SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB review

SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB: 30-second review

The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB is small and quiet, unlike traditional boxy and large desktop storage drives that are commonplace in workspaces worldwide. It is altogether smaller and more stylish, with an ultrafast internal 8TB SSD and a promise of a 16TB version to be released later this year.

The drive is, in principle, a straightforward desktop drive for use with a single computer with a USB Type-C connection to ensure speed and an external power source provided through a standard AC socket rather than drawing BUS power from the computer's USB ports.

In use, the drive is simple enough. It is plug-and-play for most computing systems and arrives formatted in the ExFat file system. This means that it's easy to swap between Mac and PC systems if required; if not, it can be reformatted into one of the more secure options, such as NTFS or APFS, which will also boost the performance and some computing options for those systems.

This drive will really appeal to laptop users who are often limited on internal space. The Desk Drive not only expands the space for large-scale 3D, image, and video projects but also offers transfer speeds through the USB Type-C connection so that it can be used as a working drive as well as for archiving files.

Like any of the best portable SSDs we've tested, once connected, the drive will appear as any other external drive. It can be used for file backup with Time Machine on the Mac or Acronis True Image on the PC. Alternatively, it can be used as a straight storage drive with an off-site solution. The beauty here is that the transfer rates are at a speed that the drive and capacity are not only sufficient for archiving your files but also as a viable working drive for large file types such as video, image, and 3D.

As large-capacity storage solutions go, the SanDisk Desk Drive perfectly balances speed, capacity, and price, making it ideal for any home or small office as a fast, reliable storage solution.

SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB: Price & availability

The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB has a SRP £663.99 / $699.99, and the smaller 4TB version is available for SRP £359.99 / $379.99. Later in the year, a 16TB version will also be available, although the price is still to be confirmed. The drive is widely available and can be purchased directly from Western Digital

• Score: 4.5/5

SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB: Design & build

The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB is considerably smaller than most desktop hard drives, which makes it easy to place on the desk or neatly under the monitor. The actual design is simple, and with the slightly concaved top rather than flat, it seems perfectly formed for small office items such as paperclips and coins!

The size and shape also make it easy to pick up and move, and at 268g, it has just enough weight to act as a convenient paperweight when not in use. That weight also helps with positioning it around the desk, meaning that while lightweight, it's not lightweight enough to be easily knocked from position.

Connection-wise, the drive features a single USB Type-C connection directly into the machine and an AC power socket that fits directly into a standard AC wall socket in the same way as any traditional desktop drive. These two cables keep things relatively neat at the back with no mess of extra cables. Unlike some larger drives, there are no additional USB ports for linking, pass-through, or hub features; this is simply a direct external drive for use by an individual at their desk.

Once the drive is in position and connected to power and the desktop, it quickly appears on the Mac desktop or can be accessed through Windows, depending on your system of choice. The drive comes preformatted in the ExFat file system for maximum compatibility but can be reformatted quickly to suit your preferred system. If you use both, you can stick with ExFat.

Once done, the drive can be used as with any other desktop drive or linked into a backup solution such as Time Machine on the Mac or with Acronis True Image for Western Digital backup software, which can be downloaded from the Western Digital website.

• Score: 4.5/5

SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB: Features

The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB offers plenty of storage capacity, with the 8TB version that we're looking at in this review being suitable for most medium-sized usage individuals who might shoot images and video as part of their workload and need the speed to access those files quickly as well as archive them with the ability to gain access to them at speed without the need to dig through a server. The 4TB version, although smaller, is still a substantial capacity and would be better suited to those working with documents and the occasional use of image and video files. The larger 16TB version would be ideal for videographers in small businesses who just need plenty of storage to back up their projects after an edit or need the additional capacity for working projects.

One of the features that really makes the SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB stand out is the fast transfer speeds, with read speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 900 MB/s, making it significantly faster than traditional desktop hard disk drives and many of the other solutions offered by Western Digital at present.

For many users, the SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB will also make a perfect solution for backing up all their work through applications such as Apple Time Machine or the downloadable Acronis True Image for Western Digital software. Both of these applications can be used to back up your desktop machine to the SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB to ensure that you always have two local copies of your files. Of course, it's always good practice, especially in a business environment, to have another backup of your files either to a NAS or off-site cloud solution.

One of the most appealing aspects of the Desk Drive is its small size, which makes it far easier to position than many of the more traditional desktop hard drives. The fact that it also utilizes its own power supply means that its performance is more consistent than that of portable external hard drives.

Out of the box, the SanDisk Desk Drive comes in the exFAT file format, which is compatible with both Windows and macOS systems. It uses a USB Type-C connection for connectivity.

Finally, the drive comes with a three-year limited warranty to ensure that your investment is sound for at least a few years.

• Score 4.5/5

SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB: Performance

When it came to testing the drive, the advertised transfer speeds offered a few more options than more traditional HDD desktop drives. So, alongside the speed tests, the drive was used as a working drive for some of the best video editing software and best photo editors available to see if it could facilitate the delivery of large files and complex computing.

Starting with using the drive on a PC with Adobe Photoshop and copying 1TB of image files from an OWC CFExpress Type-B card, the transfer rate was impressive. Files crossed over through the Atlas CFexpress 4.0 Type B reader in a little under two minutes.

In use, the drive worked perfectly for photography, with the speed of downloading the image files from a CFExpress Type-B card to the storage helping to speed up the workflow. A full selection of files from a day's shoot, some 1200 files, both JPEG and RAW, could be downloaded in a little under two minutes. When opening Adobe Bridge to browse the files, the application and drive worked fast enough for the thumbnails to generate and display in good time; likewise, opening and saving files was seamless without pause or delay.

Switching to the more intensive video workflow and again using 4K video captured on the Canon EOS R5 C, the drive fed the files to Final Cut Pro at a rate that enabled smooth video editing without dropped frames. The machine (MacBook Pro 16-inch M1) started to struggle with projects greater than 10 minutes in length rather than any issue with the speed of the content delivery from the drive.

To back up the real-world tests, where the small drive performed well, the benchmark tests also showed impressive results across the board, with the overall transfer rates exceeding those stated by Western Digital.

When it comes to other features, the SanDisk Desk Drive is somewhat limited - you have access to all the backup features offered by the Acronis True Image software, and this is simple to use. On the drive are installed link files for both Mac and PC, and although these are executable files, they simply take you to the download page on the Western Digital website. Once there, you scroll down to the download link for the Mac or PC version - it's simple enough, but the downloads page is generic for all of their products, so not all software on this page is appropriate for this drive, which is worth noting.

While Acronis is a great piece of software, and the implementation here is excellent, enabling you to set source and destination locations for your files, this software really is about the backup of files rather than management. When it comes to security the software does enable you to do a clean wipe of the drive, however, if you're storing sensitive data on the drive there is no default facility to do this other than using a third party software option. For a drive of this type, some type of integral security would have been nice to see. 

Likewise, simplicity makes this drive easy to use. As a desktop drive, it will probably be plugged either directly into a hub or the machine it's being used by. It would have been nice to see an additional USB Type-C port so other accessories or card readers could be daisy-chained into the drive.

However, the pure simplicity of the design and ease of use is what should make this drive so appealing to anyone running a small or home office looking for decent amounts of storage capacity. 

• Score: 4/5

Should you buy the SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB?

The SanDisk Desk Drive 8TB is best suited for professionals in creative industries who handle large media files regularly and require quick, reliable access. It's also a great choice for those needing a robust backup solution for important data, combining speed with large capacity in a user-friendly format. This drive excels in environments where speed and capacity are critical, making it ideal for photographers, videographers, and digital artists.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

We've tested the best laptops for photo editing - and here's the ones we recommend checking out