ZikeDrive USB 4 review benchmarks & external boot drive tests.

Today I put ZikeDrive to the test with different Mac models and used it as an external boot drive, with Mac OS Sequoia (intel and Apple silicon) and even Windows 11 (intel only). Test units include a M2 MacBook Air, a 2019 Mac Pro, and a Mac Studio M1 Max. I like it!

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ZikeDrive
If your looking for a credit card sized air tag the Zike card is Applel certified for "find my" operation
and supports wireless charging.
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TEAMGROUP 2Terabyte NVMe (I am an Amazon affiliate)

Disclosure, ZikeTech gave me this drive to try out and I got to keep it in exchange for making this video. I will also get a small commission if you use the discount code to buy it form the above link.

0:00 Start
0:18 TeamGroup NVMe
0:35 included short USB C cable
0:43 included long USB C cable
1:00 Copy files from Macbook Air 686 gigs in under 4 minutes
1:23 Blackmagic Speed Test MacBook M2 Air internal SSD
1:32 Blackmagic Speed Test MacBook M2 Air ZikeDrive
1:40 Blackmagic Speed Test Mac Pro 2019 ZikeDrive
1:50 Blackmagic Speed Test Mac Pro 2019 internal SSD
2:15 Blackmagic Speed Test Mac Pro 2019 ZikeDrive connected via Sonnet McFiver USBC 10Gbit
2:40 ZikeDrive Specs
3:13 Booting off the Zike Drive with Mac OS Sequoia 15.1 and Windows 11 (intel only)
3:40 Booting into Mac OS with the ZikeDrive via the Mac Pro 2019 Thunderbot ports
3:48 Booting into WIndows with the ZikeDrive via the Mac Pro 2019 Thunderbot ports FAILED!
3:48 Booting into WIndows with the ZikeDrive via the Mac Pro 2019 USB A ports worked!
4:10 3:48 Booting into WIndows with the ZikeDrive via the Mac Pro 2019 McFiver USB C ports worked.
4:30 Booting into Mac OS with the ZikeDrive via the Mac Pro 2019 Thunderbot ports slow write speeds!
4:49 Booting into Mac OS with the ZikeDrive via the Macbook Air and got better write speeds
5:10 Booting into Mac OS with the ZikeDrive via M1 Max Mac Studio
5:36 Blackmagic Speed Test M1 Max Mac Studio internal 1 Terabyte SSD
5:42 Apple's different models get different results booting off the ZikeDrive even when all are 40Gbps ports?
6:02 Blinking LED on the ZIkeDrive a nice bonus!
6:19 Summery

[DanielToman]

thanks for showing the speeds on Intel Mac, really helpful information!

[julianescalona]

Just bought my own Mac Pro 5, 1 for 120$! So far about 280$ in with dual Xeon x5677’s, a Vega 56 without a pixalas mod and 32gb of ram in triple channel as well as a 250gb SATA SSD and 3TB in HDD storage it’s been a beast ! I have some planned upgrades soon maybe for Christmas!

[JudgeFredd]

Perfect for booting my next M4 Mac Mini !

[stodesign]

It would be great to see your 2019 Mac Pro in action!

[garnerboyd]

Mac's only used two lanes of data transfer rather than 4 lanes, as do window machines. That may change within newer mac, I don't know

[DontGetHit]

From what I understand, a lot of engineering went in to making the 7, 1 quiet. Do you still keep it in a different room like the 5, 1?

[jrgroberts]

Try using a proper speed test. Also, note that the Mac Studio will run the interface at less than half speed if the ports are fully loaded. Haven't yet found a way round that.

[stevenhershkowitz]

I'm new to this...just curious why people do this instead of just buying an external drive. Do u save money or is DYI give u more options for speed? TY

[billyyoung]

Thanks again Lance,
other than the price differential,
why not use a Thunderbolt SSD / enclosure ?
what benefits would there be in using Thunderbolt ?
I'm guessing I/O speeds which will be limited to the specs of the Cable / Device / Hardware.
Thanks again

[ThinkingBetter]

I own an iMac late 2015 i7 27" and swapped the NVME with a Samsung drive getting 2, 910MB/s write and 2, 860MB/s read. 9 years later and those numbers are not any better LOL...

[DigitalPlaygroundTV]

Hi, got my Mac mini M4 last Friday and I can't make my external hard drive from my previous M1 which is working perfectly on it boot on my new M4. I've done tons of things like going to security settings and change the setting but I get a "SDErrorDomain error 104", can anybody help.

[josephk.]

Does booting from the SSD lead to issues over time?

[mstfoz]

Can I use my programs and games from an external storage without booting from it?

[LuisTorres-qzkr]

Will it support a SAMSUNG 990 PRO SSD 4TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 ?

[artysanmobile]

You know you’ve reached ‘too fast’ when your 100GB copy doesn’t leave enough time to make a snack.