Can I turn my old SSD into an external drive?
Asked by
MellowPine47
I replaced my storage drive and still have the old one sitting around. Is there an adapter or enclosure that would let me use it as an external drive for extra storage? Would reusing it be cheaper than buying a ready-made external SSD, and what type of enclosure should I get?
Answers
For a 2.5-inch SATA SSD, look for a bus-powered USB 3 enclosure with UASP support. It can reach roughly 450 MB/s over a suitable USB connection. An M.2 drive in a USB enclosure may hit a similar speed because the USB connection becomes the bottleneck, so make sure the enclosure supports the drive type.
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Yes. The right adapter depends on the drive: a 2.5-inch SATA SSD needs a SATA-to-USB enclosure, while an M.2 drive needs an M.2 enclosure that matches whether it uses SATA or NVMe. Since you already own the drive, an enclosure is usually cheaper than buying another external SSD.
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Reusing the old drive makes the most sense if it has decent capacity, especially 1 TB or more. If it is a small drive, compare the enclosure price with a newer, larger external SSD; the extra capacity and warranty may be worth it. Make sure to back up anything important before moving the drive.
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