Internal and external SSDs have been tumbling in price over the last few years, with great deals on 2TB SSDs available year round (and especially on Black Friday). Due to this, it has become more and more viable to keep an external drive around effectively in place of a USB stick. They may be a little smaller, but USB sticks are far more expensive per GB. The widespread adoption of USB-3/C and Thunderbolt has also given us more performance to play with, making a small external SATA SSD a sensible buy in 2024.

I personally like to keep an external SSD around for general use, maybe to keep some media, along with useful debugging tools and files, so I can access them in a pinch. Having a larger, more capable and faster USB storage drive immediately available can definitely help you out, and make some common tasks far simpler.

So, with that in mind, here are my top favorite ways to make use of an external SSD, in no particular order.

4 Boot up custom ISOs

Save yourself time debugging - and perhaps even save data

One of my favorite things to do with an external SSD is use it as a portable OS. This is great if you're moving between PCs frequently, debugging issues on the fly, or using other people's machines a lot. You can even install multiple OS on the same SSD, and use it as a 'plug and play' boot device for diagnosing all kinds of issues.

There are plenty of great custom ISOs out there designed specifically for this task, with tools designed for everything from offensive security testing to deep debugging of issues on Windows. Building up a little collection of these tools on an external SSD can save you some time in a crisis, or even save you entirely if you suddenly need to recover your operating system or files.

This also goes one step further, with ISOs with the sole purpose of replacing (not literally) your traditional bootloader to boot multiple ISOs easily. A great example here is Ventoy, which makes adding multiple ISOs to your disk as simple as dragging and dropping them from another PC.

3 Create an encrypted vault for your most secure files

Increase local security measures

We'll start by saying - this one can be dangerous. If you lose the encryption keys or passwords for your SSD, you may never be able to access your files again, so have a sensible backup plan in place. Many SSDs come with software (and potentially even some on-chip hardware) to securely encrypt the whole drive. These drives typically lock once unplugged from a machine, or after a timeout, and are relatively secure from most physical threats (but probably not governments or law enforcement) to safely store your most sensitive files.

This can be a great way to help protect yourself against physical threats. While it's not foolproof, since entering a password to unlock the drive could still be keylogged or otherwise, it can add some peace of mind for your most sensitive data.

You could also do this on Windows by enabling BitLocker or on macOS via FileVault on the drive.

2 Expand your mobile device storage

Never get caught out on the tarmac again

Ever been sat on the tarmac at an airport, frantically watching a progress bar download an episode or two of your favorite show or podcast to enjoy before your flight takes off? I have many a time, and almost universally the download speed is never quite quick enough. Luckily, there's an easy solution if you travel regularly.

Most modern phones (yes, even iPhones) will support external USB file storage on an SSD. This is a great place to drag and drop a few movies or TV shows from your Plex server and throw it in your bag as you leave, bringing with you an easy-to-access, home away from home collection of media and TV.

Normally, you'd have the option of connecting remotely to a NAS with a VPN like WireGuard, but if you're traveling, then this is often more difficult. Depending on where you're going, you may be limited by your data plan; and if you're on a plane, train, or submarine, then you're unlikely to have a strong enough connection to stream from your home.

We'd suggest grabbing a cheap, relatively small external SSD for this, and taking 20 minutes every six months or so to throw a few movies from your backlog, a TV show that's easy to binge on, and maybe some music on your drive. Throw it in your travel bag, and you'll avoid being caught out without any stimuli on a long flight.

1 Run a virtual machine

Use an SSD rather than a secondary system

Now this one is pretty broad, but its something to consider. Whether you're running an extensive homelab, or just running a few virtual machines on your desktop, giving them a dedicated SSD can be a great way to keep your VMs feeling snappy and responsive, while also being portable between machines.

Unfortunately, there are some caveats to watch out for here. Moving virtual machines between architectures, like between an M-series MacBook and your Windows PC, won't be supported by VirtualBox. Rosetta and QEMU can both help solve this, but expect a significant performance hit doing so.

I particularly like this approach in combination with our first suggestion of building out a set of tools on your SSD. Having a ready to go Windows or Linux VM image is great if you need to use a friend's PC quickly - you can already be signed in to all your accounts, have all your regular programs and access ready to go.

If you're a homelabber, an external SSD can be a good way to move virtual machines or even complete file systems between hosts. Be careful though - some external SSDs aren't the highest quality, and could wear out faster than a decent internal drive. Make sure you've got backups of your data, and avoid keeping any high throughput VMs on these devices.

One day, external SSDs might replace flash entirely

To me, USB sticks increasingly seem a thing of the past. Sure, they're a little smaller than external SSDs, but don't come close to competing on flexibility. SSDs can now be plugged into anything, from your phone to a server, and can store, run, and stream everything from high quality 4K media to entire Windows installations.

Keeping an external drive around is a great way to save yourself some hassle, and its versatility is second to none. Just make sure to preload it with some useful things!