INTRODUCTION

   Regardless of whether or not you're a professional or a "regular" consumer an external encrypted drive could always come in handy. Professionals choose them to protect their sensitive data from industrial espionage and 3rd parties in general whereas regular consumers prefer them to store personal data (like family pictures and videos) which they don't want other people to have access to. Just like everything else in this market however choosing the right model might be tricky, especially since currently the market is filled with many different types of external encrypted drives. The most popular (not to mention lowest cost) ones are without doubt software encrypted ones which aren't really special and in the best possible scenario only make use of semi-hardware encryption. Hardware encrypted external drives may not be quite as popular (especially among regular consumers, primarily due to cost) as software encrypted drives but they offer full hardware encryption paired with numerous fail safes to further protect your data from unauthorized access. One such drive is the brand new diskAshur M2 by iStorage which I've been testing for almost 2 months now.

   iStorage is the trusted global leader of award-winning, PIN authenticated, hardware encrypted portable data storage & cloud encryption devices. iStorage offers the most innovative range of products to securely encrypt, store and protect data to military standards; safeguarding valuable and sensitive data to ensure compliance with stringent regulations and directives such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, NRC, GLB and DHS Initiatives. Founded in London, England in 2009 by John Michael, a serial entrepreneur, with 32 years’ experience within the IT Industry, iStorage has fast become recognised as a leading innovator and supplier of ultra-secure, easy to use and affordable portable data storage devices.

   The compact diskAshur M2 by iStorage might be the very first SATA III/600 M.2 based drive in their product lines but exactly like their previous portable SSD models we're still talking about a PIN authenticated (platform/device independent with 7-15 digit codes) USB 3.2 portable drive (currently available in 120GB/240GB/500GB/1TB/2TB capacities) that features numerous tamper-proof protections (protected against brute attacks, external tamper, bypass laser attacks and fault injections), real-time military grade FIPS PUB 197 validated AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption (FIPS 140-3 Level 3) and an built-in dedicated hardware based secure microprocessor (Common Criteria EAL5+ / FIPS and common criteria wrapping algorithms). Aside also featuring an IP68 certified rugged enclosure (waterproof up to 1.5 meter, rugged, shock and crush proof) the diskAshur M2 also comes ready with a polymer coated water resistant keypad (makes it virtually impossible for people to tell which have been used) and a super tough epoxy resin layer applied onto the interior hardware components (virtually impossible to remove without causing severe damage). So, let's see what the most compact portable SSD by iStorage to date is capable of.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The drive is packed inside a small box that has a product picture at the front (real size) surrounded by its main features, the company logo and its capacity.

A picture showcasing the carrying/storage case is located on the left side of the box just over the bundle contents.

On the right side we find a product description in 4 languages.

The product features are also printed at the rear of the box, in-depth however this time over.

Once you open the box, you'll see that the entire bundle is placed inside the carrying/storage case which in turn is placed inside a bubble wrap.

Along with the diskAshur M2 drive and its carrying/storage case the box also contains two cables (USB-A and USB-C / only 1 is showcased here, forgot the other in the case) and the user manual.

THE DISKASHUR M2 2TB

Measuring 108mm in length, 45mm in width and just 12mm in thickness the diskAshur M2 is clearly a compact PIN authenticated drive.

In terms of size the diskAshur M2 can only be compared with the likes of the CarbonX by Mushkin, Rocket Pro by Sabrent, TB2-T3 by YottaMaster, SE760 by ADATA, Z7S by NETAC and the PC60 by Silicon Power.

Without the aluminum cover/sleeve mounted the drive measures 106mm in length.

A total of 12 polymer coated keys and 3 activity LEDs are located at the top of the drive.

Also notice the rubberized and zinc alloy areas at the bottom, one is used to waterproof the drive once you place the aluminum cover/sleeve over the drive while the other, well it looks and feels great.

For some strange reason iStorage chose to go with the old USB 3.0 port which is not something we see a lot lately.

The serial number, barcode and product capacity are printed at the base of the drive.

As you can see the carrying/storage case has plenty of room inside for both the drive and its cables.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

    Solid state drives are basically the same as USB flash drives and so we’re using almost the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read & write performance numbers in our charts*. The benchmark suites used are HD Tach RW (Read Speeds / Long Bench 32mb Zone Testing), HD Tune Pro (Read / Write speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Titanium 2020 (Read / Write speeds), AIDA64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear / Random Read & Write speeds), Crystal Disk Mark 6.0.2 (2GB Read / Write speeds) and finally ATTO 4.00.0F2 (Max Read / Max Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into our charts (0 = we were unable to complete that test).

   All tests are performed with our main rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a CORSAIR MP510 960GB NVME SSD* with all updates installed up to the day tests started.

* Since August 2019 for portable SSD tests I started using the primary test rig.
** To make a direct comparison easier as of June 2021 I placed all hardware encrypted portable SSDs in their very own charts.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA TITANIUM / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

CONCLUSION

   The diskAshur M2 2TB is yet another impressive product by iStorage, not so much due to its performance (which as you can see in the charts drops beneath the advertised one of 370MB/s) but largely because of its size and available protections. As always, I used several software suites to try and “hack” my way into the drive without luck (still as I’ve pointed out numerous times in previous reviews this isn’t my field of expertise so if anyone has something specific for me to try feel free to reach out) so i ended up having all data deleted twice. Now in terms of performance the diskAshur M2 may not hit the advertised levels of 370MB/s (at least not the 2TB model and not in average) but it’s still just as fast as competing products both from iStorage themselves and other brands. As for capacity 2TB should suffice for most uses but i do hope iStorage expands on that further down the road since there are people who can always use the extra space.

   PIN authenticated hardware encrypted drives have but a single serious drawback, cost and with a current price tag set at USD474 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 616.80Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the diskAshur M2 2TB is no exception. Still if you want to safeguard your sensitive and/or private data such drives are clearly a one way and since the iStorage diskAshur M2 2TB really delivers on pretty much everything that truly matters it deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Aluminum IP68 Certified Enclosure)
- PIN Authenticated
- Security Measures (AES-XTS 256-bit Hardware Encryption/EDGE Chip/Interior Epoxy Layer)
- Compact Size
- Very Good Performance (For A Hardware Encrypted Drive)
- Available in 120GB/240GB/500GB/1TB/2TB Capacities
- Polymer Coated Keypad (Water & Wear Resistant)
- Bundled Carrying/Storage Case
- USB A & C Cables

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Only Up To 2TB