2TB Aegis Padlock DT 256-Bit Encrypted USB 3.0 Hard Drive (ADT-3PL256-2000)

Update July 2014: I have been using three of the 3TB drives for almost 2 years now on a daily basis. I'm very happy with their performance. In response to a couple other reviewers I've been using USB3 on these since I got them on multiple computers without trouble. I would estimate that I get approximately 80 Mb per second transfer speeds (well beyond USB2 speeds.) In regards to it not being compatible with Windows XP - it's also not compatible with DOS 3.1 (sarcasm intended). The only problems I have experienced are problems that we have with all hard drives -- a few sectors going bad - manageable via chkdsk. I intend to buy more of these in the future. Original Post Nov 2012: I have owned several Apricorn secured drives. They have always been easy to use and provide the highest level of security. This newest version has even more features. The most important thing to know is that the encryption security is done by the Apricorn electronics. Take the drive out and try to access the data - no chance. Additionally, because of the way they implement unlocking, the unit is protected from a brute force hack. Documentation is easy to understand (as easy as it can be). I could not be happier. I bought two so I could periodically backup the primary (all hard drives fail eventually) and am going to buy a third (for off-site backup).

Wow was a great drive, love the security of requiring a password, great instructions on how to work and format with a mac and its a great backup solution and so easy to use and pretty compact. Wish it got power from usb but thats ok too.

Great way of keeping sensitive information safe. You do need to know how to set it up, but once you do it is pretty easy.

I do professional court testimony as well as having a private practice. On my iPad I use PDF EXPERT so I can securely with encryption carry around my cases and testimony with me leaving the drive at home. The two complement each other perfectly and there is no need to use paper again or pay for the paper's destruction. Kudos. Given the sensitive nature and non replaceable nature of the material I am buying a second one to back up just in case as well as to keep in another location in case of fire or theft. If it is stolen I have no worries the data could be accessed I would like to see an initial "open code" that would then let you enter a second unlock code. In this way if the person got lucky with the open code they would have up to a max # of attempts like the iPhone before it is permanently locked up and info destroyed or never again be accessible. This would provide a valuable second line of safety that I think is needed but this is the other reason I am buying a second one. Either way I don't think anyone could ever break the encryption. All in all an excellent investment and I let the lawyers know, as well as my patients, how their information is protected. This eases their minds. I also do not connect my work computer to the Internet. My iPad is but once I'm done in court or at the office I erase the info on the iPad. All in all have no problems sleeping at night... I would highly recommend this item.

Bought two drives to transfer some data. The first one worked the 2nd failed. after a few hours use. I missed the 30 days return day by one day.. verry expensive not to provide better support of the devices. Will not buy these again.

Don't believe the "Compatible with any OS" line in the description. If you have Windows XP, you will need to reformat the drive so that it is only a 2TB partition (you will lose 1TB of storage) and that also means it isn't pre-formatted for you out of the box. Out of the box, it connects nicely to a Windows 7 machine (with full capacity accessible). I didn't realize I couldn't use it as-is on my Windows XP machine until I tried it and it wouldn't get a drive letter. I just received instructions from Apricorn support telling me that, in order to use it on Windows XP, I need to reformat it for 2TB of storage only (losing all the data that I already have on the drive). It appears that this is also a limitation on Linux (RHEL) - we tried mounting it on one of our Linux VMs and had the same issues. So, if you intend to use it on Windows XP or Linux, you may want to save yourself some $$ and headache and go for the 2TB version. One additional note - this unit requires a SEPARATE power supply as it does not run off of the power of the USB port only. This is not that obvious from the description but IS documented in the user manual. This is probably why it is categorized as a "desktop" drive and I wanted to point it out for other people who might have missed that nuance. The user manual also recommends ONLY using the cables that are supplied with the drive. The supplied USB cable is about 4 feet long so that limits placement of the drive as well. Otherwise, the drive works well and the security seems solid. I think that the main issue here is an incomplete or misleading product description. I hope that this review helps someone else!

Use this for secure files and you don’t waste time with encryption software to run on the drive.

I've had to replace the Buffalo external hard drive 2 times in 5 years. Since I've had good luck with the portable padlocks, I'm going try this one out instead. Love the fact that they have hardware encryption, making them rock-solid security and very portable. Will update if there's a problem!