# External SSD drives - this sounds too good to be true

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-ssd-drives-this-sounds-too-good-to-be-true/982164>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 4, 2023, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-ssd-drives-this-sounds-too-good-to-be-true/982164 "2023-04-04T23:42:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2023, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-ssd-drives-this-sounds-too-good-to-be-true/982164/21 "2023-04-05T22:21:48Z")

</div>

Is any Facebook ad not a scam?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-ssd-drives-this-sounds-too-good-to-be-true/982164/22 "2023-04-11T19:36:37Z")

</div>

This is a well-known scam, and yes, the drives lie to the OS about capacity:

> **[Walmart lists a 30TB portable SSD for $39. It is, naturally, a scam](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/walmart-lists-a-30tb-portable-ssd-for-39-it-is-naturally-a-scam/)**
>
> But the "30TB" disk does at least try to fool users in clever ways.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-ssd-drives-this-sounds-too-good-to-be-true/982164/23 "2023-05-05T21:57:49Z")

</div>

> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> > [@crazyjoe](#):
> >
> > I don’t think you can even get a 30TB spinning rust (sorry, I mean “traditional magnetic platter”) drive for the price they are advertising, so it’s definitely a scam.
> 
> I think 26 TB is still the largest hard drive.

A month has passed so of course that’s no longer true:

> **[Seagate Ships First 30TB HAMR HDDs](https://www.extremetech.com/computing/seagate-ships-first-30tb-hamr-hdds)**
>
> They're not available for home users yet, but that might change in the next year or so.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-ssd-drives-this-sounds-too-good-to-be-true/982164.md?page=1)