Aegis Padlock DT FIPS — USB 3.0 Desktop Drive Product Review

Bring out the big guns! Apricorn impresses with its huge capacity Aegis Padlock DT secure desktop hard drive.

Tech Trends is delighted to review another product from specialists in secure storage solutions, Apricorn. Based in California with their EMEA headquarters in the UK these guys make some excellent kit. We have tried out several portable USB solutions in the last year, but this Aegis Padlock DT FIPS — USB 3.0 is a desktop drive which really looks the business sitting between my desktop server, mix desk, stereo amp, DAC and printer.

It has a strong steel case, grill and rear panel that looks like it would stand up to a good hammering and generally feels like a very serious bit of kit. The drive comes in a range of capacities from 2TB up to a whopping 12TB so there is plenty of scope for different professional use cases from photography to secure office backups.

Looking at the security specs it’s clear the impenetrable exterior is backed up by an equally impenetrable interior. Like all the Apricorn products I have tried out, it is software-free and uses 100% hardware-based encryption — in this case, 256-bit AES XTS. It…