Solved Need M.2 SATA Drive Caddy for Add'l Memory

I just bought an M.2 drive caddy that I will have to return. Here is my review, and if anyone has info about a caddy for my particular needs let me know.
REVIEW:
I was hoping this thing would work, but I'll return it. It looks good, it says it takes both NVMe and SATA drives, its made of aluminum, and works with USB 3.2 and only cost $20. But it wouldn't work for me. I recently upgraded my HP Spectre laptop with a 480GB M.2 SATA Solid State Drive, and had also bought a Micron 256GB drive that was taking too long to arrive (Amazon's 3rd party seller in California - I'm on the East Coast), and found myself in possession of 2 extra SSD's just wasting away in a drawer. So I thought this caddy would be great to put them to use as removable drives and extra memory. But the thing would not recognize my drives. They both have the Spectre's drive information on them (the Windows 10 operating system and all my documents and music) so all I had to do would be to put them back in the machine and power-on and the laptop would be good to go just as it was before removal. But when I put each in the caddy they weren't recognized, the drives just didn't appear in Windows Explorer. So I ran Windows Disk Management as well as Mini Tool's Partition Magic to see how the drives appeared while they were in the caddy (I did this one at a time, of course). And in both utilities they appeared as empty drives that needed to be initialized in order for the drives to be used. (Initializing a drive deletes any information on a drive.) I really didn't want to overwrite the data that I knew was still on them, but I chose the older SSD to try to initialized, the original ADATA 128GB SSD that came with the laptop. Initialization refused to work giving me an error in Disk Management. In Mini Tool the option to initialize the drive was grayed out so I didn't even have the opportunity to initialize the drive even if I wanted to. Obviously there's a problem with the caddy. After this I did go ahead and put the OEM disk back into the laptop just to reassure myself that all the data was till there, and sure enough, the laptop booted and everything I had on it was still there and OK, close to 90GB of data.

The SSD drives both were able to be inserted in the caddy fine, there's only one way for them to be inserted. One design flaw I noticed is that the hold screw that secures the drive to the board was too far away from the end of the SSD's to secure it!

The user guide does mention that when a drive is placed in the caddy it will need do be initialized, but as I said, that destroys any data currently on the drive, which is fine for a brand new drive, but not for a drive already used! The Amazon page should have made this clear so I would have known that I could not use this seller's caddy!

So I can not recommend this manufacturer's SSD M.2 caddy for purchase.

I;m wondering if the problem with this enclosure is that my existing drive is a regular M.2 SATA 2280 SSD. Because the enclosure says it is for an NVMe drive even though they state this in terms of "M.2 to USB NVMe SATA SSD Enclosure Reader." But isn't an SATA drive NOT the same as an M.2 NMVe drive?

But isn't an SATA drive NOT the same as an M.2 NMVe drive?

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No, not the same, they do not mount the same way.

SATA 2.5" drive



NVME drive



There's different lengths of NVME drives, a case to hold them may have 3 threaded holes to hold them, the USB Case I got can handle 3 different lengths.

SATA drives are 2 sizes, 2.5" usually for Notebooks and 3.5" for Desktops. Some Desktops now come with NVME drives and also have bays for mounting 3.5" and/or 2.5" drives, my Dell Vostro 5890 is like that with a 512GB NVME and I added a 2TB 3.5" SATA drive. My Dell Vostro 3400 Notebook has a 256GB NVME drive and appears to have a place for a 2.5" SATA drive.

SATA refers to a Serial ATA drive, both 2.5" and 3.5" while PATA Parallel ATA is the older 3.5" IDE drive.

Berton said:

No, they do not mount the same way.

SATA drive
View attachment 74572


NVME drive

View attachment 74573

There's different lengths of NVME drives, a case to hold them may have 3 threaded holes to hold them, the USB Case I got can handle 3 different lengths.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I should have writtten my post with more clarity. I should have compared 2 M.2 drives, 1 an M.2 SATA drive like this one I bought and this one, as I know there is a difference, see this Kingston article; but you all know this information.

Berton said:

… the USB Case I got can handle 3 different lengths.

Click to expand...

Which one did you get, if you don’t mind me asking?

You also have to look at the notches on the tip of the ssd m.2 drive.

I have two of these but, they are for the my m.2 with M key configuration.
They say that it will also support the B key configuration.

antspants said:

Which one did you get, if you don’t mind me asking?

Click to expand...

Mine is a black Sabrent, similar to the clear plastic type. I misspoke, mine takes 4 different lengths.

Both SATA and NVMe drives are available in the M.2 form factor. Some M.2 enclosures support both SATA and NVMe drives. They can be differentiated by the keying of the SSD. You need to look at the specs of the enclosure to determine if it can support both types of drives, but the key would prevent you from inserting a drive that it does not support anyway.

Take a look at the "Form factors and keying" section of this Wiki for details:

starchase said:

I;m wondering if the problem with this enclosure is that my existing drive is a regular M.2 SATA 2280 SSD. Because the enclosure says it is for an NVMe drive even though they state this in terms of "M.2 to USB NVMe SATA SSD Enclosure Reader." But isn't an SATA drive NOT the same as an M.2 NMVe drive?

Click to expand...

The M.2 drive in your link has the B+M notches, so it'll fit in the enclosure.

I'm surprised that the screw location for the 2280 length doesn't match the card. How are you holding the card in the enclosure without the screw?

I've never owned a SATA M.2 drive, so I can't comment from personal experience. I've used a different enclosure from the same maker, but only for NVME drives. Like yours, it's also supposed to be usable with SATA drives that have B+M slots.

bobkn said:

The M.2 drive in your link has the B+M notches, so it'll fit in the enclosure.

I'm surprised that the screw location for the 2280 length doesn't match the card. How are you holding the card in the enclosure without the screw?

I've never owned a SATA M.2 drive, so I can't comment from personal experience. I've used a different enclosure from the same maker, but only for NVME drives. Like yours, it's also supposed to be usable with SATA drives that have B+M slots.

Click to expand...

Yes, I've read all about the keying and the notch differences between the 2 interfaces, the SATA and the NVMe. And the enclosure I bought indicated it accepted both. My SSDs are SATA with 2 notches


It fit fine in the enclosure, didn't have to force it. And even though the retaining screw was placed outside of the end of the stick it held itself in the interface with no wiggling. My stick is the 2280 size, and the enclosure had screw holes for all the different lengths. The dang thing still did not work for me so I'm returning it.

EDIT: In this article this sentence seems to give the key to the problem: "In truth, the only time a M.2 drive shouldn't work at all even through the keying matches is if you try to use a M.2 SATA drive in a M.2 PCI-E only socket." And the enclosure link seems to indicate that it is strictly a PCI-E socket.

The other important issue concerns the issue of requiring initializing the drive in the enclosure. Do all the caddies require this in order to access the drive, so that instead of just inserting the drive and plugging the caddy into a laptop and using it like a thumb drive, one has to destroy any data on the drive? Seems counterintuitive to me.

I've only had to initialize a new drive or a fully clean drive then it could be partitioned and formatted. When the message is received by the Operating System it means it knows nothing yet about it, could either be new/never used or a faulty drive.

Berton said:

I've only had to initialize a new drive or a fully clean drive then it could be partitioned and formatted. When the message is received by the Operating System it means it knows nothing yet about it, could either be new/never used or a faulty drive.

initialize disk at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

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Cool, thanks. Even w/ the statement presented to me when using the enclosure I bought that I needed to initialize the drive before use, neither Disk Management nor Mini Tool would permit me to do so. DM gave me an error message and Mini Tool had the option grayed out. I'm strongly leaning toward the caddy being defective (either in interface management or manufacturing).

So I'm trying to determine if the next enclosure I buy will require the same "initialize disk before use" requirement. The SSK device I bought made no mention of this on the Amazon page. I'd rather not keep buying them on an experimental basis!

starchase said:

The other important issue concerns the issue of requiring initializing the drive in the enclosure. Do all the caddies require this in order to access the drive, so that instead of just inserting the drive and plugging the caddy into a laptop and using it like a thumb drive, one has to destroy any data on the drive? Seems counterintuitive to me.

Click to expand...

I've only had to initialize my NVMe drive that's in a 10Gbps USB enclosure one time and format it. I'm able to move it around from machine to machine at home and plug it in and just see all of the data like any other thumb drive.

pparks1 said:

I've only had to initialize my NVMe drive that's in a 10Gbps USB enclosure one time and format it. I'm able to move it around from machine to machine at home and plug it in and just see all of the data like any other thumb drive.

Click to expand...

Good to know. So that one-time experience to initialize, your drive was blank prior to first use? That it was not a previously used drive with data on it?

I wonder if my experience with this first M.2 enclosure I bought is an anomaly, that I don't have to search for information on a seller's page with this kind of parameter explained.

starchase said:

Yes, I've read all about the keying and the notch differences between the 2 interfaces, the SATA and the NVMe. And the enclosure I bought indicated it accepted both. My SSDs are SATA with 2 notches
View attachment 74587

It fit fine in the enclosure, didn't have to force it. And even though the retaining screw was placed outside of the end of the stick it held itself in the interface with no wiggling. My stick is the 2280 size, and the enclosure had screw holes for all the different lengths. The dang thing still did not work for me so I'm returning it.

EDIT: In this article this sentence seems to give the key to the problem: "In truth, the only time a M.2 drive shouldn't work at all even through the keying matches is if you try to use a M.2 SATA drive in a M.2 PCI-E only socket." And the enclosure link seems to indicate that it is strictly a PCI-E socket.

Click to expand...

These enclosures are supposed to work like other any drive enclosure or flash drive. You just plug them into your computer and use them. Nothing else needs to be done. If yours doesn't work this way then maybe there is something wrong with it.

This is from the web page for your enclosure. It does say that it will work with both NVME and SATA M.2 SSDs.



BTW, I have two M.2 SSD enclosures. One is for NVME only and the other is for SATA only.

I use a Sabrent enclosure that supports both SATA and NVMe SSDs. It worked so well for me that I now have 5 of them . I have never had a hint of a problem and I use these with many systems from desktops to laptops.

Another nice feature is that the thermal pad is permanently attached to the lid and gets pressed down against the SSD when the lid is closed. This makes it easy to swap SSDs without having to physically attach a thermal pad to each SSD. It also uses the Realtek chipset that people seem to rate very highly for these enclosures.

starchase said:

Yes, I've read all about the keying and the notch differences between the 2 interfaces, the SATA and the NVMe. And the enclosure I bought indicated it accepted both. My SSDs are SATA with 2 notches

(snip)

It fit fine in the enclosure, didn't have to force it. And even though the retaining screw was placed outside of the end of the stick it held itself in the interface with no wiggling. My stick is the 2280 size, and the enclosure had screw holes for all the different lengths. The dang thing still did not work for me so I'm returning it.

EDIT: In this article this sentence seems to give the key to the problem: "In truth, the only time a M.2 drive shouldn't work at all even through the keying matches is if you try to use a M.2 SATA drive in a M.2 PCI-E only socket." And the enclosure link seems to indicate that it is strictly a PCI-E socket.

Click to expand...

You think that the vendor is lying about the enclosure being SATA compatible (for SATA drives with B + M slots)?

bobkn said:

You think that the vendor is lying about the enclosure being SATA compatible (for SATA drives with B + M slots)?

Click to expand...

I wish I knew what the issue is with this particular device. With the retention screw being placed too far to the rear, and some kind of small blob near the front as if to secure the cover via friction, and a small square sticky pad on the bottom that gets hidden when the enclosure is closed, neither of these 2 things are mentioned in the "user guide", it just doesn't look right. And then, there's the "it doesn't work" issue.
John

hsehestedt said:

I use a Sabrent enclosure that supports both SATA and NVMe SSDs. It worked so well for me that I now have 5 of them . I have never had a hint of a problem and I use these with many systems from desktops to laptops.

Another nice feature is that the thermal pad is permanently attached to the lid and gets pressed down against the SSD when the lid is closed. This makes it easy to swap SSDs without having to physically attach a thermal pad to each SSD. It also uses the Realtek chipset that people seem to rate very highly for these enclosures.

https://a.co/d/9z57BbE

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Yeah, I saw that one. I went the "economy" route as I won't be using it much, and bought this one which will be at my door tomorrow 10/19. Hopefully this will work as it is strictly an SATA device. "NOT Supoort PCIe NVMe/AHCI" "supoort"!!