Disclaimer: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free

If you are anything like I am you probably don’t remember to backup your data as frequently as you should. This is especially true when I am on the road and need to backup large content that I have placed on my laptop, such as photos, home videos, and my music playlist. I have some personal memories that I don’t always want to rely on the cloud for keeping safekeeping.

How I Keep My Digital Photos and Documents Safe

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD Drive

I am also someone who isn’t extremely confident when using Wi-Fi hotspots or standard wall outlets on the go. I think we have all have been the victim, one time or another, to an iffy internet connection that might not have been terribly secure or an outlet that isn’t surge protected and have accidentally lost some data.

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD _ Backpack

I have decided to make the small, but wise, investment in a portable hard drive. I didn’t realize how super small the newest ones were, or how much data they could hold. I have placed data on tiny flash drives, but I really can’t back up and entire laptop onto one of those.

How I Keep My Digital Photos and Documents Safe on the go

I am happy to have found the SanDisk Extreme SSD. This 3 inch, pocket size, portable SSD, external hard drive weighs around 3 ounces and can store up to 1T (T = terabyte = 1,000 gigabytes) of data. I just have to plug it into my PC or Mac with a USB cord and it backs up my data with lightning speed (550 MB/second). It is also water resistant so I can take it on camping trips.

The SanDisk has SecureAccess™ 128-bit AES encryption software included to help keep files secure. It has a shock-resistant, solid-state core, which is very important if I forget to bring along my portable surge protector. The solid-state drive has no moving parts so the device is quiet and does not generate heat.

Portable SSD, How to Keep Your Digital Photos Safe on the Go – Portable SSD, Days of a Domestic Dad

If you are thinking about getting a secure, portable SSD backup drive that is not cloud dependent, take a look at the SanDisk Extreme SSD drives at Best Buy. Prices range from $99 to $699, depending on how much backup space you think you will need. 1T seems to be perfect for my needs. My laptop doesn’t really have that much data, but I can use this same drive for my larger home-based computers.