Apricorn Aegis Fortress L3 - FIPS Validated, 1TB SSD USB 3.0 Hardware Encrypted Portable Drive

This is the best investment in any computer product I have mad i years (and I have made many). Easy to use, does what it says it does, more than meets my needs. As background, I am a college professor. I have FERPA protected data and also HIPA protected data. I would not trust either to any computer hard drive or cloud storage. This allows me to take it anywhere, knowing it is perfectly safe (make sure you have a backup somewhere just in case). I jo longer to take a computer with me. I can just plug his not computers in the classrooms. I love he read only setting, knowing that if I plug it into a classroom computer, nothing will happen to it even some duffus messed up the computer. I also run PortableApps off it, giving me secure browsing with all data written to this drive, it the computer. Perfect match. With the onboard unlocking, no keg loggers can get your password. Even if you’re not in the NSA, I highly recommend this for anyone in this day of age for file security and privacy.

We purchased this product to be in compliance with cyber security requirement for federal work not for everyday use. By the time we open the product, nothing worked but time has run out to return the product. We called its technical support, there's only answer machine. We can only email them and wait for their response. It is very disappointing to say the least.

Use of proprietary cables is required. This greatly diminishes utility of the device.

The price seems high but since this is an actual disk drive, you don't have to worry about SSD gradual decay with multiple writes. Setup is ridiculously complicated and counter-intuitive, with a series of 3-colored blinking LEDs. But the instructions are in plain English (among other languages). Your passcode can range from 7 to 16 digits, with some unduly simple codes being rejected (such as 1111111 or 1234567). My big concern with this drive is the keypad. Long ago I had an Aegis with a keypad that gradually went bad; I had to press the keys very hard to make a connection, and eventually they stopped working entirely. I hope Aegis has improved since then. Could you open this drive to get at the keypad connections? Unlikely. It looks to be riveted. So if just one key fails, necessary for your passcode, you are permanently locked out. On the positive side, when the drive is unlocked, it is recognized with a drive letter, and you can do incremental backups, which are not possible on some SSDs (read the specs carefully). Also, the read-write speed is good.

Great Device! Easy to use!