External SSDs - Samsung T7, Sandisk Extreme Portable - Working with M1?

[honestone33]

What is the difference between Mac OS journaled and Apfs format?
Is there any disk speed difference between those and ext3 format ?

I cannot explain the technical differences, but Apple started switching to APFS with High Sierra. This link is informative:

What's the Difference Between APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and ExFAT?

So you're using Disk Utility to partition your new hard drive when you're presented with a choice of potential file systems.

www.howtogeek.com

I have all SSDs (both of my Macs have internal SSDs, and I have 3 external SSDs). After High Sierra, and (it seems) if you have SSDs, they must be formatted as APFS for the OS and apps to work (or at least the partition that will contain the OS and apps).

I actually don't know about mechanical drives (HDDs) and each Mac OS after High Sierra, From that link, it seems that those newer versions of the Mac OS can work with HDDs formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

 

[1240766]

Bought two of these, best price I could found for the Gen 2s

SanDisk Extreme Portable 1TB External USB-C NVMe SSD Black SDSSDE61-1T00-G25 - Best Buy

Shop SanDisk Extreme Portable 1TB External USB-C NVMe SSD Black at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

 

[Sarpanch]

It’s the second generation - I tried copying some large files and it was super quick! Pretty happy with the performance! They still have it under offer if you are interested. I bought the 1TB for $199.

That is the latest generation drive supporting upto 20 Gb/s speed. Can you please run a Blackmagic Speed Test and share the results? Very curious to see if the M1 macs support that speed over USB. Thanks!

 

[aednichols]

I'm impressed by these Thunderbolt speeds, what workloads are you all are running on the drives?

I have no reason to go past regular USB speeds just for Time Machine, which is pretty much all I do with externals.

 

[digitalbreak]

Did some testing with the SanDisk 2TB Extreme Pro which is capable of up to 2000MB/s with sequential read/write. I used the BlackMagic Disk Speed testing but the speeds I am getting are closer to 900MB/s - I also have the disk formatted to APFS and not ExFAT.

For an example: 150GB takes ~3 mins to copy from my M1 disk to this SanDisk. Is that the expected result? Not sure.

Here are the speed test results:

I couldn't find a tool that benchmarks sequential read/write speeds which is what SanDisk is claiming with their up to 2000MB/s speed.

Can someone using a Samsung T7 disk post disk speed results for comparison?

 

[Sarpanch]

Did some testing with the SanDisk 2TB Extreme Pro which is capable of up to 2000MB/s with sequential read/write. I used the BlackMagic Disk Speed testing but the speeds I am getting are closer to 900MB/s - I also have the disk formatted to APFS and not ExFAT.

For an example: 150GB takes ~3 mins to copy from my M1 disk to this SanDisk. Is that the expected result? Not sure.

Here are the speed test results:

View attachment 1684391

I couldn't find a tool that benchmarks sequential read/write speeds which is what SanDisk is claiming with their up to 2000MB/s speed.

Can someone using a Samsung T7 disk post disk speed results for comparison?

Thank you for testing this! Yours is the 1st review of a 20Gb/s (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2) device on the M1 Macs.

Unfortunately, it looks like Apple’s USB 4 implementation on M1 does not support 2x2 (20 Gbps) speeds and is limited to 10Gb/s. You might be able to confirm this by going to the USB section of System Report. So there won’t be much, if any, speed benefit of using the Extreme Pro V2 model over the regular Extreme V2 model (minor differences due to different SSDs inside)

It’s sad that this USB naming convention and standards fiasco continues. When USB4 was announced, many were hoping to get assured speeds. But it seems like one can get away by offering just 10Gb/s max speeds and still call it USB4.

 

[digitalbreak]

Thank you for testing this! Yours is the 1st review of a 20Gb/s (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2) device on the M1 Macs.

Unfortunately, it looks like Apple’s USB 4 implementation on M1 does not support 2x2 (20 Gbps) speeds and is limited to 10Gb/s. You might be able to confirm this by going to the USB section of System Report. So there won’t be much, if any, speed benefit of using the Extreme Pro V2 model over the regular Extreme V2 model (minor differences due to different SSDs inside)

It’s sad that this USB naming convention and standards fiasco continues. When USB4 was announced, many were hoping to get assured speeds. But it seems like one can get away by offering just 10Gb/s max speeds and still call it USB4.

Yes, I do see the supported speed for this is 10GB/s in System Information.

That said, the 1050MB/s and 2000MB/s are both the same price so bought the 2000MB/s in case next year we get beefed up Thunderbolts

 

[DanMR]

One thing I don't hear discussed is that the Samsung Extreme Pro uses four times more power at idle than a Samsung T7 and while the T7 is slower, it is in the same "ballpark" interms of speed. According to this article at Anandtech the Extreme Pro uses 2.1 watt hours at idle / 5.8 at peak whereas the T7 only uses 0.57 watt hours at idle / 4.05 peak. I imagine that the T7 would be a better choice if you also use it with a phone or tablet. Do you all agree or am I making too much out of the power consumption aspect?

 

[Del Martes]

Did some testing with the SanDisk 2TB Extreme Pro which is capable of up to 2000MB/s with sequential read/write. I used the BlackMagic Disk Speed testing but the speeds I am getting are closer to 900MB/s - I also have the disk formatted to APFS and not ExFAT.

For an example: 150GB takes ~3 mins to copy from my M1 disk to this SanDisk. Is that the expected result? Not sure.

Here are the speed test results:

View attachment 1684391

I couldn't find a tool that benchmarks sequential read/write speeds which is what SanDisk is claiming with their up to 2000MB/s speed.

Can someone using a Samsung T7 disk post disk speed results for comparis

Did some testing with the SanDisk 2TB Extreme Pro which is capable of up to 2000MB/s with sequential read/write. I used the BlackMagic Disk Speed testing but the speeds I am getting are closer to 900MB/s - I also have the disk formatted to APFS and not ExFAT.

For an example: 150GB takes ~3 mins to copy from my M1 disk to this SanDisk. Is that the expected result? Not sure.

Here are the speed test results:

View attachment 1684391

I couldn't find a tool that benchmarks sequential read/write speeds which is what SanDisk is claiming with their up to 2000MB/s speed.

Can someone using a Samsung T7 disk post disk speed results for comparison?

I picked up a new generation 1 TB SanDisk Extreme last night from Best Buy for $150 before tax. I did some testing, too, on my base M1 MBA via Black Magic Disk Speed Test--Version 3,3, latest that natively supports M1 MacBooks.

I also tested the drive by copying a 48 GB folder comprised of PDF books from the M1 MBA's internal SSD to the external. It took 1 minute and 2 seconds.

If the Extreme Pro were the same price as the non-pro, I would have chosen the Pro as well. . Right now, the 1 TB version of Pro is $229 before tax.

Also checked the USB tab under System Info. It says the disk speed is up to 10 gbs.

 

[Sarpanch]

I picked up a new generation 1 TB SanDisk Extreme last night from Best Buy for $150 before tax. I did some testing, too, on my base M1 MBA via Black Magic Disk Speed Test--Version 3,3, latest that natively supports M1 MacBooks.

View attachment 1690581

I also tested the drive by copying a 48 GB folder comprised of PDF books from the M1 MBA's internal SSD to the external. It took 1 minute and 2 seconds.

If the Extreme Pro were the same price as the non-pro, I would have chosen the Pro as well. . Right now, the 1 TB version of Pro is $229 before tax.

I also looked at the USB tab under System Info. It says that disk speed is up to 10 gbs.

Similar speeds for this SSD on M1 Mac Mini as well. On the 2018 Mac Mini, I get over 900MB/s in the speed test.

 

[Del Martes]

On the 2018 Mac Mini, I get over 900MB/s in the speed test.

So on an Intel Mac, the USB is faster than the AS.

 

[Del Martes]

Alrighty, guys, I returned the 1TB new gen SanDisk Extreme USB SSD and picked up a new gen same size Pro from Amazon. Both Best Buy and Amazon were having a sale on the 1TB new gen Pro Monday for $169.99 before tax. $169.99 vs $149.99. $22 difference including tax, but the speed of the Pro is about 200 MBS faster in read/write than the non-Pro. See figures below, please.

Pro:

Non-Pro:

I think it is worth it, even under the constraints of the current M1 Macs' USB speed.

PS: Both were tested with the latest version of Black Magic on a base M1 MBA.

 

[occamsrazor]

I just bought a Sandisk Extreme Portable, I believe the v2 version as it says speed is 1050/1000 MB/sec. The drive came formatted as ExFAT and I need it to work cross-platform between Mac & Windows. I've seen there is both Mac and Windows versions of the "Security" software allowing you to encrypt the drive.
Can anyone confirm if I encrypt it with either the Mac or Windows version, whether the drive will then still be readable on the other OS?

 

[SegNerd]

I have a T7 Touch and an M1 Mac. I do have to connect it to Windows to configure the fingerprint scanner, but once it is set up, I can use it (including the fingerprint scanner) with my Mac without any problems.

 

[GoetzPhil]

You wont get more than 800MB on ANY MAc using the USB ports as they are NOT USB3.2GEn2 - they fall back to max10GBit only.

You only get decent speed when you use a Thunderbolt3 SSD

 

[5425642]

Got the T7 two of them works perfect

 

[Clix Pix]

Heads Up, anyone buying a new Sandisk (and probably other brands as well) external SSD to use with their Mac which has Monterey installed..... There is some kind of glitch and when one tries to format the drive in Disk Utility it simply goes around and around with "creating new partition" or some such. I had no problems with my other Sandisk Extreme Portable drives, they were promptly converted in Big Sur or earlier versions of MacOS.

However.....today the new 4 TB Sandisk Extreme Portable that I had ordered from Amazon arrived, and when I plugged it in to do the formatting to APFS it wasn't going beyond the "creating new partition" phase, so I realized pretty quickly that there was something wrong, as I'd never had this problem before with my other Sandisk drives. I tried it in another machine (also with Monterey) and same results. Frustrating! I did some poking around and saw that others have reported this issue as well, on both the Sandisk and Apple sites. Now I need to find a friend who still has Big Sur on his or her machine and ask them to let me do the formatting of the new drive on that machine so I can use the thing. The issue is clearly either with Monterey or with Sandisk's firmware on their external drives. My guess that it's Monterey.....

 

[Clix Pix]

Update on what I posted a few days ago. I got together with a friend who has a Mac with Big Sur and was able to successfully take care of the formatting of the new drive on her machine, so now I'm all set, good to go with the 4 TB SanDisk Extreme portable SSD drive properly formatted to APFS. I hope that if this IS an issue caused by Monterey that in the next software update that Apple takes care of it, as a lot of people depend on using external drives to supplement/back up their data, and when buying a new one will often need to reformat it from whatever the drive was fresh from the factory.

 

[rajs]

... The issue is clearly either with Monterey or with Sandisk's firmware on their external drives. My guess that it's Monterey ...

I've an Sandisk Extreme 500GB SSD (V1). Works with no issues on High Sierra (iMac), Catalina (MacBook Air) and Big Sur (M1 Mac Mini). On Monterey (M1 MacBook 14) its dog slow / almost inoperable (more details in link further below).

Definitely issue with the interaction of the Sandisk Firmware / controller stack with Monterey USB / storage / filesystem drivers. I know zero change on my Sandisk from a firmware perspective. It's obvious something changed in Monterey's USB / storage / file system stack (might well be for the better long term) that is impacting this and possibly other devices. Going to have to be addressed by Apple and not Sandisk (as they don't have a way to update firmware for MacOS only users) if for no other reason other than to make it easier for the consumer (us). If Apple doesn't do something to enable these devices to actually be functionally usable again they most likely will be bricks for many consumers as they aren't really functionally usable. It well might be a Sandisk issue and their implementation of some standards (or lack of proper implementation) in the past. BUT that issue didn't seem to rear its head until Apple made some changes to the Apple controlled software stack. Apple should have implemented their change(s) in a manner that it supported the older method for compatibility as well as their newer method for fully compliant devices in interfacing with these devices (you'd hope Apple is doing QC with various popular accessories such as external USB C drives so changes don't break things such as USB C connected external drives as they aren't legacy yet ... LOL)

Disk Utility won't format external SSD

Agree. Waiting for many minutes to hours on end for a erase / format operation isn't really the solution. As even after it may actually finish there is an issue that is happening and it will happen each time your machine reboots (and probably wakes up from sleep also). Whether it's Monterey...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Clix Pix]

I know that Sandisk has updated some of their external SSDs, as I noticed when looking at the choices at Amazon that there were two versions available.... If you're still using a earlier, v.1 (with slower speeds, etc._ of your particular drive that may be part of your problem. ??

I do not mess around with the proprietary software that is included on SanDisk drives for Macs and Windows -- I wipe those off when I format, because I don't need them and don't want them. All I'm doing with my external SSDs is putting data and photography folders and files on them and that's it. No need for special security measures, no need to muck around with whatever firmware they've installed on the drive. Other people may have other needs, of course......

 

[rajs]

... If you're still using a earlier, v.1 (with slower speeds, etc._ of your particular drive that may be part of your problem. ?? ...

... I do not mess around with the proprietary software that is included on SanDisk drives for Macs and Windows -- I wipe those off when I format, because I don't need them and don't want them ...

V1 not root cause of problem. Drive isn't as fast as V2 but it works totally fine on all prior versions of MacOS with zero latency issues such as those being faced by many (including yourself in certain operations as you discovered such as formatting).

I too immediately eliminate all the software etc that comes with these external drives. Don't bother with any of it. First thing I do is format. Only thing I prefer using at times in APFS encrypted when the need is there.

Question re your 4TB V2 drive. Have you detached it and re-attached it to your machine (or just plain rebooted your machine) and seen how long it takes for the drive to be visible and available in Finder (or terminal) ? Hopefully it's pretty immediate (seconds) and not a minute or more.

[added question above]