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Home » External Drives and Enclosures » OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable Drives (USB 3.0)

OWC Mercury
On-The-Go®

0GB USB 3.0 & 2.0 Portable Enclosure Kit

Mac / PC / USB 3.0 & 2.0
  • Mac
  • PC
  • USB 3.0
The OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB 3.0 & 2.0 Portable Kit packs an incredible punch into a 3″ W x 5.5″ L x 1″ H 11 ounce package!
If you're looking for one of the most compatible mass storage solutions made, look no further! The OWC Mercury On-The-Go drive is all you'll need! Packing a powerful punch of super fast USB 3.0, the OWC Mercury On-The-Go has what it takes to truly work cross platform with Macs and PCs.
Outstanding Features
The OWC Mercury On-The-Go features a high performance ASMedia 1051e USB 3.0 chipset, creating one perfectly integrated storage solution.

The OWC Mercury On-The-Go's fanless design offers near silent operation while still keeping your drive cool. The built-in aluminum heatsink underneath the drive and passthrough cooling vents on the top of the case work in tandem to provide optimum results.

The On-The-Go External USB 3.0 & 2.0 Enclosure Kit is ready to accept your own 2.5" SATA Hard Drive! Now you can upgrade your Mac or PC notebook's internal drive and retask that old drive as a new external drive for even more backup and storage capacity! This solution will give you an excellent transportable storage device, or a backup option that you may have not had!
Hard Drive Not Included – Needs 2.5" Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Drive
2.5" sata hard drive
OWC NOTE: This drive enclosure requires a 2.5" Serial ATA (SATA) drive mechanism.
OWC Mercury On-The-Go
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If your OWC or NewerTech brand product should require service during the warranty coverage period, we are committed to delivering the fastest possible service.


Upon receipt of your unit, OWC will make every attempt to service it and arrange shipping back to you all within 48 weekday (Monday-Friday) business hours, excluding U.S. national holidays. This warranty service timeframe does not include data recovery attempts, out of stock items/components, or upgrade/product replacements.


Read additional information.

OWC's A Closer Look

Take a closer look at
OWC's On-The-Go Pro.
OWC's Step-by-Step Install Video

How to install a Hard Drive in a
Mercury On-The-Go Enclosure.

Includes

  • OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 & 2.0 storage solution for SATA 2.5" Hard Drives
  • High Quality Double Shielded USB 3.0 & 2.0 certified connecting cable
  • Carrying Case
  • Assembly Manual & User Guide
  • 1 Year OWC Enclosure Limited Warranty with 48-Hour Turnaround Time

Gallery

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Product Specifications:

Bus Interface

  • USB 3.0 & 2.0 Backwards compatible port.

Chipset

  • ASMedia 1051e USB 3.0 & 2.0 chipset

Drive Mechanisms Supported

Max Data Transfer Rate

  • USB 3.0 – 500MB/s
  • USB 2.0 – 60MB/s

Port/Interface Bootability

  • Can I use this solution as an external startup drive?
  • USB 3.0: Supported on Macs and PC's meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info
  • USB 2.0: Supported on Macs and PC's meeting minimum requirements. - Click for more info

UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) Compliant

  • Yes

System Requirements

  • Macintosh: Macintosh OS 8.6 to 9.2.2, OS X 10.2.x or later including 'Mavericks' 10.9.x, and an available USB 3.0 port. Time Machine® Compatible: Mac OS X 10.5 (version introduced) and later.
  • PC: Windows Vista, XP, 2000, NT, 98, and an available USB 3.0 port.
  • Linux: Linux compatible via supported the USB interface.

Power Supply*

  • Bus power via USB on most computers with factory installed USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port.
  • Optional AC Adapter* (available as a separate purchase here)
    * AC adapter not required for most applications provided computer bus supplies appropriate power needs.

External Case Dimensions

  • 3.5" (W) x 5.5" (D) x 1" (H)
  • 88.9mm x 139.7mm x 25.4mm

Unit Weight (no mechanism)

  • 0.40lbs. (0.18kg)

Assembly Manual

Operating Environment:

Temperature

  • Dependent on mechanism installed

Relative Humidity

  • Dependent on mechanism installed

Vibration

  • Dependent on mechanism installed

MTBF (hours)

  • Dependent on mechanism installed

Warranty

1 Year OWC Enclosure Limited Warranty

The best warranty is one you never have to use, but should the need occur – OWC is proud to provide a superior level of support and warranty coverage to our customers. Even when not used, we understand the peace of mind afforded by a longer warranty period. OWC's industry leading coverage is a testament to our confidence in the reliability of the solutions that we offer. OWC solutions are engineered to demanding quality standards in order to deliver the most reliable, highest performance available on the market in each storage category.

View more information about the 1 Year OWC Enclosure Limited Warranty

Manufacturer provided specifications for Other World Computing p/n MOTGS3U3 UPC#: 794504332759

Customer Ratings

Write a Review 4.8 / 5 200 out of 214 (93%) reviewers would recommend this product
1 2 3 4 5
Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor
Reviewer: Kuko Location: Calgary Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Superb enclosure October 15, 2019 I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC Mercury On-The-Go 2.5" Portable USB 3.0 Enclosure for SATA NoteBook HDs. Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Macsolvers Location: San Francisco Bay Area Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Was able to put to use quickly October 28, 2018 I have installed 2.5 inch drives in several of these enclosures before, and this one was just as easy to assemble. I am using the drive enclosure as a supplemental backup system.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Jackbudz Location: Bellerose Manor,NY Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Quality product October 26, 2018 Own three of these and use as backup drives for three Macs. Have been a customer for over 15 years. Have purchased ssd’s,external burners and older hd external drives that still work,but not as quick as the ssd external drives I now have. OWC product line is superb. It covers the gamut of anything you might need. Tech support is outstanding. The diy videos are easy to follow. Dealing with OWC is a pleasure! I would also add their installation service. 4 years ago they added a data doubler plus a ssd to my 2012 macmini. Needless to say. That macmini is my go to Mac for doing taxes etc. The original drive is the backup. All my important stuff lives in it. Still use an external just in case. CC Cleaner installed.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 250GB SSD OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 SSD Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Corvus Location: Longmont, CO Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 3-4 months
Rating: 5/5 Great External Drives for Backup and Storage September 18, 2018 I've now purchased several of these for various uses, and they all work great! The spinning drives are fast, work off bus power (with USB 3.0) so no extra cords, and take up very little space. I use the Mercury On-The-Go spinning drives for what I term "relocatable" applications. That is, I want to be able to easily take it with me to use in a hotel room, or in our RV, but it doesn't need the durability and "use on the move" capability of a SSD. The spinning drives are high quality, and relatively cheap (compared to a like-sized SSD), so I don't mind some overlap or duplication. In fact, if you're not moving big data files around, the 5400 rpm drives are really a steal. I have several of the On-The-Go Pro drives, both SDD and HDD, that I use with my MBP since it's a bit limited on storage with 256G SSD built in. So, I've pretty much eliminated data storage on the laptop and just use that SSD for applications, and then I keep all the data (e.g., pictures, GIS data, audio files, etc... on the external drives. A nice extra is that I have a dedicated Photos HDD that has my Lightroom library on it, and I can take it with me on a trip, work with the photos on the laptop, and then when I get home, use the same drive on my desktop for work and finishing on a bigger screen. It's working great, and I even have a separate drive that I use as my Windows 10 gaming drive. The price, size and performance of these OWC Mercury On-The-Go drives are perfect for this type of use.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Corvus Location: Longmont, CO Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Perfect Win 10 external drive August 12, 2018 The 256G SSD on my MBP was maxed out with a Bootcamp partition. After reading a Rocket Yard blog article on setting up Windows to boot from an external USB drive, I didn't wait long to select this OWC 120G SSD portable to do my install. It's PERFECT!! The drive is small, tidy (USB 3.0 bus power, no power cords!), and FAST. And, the SSD is bump and jostle resistant, so I can use it on the go. I was able to remove the Bootcamp partition on the internal drive and get all the space back. The external boot operates with no perceptable performance loss (the Win 10 OS and drive are for games). I have a couple other ext HDDs that I use for backups and pictures, but I really appreciate the additional ruggedness of the SSD. The OWC enclosure is rugged (enough), takes little desktop space, and fits neatly in a laptop bag. It fits my needs perfectly, and has been running without a hiccup.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 120GB SSD OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 SSD Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: djcl Location: Los Angeles, CA Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Great Little Drive June 18, 2018 This is my fourth OWC on the go pro drive. They are solid workhorses. my oldest is 9 years old and still chugging. I have only ever had one problem with a drive but didn't lose data just a power issue. it was just outside the three year warranty but OWC still repaired it free of charge. You can't beat that for reliability and customer service. So, yes, I highly recommend these drives.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 2.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 5400RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor
Reviewer: TheRetiredViking Location: Tri-Cities area TN Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 As good as before June 7, 2018 I bought one of these several years back; I am glad to see the product has not been cheapened. It is easy to use, and seems sturdy.

Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor
Reviewer: StumpJumper Location: Ohio Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Another great mobile HDD June 7, 2018 This external HDD replaced an older one that is used to back up my wife's 2008 Macbook Pro which experienced a major internal failure last month. The old drive had worked flawlessly but its interface wasn't compatible with the USC-C ports on my wife's new 2018 MBP. The new drive has been working just as flawlessly so far, and I expect it to continue to do so.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor
Reviewer: brushworks Location: Indiana Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Best Product of Its Kind April 22, 2018 These little drive enclosures are the best I've ever used. Strong, sturdy and durable to the extreme. Provides superb shock protection for even "old-fashioned" mechanical hard drives. They cost a little more than a lot of other enclosures, but they're worth every penny. And they look so good! I plan to buy more as gifts for my kids and grandkids.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: mrr714 Location: new castle, de Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 great SSD Drive April 15, 2018 Good speed, right size - decent price. Like the enclosure.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB SSD OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 SSD Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Austin Location: Cupertino, CA Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Used w/ SSD as offsite backup. March 22, 2018 Easily installed an SSD into the enclosure. Very fast w/ USB3. Small enough to fit in my fire safe. Has worked well over the years.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC Mercury On-The-Go 2.5" Portable USB 3.0 Enclosure for SATA NoteBook HDs. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: PapPap Location: Michigan Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 Great backup and archive solution December 30, 2017 Grandson used his MacBook Pro with Retina for two and a half years of college. His small solid state drive was nearly full and cooling fan was running regularly. He had no external drive and no backup plan! This drive was a great solution at a very reasonable cost. Created two partitions, archive and backup. We moved seldom used files to archive and set up Time Machine for backups. This simple addition will keep his 8 gig, 120 Gig SSD MacBook relevant for the foreseeable future at a very reasonable cost. Thank you Macsales!

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: jwarren Location: Hansville WA Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5 LOVE these pocket-sized multi-terabyte storage units December 16, 2017 I've been using these OWC On-The-Go external drives since at least 2012, and love 'em! Have [at least] 18 of 'em - 500GB to 2TB; most USB2/USB3; some Firewire400-800/USB2or3. Something like 20-30 TERAbytes in total. Got most of 'em with the mass-store already inside, but also got a few 0GB cases and stuffed my own drives in 'em (usually extracted from obsolete computers on the way to recycling). Nightly backups (using wun'erful Carbon Copy Cloner); off-site back-ups; easy sharing of monster-sized files; etc. [Well okay - so maybe it has to be a slightly largeish pocket. :-) ]

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 2.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 5400RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: TommyZ Location: Long Beach CA Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Compact/Fast July 5, 2017 A nice little portable package, that's faster than most portable HDs. One potential issue I've had is with connecting it to a hub. It "clicks" and won't fire up when attached to one of my powered USB 3 hubs. It must be a power issue as the drive works great when connected directly to the MacPro and Powerbook. Could be a hub issue, though other peripherals are working, so I'm not sure it's that the drive's power requirements are a bit steeper than the hub can handle.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Rhenig Location: Paris, France Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Reassuring Solid Construction July 5, 2017 Anyone already having bought this item will know the merits of this transparent acrylic casing. For a first time purchase, it may be an act of faith. However, on installing the disk and reasembling, one is totally reassured as to its robustness, the more so when copying files. It performs well. All in all, a highly satisfying acquisition.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Jody Location: New Bern, NC Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 4/5 Good price, rapid shipping, great product. June 23, 2017 This is the fourth Mercury On-The-Go drive I have bought from MacSales. The compact size, the bus-powered operation, the included cable, and the convenient carrying case all make this very useful. Setup is a snap -- I was making a backup a half hour after opening the shipping carton.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Vinnny Location: Chestnut Ridge, NY Age: Over 65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Good Time Machine drive June 11, 2017 I like the fact that it has a power switch.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 5400RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: KenW Location: Asheville, NC Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Works great, but... June 4, 2017 I purchased this 0GB enclosure when we came to the conclusion that my older 1GB On-The-Go-Pro hard drive enclosure had failed while the hard drive itself was in good condition. The diagnosis of MacSales Support proved to be correct and I now have a functioning external hard drive. However, the latest version of the 0GB enclosure is slightly different that the original and the included instructions are directed toward a newer SSDs. My advice is to contact OWC/MacSales for help if you're installing an older mechanical hard drive in this enclosure. Other than that, the new enclosure performs flawlessly.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Howie Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Great June 4, 2017 Perfect as usual

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: davidah1 Location: San Francisco CA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 4/5 works fine, as it should May 22, 2017 What is there to say? It works.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB SSD OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 SSD Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: AgileJim Location: Connecticut Age: 45-54 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Plug and Play; Fast April 28, 2017 I bought this drive to backup a new machine I purchased. It was recognized quickly when plugged into the computer and the initial set-up was simple and straightforward. I am satisfied with the speed of the drive.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: KartRacer48 Location: Ohio Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Great HD for the small size April 16, 2017 This is my 4th OWC on the go 7200 RPM hard drive. I travel with these and bus power works great too.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: jeremy284 Location: 38632 Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5 Great little enclosure for spare hard drives April 3, 2017 I have half a dozen of these enclosures now to do backups, store photos and music libraries. A great product and very reliable.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor
Reviewer: StumpJumper Location: Ohio Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Small, Light, Convenient & Reliable April 2, 2017 This is the second Mercury On-The-Go Pro that I've purchased from OWC/MacSales.com. I use them for clone backups of our two MacBook Pro's, usually weekly, to supplement the normal hourly Time Machine backups to other external drives (Mercury Elite Pro's or MiniStacks). We've been using the older On-The-Go Pro for over 5 years now. These drives are light weight and easily transportable along with a laptop computer's other necessary gear. Being USB bus powered (the older one is powered through the FireWire 800 connection) you don't have to lug around an additional power brick.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 / 2.0 7200RPM Portable Bus Powered Solution.. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer
Reviewer: DustyMac Location: Washington DC Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5 Great Enclosure March 31, 2017 This is my fourth or fifth of these enclosures bought from OWC. This one was to resurrect the hard drive from my dead 2011 MacBook Pro. As always, installation was easy and my old drive works great. If I have any criticism, it's the brightness of the blue LED activity light, but a piece of label tape dims it quite nicely.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC Mercury On-The-Go 2.5" Portable USB 3.0 Enclosure for SATA NoteBook HDs. Customer Videos:

OWC 0GB OWC On-The-Go® Mfr P/N: MOTGS3U3 OWC SKU: OWCMOTGS3U3 USB 3.0 & 2.0 Portable Enclosure Kit 1 Year OWC Limited Warranty Ships: Same Day
Reviews (214)
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