.

Sandisk 8TB SSD is all the solid state space you'll ever need to consolidate your important data in one place. It could be portable but since it has it's own power adapter you are best off giving it a permanent home near your computer. Comes with power adapter and usb c to usb c cable also c to a adapter. To get the maximum benefit it should be hooked up to a usb c port though. It boasts transfer speeds up to 1gbps and I did observe this with a usb c connection. You also get acronis true image free which makes taking snapshot backups of other drives on your computer and saving them here really simple. With 8 tb of ssd space you can easily consolidate photos, videos or any other data you want to back up. Taking a backup of your c drive in case your computer crashes is also a really viable option. This would also make a huge Steam Library drive as well. My only disappointment was the power supply which really kills the portability to grab the drive and go but it is what it is. The desk footprint of the drive is quite small easy to tuck away and forget it's there. You won't find a better deal for this much SSD space in a well put together package, would recommend.

I was excited to get this product for the data that I need to save oh my computers, and we eight terabytes, you can't go wrong! If I saved all the space that I had on all of my computers it still wouldn't come close to eight terabytes! I have a really old scandal that ran out of space, so I was hoping to replace it with this new one and transfer all the information from there to this one. So after I open the box disk drive was shipped in, I started to open the disk drive box. No this is probably the most irritating part believe it or not, but the box had three stickers all around it that she didn't know existed until you took one sticker off and tried to open a box lol. I didn't have a knife handy cut through it so I had to use my fingernails which was work by itself. After opening it and removing it from the box, I was a little disappointed in the fact that you had to plug it to the computer and you have to plug it in a socket. I was hoping that you only had to plug it in the computer and you would be able to get power. But after all that I downloaded everything I thought I was supposed to onto the computer, but I could not get it to start downloading any of my Data. I've been going back-and-forth on the computer for the last three days with no avail. So I'm going to see when my son gets back if he can do anything because I really need to backup my data as soon as possible! I don't know if it was just my computer that's the issue or I just maybe be doing something wrong. I will keep trying hopefully finally get it to work.