📍 Always buy from reputable brands like SanDisk, Samsung, or Kingston. Counterfeit drives often "spoof" their capacity, meaning they’ll claim to have 512GB but start deleting your data once you hit 8GB.

Ensure the drive actually fits your devices without a dongle.

Essential if you carry sensitive work data. Look for AES 256-bit encryption.

The slim, oval plug used by modern MacBooks, iPads, and Android phones.

The modern standard. Look for read speeds of at least 100MB/s.