SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe 1 TB USB Type C USB Type A Flash Drive

I got the 512gb version during a daily deal sale a few weeks ago because it seemed like a good price for the storage capacity, reviews seemed favorable, and it has both a USB-C and USB-A ends, theoretically making file transfers from older to newer hardware faster than using an C-to-A adapter, and more secure than having an external hard drive hanging off the end of a laptop.In the end, it works. It's functional. It's not great, and frankly, I'm a bit disappointed with the transfer speed on the USB-C side. I have two Samsung T7 Shield SSDs that transfer data between 15mb and 15GB all within a minute or less, but I can't say the same when I try to move files from one of those T7s to this Sandisk flash drive. Again, it's functional enough to get the job done, but I ... MoreI got the 512gb version during a daily deal sale a few weeks ago because it seemed like a good price for the storage capacity, reviews seemed favorable, and it has both a USB-C and USB-A ends, theoretically making file transfers from older to newer hardware faster than using an C-to-A adapter, and more secure than having an external hard drive hanging off the end of a laptop.In the end, it works. It's functional. It's not great, and frankly, I'm a bit disappointed with the transfer speed on the USB-C side. I have two Samsung T7 Shield SSDs that transfer data between 15mb and 15GB all within a minute or less, but I can't say the same when I try to move files from one of those T7s to this Sandisk flash drive. Again, it's functional enough to get the job done, but I was hoping to use it to store copies of rendered videos from an offline editing machine and plug it into an online machine to upload to frame.io or social media. While this could technically achieve that, it'd still be faster for me to have just unplugged my SSD from my offline machine, and plugged into into my online machine for uploading the files.My other idea would have been to keep it plugged into my offline editing machine and install my programs on there with a folder for autosave files so that my internal hard drive doesn't get clogged up. But I'm afraid this probably wouldn't be able to run any programs at a reasonable speed due to the transfer speed, so I won't even try that.Also the way one end of the flash drive will always be exposed (unless I get a special travel case), it seems like a recipe for dust and dirt to get in easily. I actually saw a similar concept to this flash drive from OWC, just slightly larger and with end caps to protect the connectors, unlike this one which leaves the open end exposed. Although if one end does go bad, I'm not sure if the other end would still remain usable. Again, I've only had it for a few weeks so only time will tell, but presumably and hopefully not.Lesson learned, just because I see a good deal, doesn't mean it'll magically add any benefit to my workflow if I don't research its specs properly.

These worked fine when formatting them with a Sound Devices audio recorder using the USB A connector, and letting the recorder automatically back up audio files to them.Last night I tried plugging one of them into my M2 MacBook Air. The computer ground to a halt with the Finder showing a spinning beachball, The Finder showed Not responding when I did command-option-escape to bring up the application list. iTunes and VSCode were also seized up and showed not responding. Disk First Aid would not show any drives at all - it just showed looking for drives indefinitely. I noticed also that the flash drive got extremely hot, almost too hot to touch. When I yanked it out the computer returned to normal operation immediately.I haven't been able to diagnose exactly what ... MoreThese worked fine when formatting them with a Sound Devices audio recorder using the USB A connector, and letting the recorder automatically back up audio files to them.Last night I tried plugging one of them into my M2 MacBook Air. The computer ground to a halt with the Finder showing a spinning beachball, The Finder showed Not responding when I did command-option-escape to bring up the application list. iTunes and VSCode were also seized up and showed not responding. Disk First Aid would not show any drives at all - it just showed looking for drives indefinitely. I noticed also that the flash drive got extremely hot, almost too hot to touch. When I yanked it out the computer returned to normal operation immediately.I haven't been able to diagnose exactly what the problem is - I've rebooted the computer. The problem happens again the same way. The console log doesn't show anything that I can interpret.The second one did the exact same thing.My M2 MacBook Air works fine with other USB devices - external drives, audio interfaces, etc.I tried the drives using the USB C connector on a Windows PC and a Mac Mini and they work fine on those computers. I can reformat them, read and write data, etc. The drives get a little warm but not unusually hot on those devices.I can't recommend these. The heating issue alone means I can't trust them. Again I was not able to diagnose exactly what the problem is with the M2 MacBook Air, but I think it has something to do with power draw - maybe it is drawing more power than it reports that it needs? It's very strange that the Mac doesn't show an error indicating excess power draw and shut the drive down, but it seems to lock up the software instead. But whatever the reason I can't use them for what I intended, which is easily moving files between the Sound Devices recorder and MacBook Air.

When I try to open the app that it comes with on desktop, it says to get the latest version. When I try to get the latest version, it does not show where and how to get the latest version. Also, 400MB/s of speed is promised, but in reality, the maximum I have seen is only 120MB/s, and that is when it is cool. When it is warm, I am lucky enough to be getting 1MB/s. This tends to overheat a lot. Transferring 10GB of data takes 30 minutes, which is a lot and not 400MB/s. Even if I leave the USB in my laptop (MacBook Air 2020 Retina), it still over heats to a point where holding it for 10 seconds can cause a burn. It gets so hot that I am shocked that the metal doesn't start melting. Also, when I play a video within the USB, it is always laggy to an extent where I have ... MoreWhen I try to open the app that it comes with on desktop, it says to get the latest version. When I try to get the latest version, it does not show where and how to get the latest version. Also, 400MB/s of speed is promised, but in reality, the maximum I have seen is only 120MB/s, and that is when it is cool. When it is warm, I am lucky enough to be getting 1MB/s. This tends to overheat a lot. Transferring 10GB of data takes 30 minutes, which is a lot and not 400MB/s. Even if I leave the USB in my laptop (MacBook Air 2020 Retina), it still over heats to a point where holding it for 10 seconds can cause a burn. It gets so hot that I am shocked that the metal doesn't start melting. Also, when I play a video within the USB, it is always laggy to an extent where I have to wait a minute just for a few frames to load. In summary this is a horrible product because it is not as fast as advertised and it over heats way too much.