Apricorn 500GB Aegis Padlock USB 3.0 256-bit AES XTS Hardware Encrypted Portable External Hard Drive (A25-3PL256-500)

I work with many confidential clients (lawyers, doctors, etc.) and when working on their computers I need a secure way to temporarily store their files. Being HIPAA compliant, I need to be certain that my clients' files are not accessible by anyone else. This fits the bill perfectly. It works fine, and had enough room to deal with several clients at one time. I did have one initial problem... the drive kept locking every 30 seconds (Windows 11) until I put it into lock override mode. I sent support an email and they responded within 24 hours with a registry fix, which solved the problem immediately. Five stars for customer support!

I have five of these, and all are working fine. There is no noticeable performance loss due to encryption. From a NAS to the USB 3.0 Padlock I've seen burst speeds of 100MBytes/sec. (800Mbits/sec.), then it settles down to a steady 62 Mega Bytes per second. I've transferred a 2.6 GigaByte movie file in about 40 seconds. The Positive: 1. Because there's no software to install, it works with media players and should work anywhere you use a standard USB hard drive. I keep kid's movies on a standard drive, and my movies on the Padlock. No need to worry about the kids watching R-rated movies when I'm not around! 2. Multiple passwords allow up to ten persons to enter their own password using the alpha-numeric keys. This is very convenient if you want to use your Windows password to access the drive. All other encryption devices I have tried allow only one user password or have only numeric keys. A separate Administrator password allows you to delete or add other user's passwords. 3. Low power consumption - I have been able to use the drive on every computer or media player I have without the provided Y-power cable. What it won't do - the down side: 1. Although you can have multiple passwords, all users access the same data on the drive. It would be a real plus if file access could be controlled by which password is entered. 2. Rebooting your computer locks the drive even though power is never removed from the drive. I have a remote office and I do a lot of work using remote desktops. Occasionally I need to reboot the remote computer, and with this drive the data is inaccessible after the reboot. For me, this is a "deal breaker" and I need to stay with software encryption on a standard hard drive. It would be nice to have an optional software program to lock and unlock the drive.

Excellent. Great for many or large files to keep truly private.

I love Padlock drives -- why? Nothing against software encryption, but if you're running in a non-native OS, or a non-Windows environment, you are at the mercy of the OS. This is nice and simple. Program your security code and done. Now, regardless of what OS you're using, it'll be seen by the OS. I've used them with MacOS and Windows just fine.

Device set up was straightforward. It works well as intended for data storage from operating room pictures and allows me to transport those preserving patient privacy. However, when I try to transfer JPG files to my laptop to make PDFs, the device keeps turning off, presumably a laptop setting to conserve power. That is frustrating. As well, ideal would be to be able to unlock the device with my iPhone, facial recognition and have the device re-lock when the iPhone is out of range. For what it is, this device seems solid. For today’s world, devices like this need to be more integrative.

Setup wasn't difficult but the drive bricked on second use. Copied over 100s of GB of files that I can no longer access. I enter PIN, light turns green and blinks green, then about 10 seconds later turns red and the drive starts clicking loudly several times per second nonstop. Listen to the other reviews, don't buy this junk. Apricorn put a garbage drive in this case, no more HDDs for me. I'd rather make several trips with a smaller, reliable SSD from now on. I tried it with auxiliary power cable and direct cable. No luck.

Very good does not have any problems would recommend

I purchased this drive based on the review in Wired magazine. I have been a technologist for 30 years, and I specialize in infrastructure theory, quantitative analysis, of Systems, Networks in real-time embedded systems. So I do know a thing or two about this stuff... I initially had problems and gave a one star review. Apricorn worked tirelessly to investigate the problem, despite the fact that MacBook users are really not the biggest target audience. Not that we are not important, but the target for this device is personal PC laptops, corporate, government agencies, and military. These people will have no such problems with this drive because the unique conditions I was using the drive for, and the original failure has more to do with Apple's engineering on USB 2.0 ports on older macbooks and not Apricorn, I felt compelled to recant my review and re-write it. This also says I have also been around long enough to know that you never see it all no matter how often you think you have and you aren't always right. Often as an engineer I am paid to find nearly any possible method of causing failure. In this case I had a failure, but Apple's older model MacBookPro's USB 2.0 ports just barely meet the required 500mA USB 2.0 spec... preserving battery life, (and I know Apple users won't be surprised by that!) but resulted in not likely providing enough power to the drive. Never the less, Apricorn does provide a Y USB power cable and on older Macbooks you should have enough power from two USB 2.0 ports if on the rare event you were to see this issue. If you are planning on upgrading or have already to Mountain Lion, you already likely have a late 2011 or newer 2012 MBP, and have no concerns. I do suspect that under some circumstances older MBP users that want to take advantage of the plug and play encryption technology may need to use the dual Y cable. e.g. 2010 or older. As you would likely suspect, the drives require more power on spin-up. I realize this is more reason for Pre-2011 MBP owners to feel more left out than they already did when Apple mandated new features, and Mountain Lion itself to run only on late model Macs. It should be no secret from the company that comes out with a new Iphone each year just in time for you to buy up and renew your 2 year carrier contract, that Apple wants you to upgrade your MacBookPro! Product genius and marketing genius over there at Apple. So Laptop users, stop reading and buy it, you will love it. I use it to store data that I don't use as often but still need with me. This data don't warrant me keeping it on my my internal 512GB SSD drive. If the drive is stolen, I need not worry, it will be wiped before they could ever decrypt it. I would just replace it. (Of course you are going to back it up right! That should go without saying for your computer and external drives, even USB) As for Apricorn as a company and their technical support, and entire organization that got involved, it is beyond outstanding. They really stand behind their products.