Silicon Power 1TB Rugged Portable External Hard Drive Armor A80, Waterproof USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, Xbox and PS4, Blue

I bought this drive to use as a media storage for my new notebook computer. It was more expensive than other plain-vanilla 1TB drives, but I figured, since I was planning on using it on the go, the rugged aspect would be worth the extra bucks. Unfortunately I cant even comment on how well it withstands on-go abuse because it couldnt withstand the simple procedure of copy files on my desktop. The day I got the drive from delivery, I plugged it into my computer and copied my music and movie files onto it. I have quite a bit, so I started the process and went to sleep. I woke up to find that the copying process was halted because the drive had been disconnected. Tried the copying process again, this time with me watching. (yay, staring at the progress bar) The drive would randomly eject itself during the copying progress, sometimes after only copying 1 GB of files, sometimes after 40 GB of files. On average, it would fail roughly around 30 GB mark. I thought the problem might be with my USB hub (from experience I know that sometimes USB hubs, even the AC-powered ones, can have trouble supplying enough juice to portable drives like this one), so I even plugged the drive directly into my computer. It made no difference. It again ejected itself after copying 35 GB of files. The drive simply cant handle large file transfers. And if I cant trust my drive to stay connected, then the drive is worthless to me, no matter how rugged it may be.

I have a computer with Windows 10, and one with windows XP. I prefer the XP computer as I am very used to how it works and hence do most of my work on it. Carbonite no longer backs of XP systems, so I tried this A80 to replace Carbonite. I had some issues at first with write errors, so I formatted the A80 with XP and it has worked flawlessly ever since. I was surprised how quickly data transfer happens with an older 2.0 USB port. I have backed up nearly 300g and never experienced any problems. You can rely in this to safely backup data.

Shipping, packaging, functionality, performance, styling, SPEED, durability... Everything is TOP NOTCH. This is produced in Taiwan (not China), by a very reputable company, and this product backs up everything that is advertised about it. I love the design, especially with the extra cable built in. I transferred a 2 gig program from my laptop to this using the USB 3.0 cable via a USB 2.0 port in about a minute and was floored. the same program to my thumb drive took about 15 minutes. I now keep over 30 gigs of pictures backed up on this thing, as well as all my homework (ACAD drawings) Ive never had anything corrupted or fail to load. Accidentally dropped it on the asphalt from waist height and other than a small nick in the paint on the corner you would never know. only CON is that it doesnt come with a case, and it was too big for the case I bought for it. Any suggestions on a successful case purchase would be appreciated because I love this beast.

So far satisfied with this drive. The Silicon Power Armor A80 has met its advertised promise so far. I have not checked its strength by doing any drop test on it (It seems unnecessary at this point). But as far as its speed and storage capacity it is right on as promised. I have a little bone to pick with about the Armor A80. It is in reference to the short cable and the scant instructions/information available with the unit. I have ordered two of these drives. The short cable comes twisted, something that looks odd. Well both units have been the same way. I dont know if it is that the short cable is intended for USB2.0 or what is the issue with it. But in any event twisting this short cable does not show it to be durable. This short cable is one of the features that make this drive appealing. With the twisting going on once damaged and no way to get another one is a bit of a dead end owning an Armor A80. This part makes me hesitate a little about the Armor A80. I have searched in Silicon Power website and even emailed them about ordering an extra cable. There is no response back. (The Silicon Power USA seems to be a whole different company which disclaims involvement with the 1TB units). Lastly is the amusing part that whenever trying to download the SP Widget software the link leads to an offer of CIALIS. Wow!!!! It has been surprising to find out that Silicon Power is into Pharmaceuticals too :). These units are not cheap in anyway. The price is among the highest seen online. So it is prudent to get more information with the units or online, about instructions, ordering or support. After all, I am satisfied with my Armor A80 and will order it again. The above ranting is more intended to make the distributor or manufacturer provide better support.

These are good, super convenient hard drives. Mine were initially formatted to the fat32 file system, so max file size was 4GB. They need to be re-formatted to either exfat or ntfs file system to store files over 4GB. I started out looking at 128 and 256GB usb thumb drives. Our family has plowed through prior 128GB thumb drives and it was time for something bigger. The price for these 1TB portable drives was very close to the prices for 256GB thumb drives and we dont need something small anyway. In fact I am still looking for my teeny, tiny, thin 64GB silver usb drive that had some important files on it. I am slowly beginning to accept that I will never find it and a gnat probably inhaled it off my coffee table or an ant carried it off to its nest to use as a table for the winter feast. After realizing I could get another 700GB of storage for about the cost of a 256GB thumb drive my next dilemma was which of the 3 versions of the Silicon Power 1TB portable to get: somewhat buff & water resistant, burly & water proof-ish, or rugged and impervious to H20 for protracted submersion times. For the few dollars more (around $4 more for each better model at time of purchase) I thought I better get the ruggedest, water-tightest version, knowing my tendencies toward extreme clutzery. Maybe you arent a clutz like (good for you!), but I bet you know someone who is that might touch or be in proximity to your new portable hard drive. Buy the more rugged version if only to save yourself from listening to them apologize to you for months on end. So far I have used the first drive to back up many GB of Steam games that I hope to never have to waste precious bandwidth downloading for the kids again and dragged the other drive off to back up a friends old hard drive on his server before switching out for a new hard drive. Both are working great so far and loving the flexibility, size, and convenience they offer. Transfer speeds are acceptable, but I wouldnt describe them as lightening fast by any stretch of the imagination. Still, a helluva deal.

It is fast and has tons of space in a fairly small package. BUT - About once a day it exhibits unstable behavior that usually forces me to (temporarily) live without the data on the drive, or restart my computer. Im running it with a one-year-old HP laptop, and heres th feedback my computer gives me: 1. You need to format Drive H before you can use it 2. USB device not recognized 3. The drive or network connection that the shortcut refers to is unavailable 4. One of the USB devices connected to this computer has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it. 5. Unknown device needs troubleshooting 6. Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43) 7. Try reconnecting the device. If Windows still does not recognize it, replace the device. So far Ive gone to the manufacturers website to download drivers, and spent hours searching online for possible solutions - but to no avail. So, if you want an occassional-use drive to store some infrequently used files (and youre computer-savvy), this drive will give you bang for your buck. If you want access to the files on a regular basis, be prepared to restart your computer.

For the price, the data capacity is awesome. I am now on my 3rd 1TB drive. I will not buy anything that is not full sized USB, all my friends with broken HHD attachments have proven to me the major difference. I have owned WDs that fell over on the desk and they were sitting to become Dead paperweights. Not this thing, I do not treat it as nice as I should, I have three in my back pack, and they are beaten to death in AFGHANISTAN sand and heat. I have dropped at least 1 of my drives 3-4 times from 4-5 ft, no issues. One makes a slight hum that the other 2 do not, but until one fails, I am sure its just pointless noise. I have no intention of doing the water test, I am not that silly to test it for giggles. 1 Year of Afghanistan torture, and its still working. Another previous owner stated it fell off the table and broke, These Have a 3 YEAR warranty, it sucks to lose data, but get it replaced, and buy a second one to prevent important losses.

I just got it in today. Silicon Power Rugged Armor A80 1 TB 2.5-Inch USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 Military Grade Portable External Hard Drive SP010TBPHDA80S3B (Blue) It takes an hour to do just a couple of gigabytes. I downloaded their widget and ran the tasks and its not speeding things up. Is it suppose to move this slow? My computer is has USB 2.0 connection with it. Any suggestions? What speed does everyone else have? Update! I have no idea what was wrong with the thing. Vista just locked up after awhile and I couldnt do anything until I held down the power button and reset the computer. Anyway, forget the widget, I just copying and pasting some folders over at a time, and its going just fine. Got over a hundred gigs of my 600 gig hard drive copied over, and still working on the rest. Its surprisingly small, holds a whole lot of memory, does not heat up or make noise at all.

Ive had this in my cart for a while and been going back and forth on whether I needed it or not. I finally decided to get it as a Christmas present for myself to use as a secondary backup - Ive got a Synology NAS that I use as my primary. This thing feels really solid. Im not going to spike it off a concrete floor to see how durable it is, but I know others have done some fairly extreme drop-tests where it survived. In terms of transfer speed, over USB 3.0 this is nearly as fast as an internal hard drive to hard drive transfer. Also Ive read that many external drives tend to heat up. After multiple hours of backups, this thing is still cool to the touch. And with regard to noise, there isnt any. I have to have it right up to ear to hear anything at all. If Im nitpicking, my only gripe is that the long USB 3.0 cable (it comes with a long and a short one) could be a bit longer - I believe its 24. All in all, a solid rig.

I needed a portable hard drive and I chose this product because of its purported toughness. I need a portable hard drive to transport things that wont work on a flash drive. Because it will be on the go I needed something that can handle the occasional bump. I dont plan to test the actual toughness as one reviewer did but I will say that seeing the drop test and dunk test actually preformed and the drive survive went a long way toward my purchasing this product. I also want to clarify this product does in fact come with 2 USB cables - a 3 cable that stows away on the drive and a 1.5 or 2 ft. cable. And to all the people who keep wondering if this will work with USB 2.0 please read the product description - Silicon Power Rugged Armor A80 1 TB 2.5-Inch USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 Military...