# Please help: SSD issue and Samsung's reply



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

Hi,

I'm really hoping I can resolve this somehow: I have 2 SSD cards: a Samsung 2TB 870 EVO and a 1TB 860 EVO. I've had both for around 10 months, purchased from Amazon. I connect them to my 2017 iMac via a SATA to USB cable. They had been working fine since I bought them, with read/write speeds of around 400 Mb/s; they hold all my sample libraries, and performance was great.

However, in the last week, the 870 has started to fail: it automatically ejects after about 10 mins, and before ejecting, the read speed is minimal (4.5Mb/s read), so unusable. To isolate the problem to the disk, I connected the 870 to the same cable and USB port as I'm using for the 860, which is working fine, and got the same problem. The 860 also works with the same cable and USB port that the 870 is failing with, so it's clearly the 870 card that is the problem.

I contacted Amazon who told me to contact Samsung. Samsung replied that the 870 is an internal SSD card, and should not be used externally with adapters, and that the ejection and low performance are caused by the adapter. Does this mean the drive has been permanently damaged by using an external USB-to-SATA cable? They advised that I test the card internally, but I can't do that with an iMac, and don't know anyone who could do this for me. 

Any suggestions what I should do? I really hope it's not unrecoverable.

Are others using these cards externally? When I search for this question online, the advice is that this is fine, typically housed in an enclosure. I also couldn't find anything from Amazon and/or Samsung indicating that this drive should not be used externally; admittedly, it is clearly sold as an internal SSD, but there is nothing I can find that says it should not be used externally. 

Any help much appreciated.

Urggh.... just before Christmas! :(


----------



## Hadrondrift (Dec 23, 2021)

Normally, it is good to run a SSD in an external case as long as the USB port supplies enough power. Most ports in modern PC/Macs do this. I have run several Samsung SSDs in external enclosures, never had a problem. And even if the power is not sufficient, this could lead to loss of data, but should not damage your drive physically.

But: I had a serious problem just a few days ago with an internally used Samsung 870 2 TB SSD I bought about half a year ago. Suddenly unrecoverable errors occurred, the disk reported uncorrectable bad blocks, etc. I saw on the internet that exactly with this drive (870 2 TB) other users already had the same problems. Perhaps this is also the real problem here. There seems to be a fundamental problem with this series or production batch. I got my drive replaced by Samsung (via a complicated RMA).

Again, I don't think it's harmful in any way for an internal SSD to be run in an external case. With adequate power supply, the SSD shouldn't even notice that it is operated externally, so to speak. Too bad you can't check your drive internally.


----------



## d.healey (Dec 23, 2021)

You also won't find anything that says it shouldn't be placed in a fish tank  

I don't know why using it with a USB adapter would cause it to fail, did Samsung give you any explanation for why it shouldn't be used externally?


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

No, Samsung didn't explain why; they just said: "We kindly inform you that the 870 EVO is an internal SATA SSD and is not meant to be used externally with adapters. The ejection issue and the low performance are caused by the adapter."

It's hard to see why it would take 10months for this issue to be caused by the adapter; and it's not a faulty adapter, as the other drive, my 860, is working fine with the same adapter.


----------



## MartinH. (Dec 23, 2021)

BigMal said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm really hoping I can resolve this somehow: I have 2 SSD cards: a Samsung 2TB 870 EVO and a 1TB 860 EVO. I've had both for around 10 months, purchased from Amazon. I connect them to my 2017 iMac via a SATA to USB cable. They had been working fine since I bought them, with read/write speeds of around 400 Mb/s; they hold all my sample libraries, and performance was great.
> 
> ...



Backup your data immidiately (if it's even still possible). I've had a 1TB Samsung 870 EVO drive die on me recently. Wasn't even a year old. 
Never heard about drive types not being suitable for USB enclosures. If it shows bad sectors already I'd format it and try to get a replacement from Amazon if you still have warranty on it.


----------



## Paulogic (Dec 23, 2021)

When I recently bought a Samsung NVMe drive, they advised me to use a dedicated enclosure.
When I look at the enclosure, there is quit some electronics in it, suspecting a controller handling
i/o and buffers of the SSD.
Is the cable you use compatible with SSD or is it normally a HDD cable. It only could be that it
cannot handle the drive properly and finally breaks it down. Do you have a friend or so who
has an enclosure for SSD, to test if he can use it?
Just an idea because I had enclosures and sata docking stations before where one drive would
work and another seemed to be defective... but using another sata interface, they worked normally.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

> Backup your data immidiately (if it's even still possible). I've had a 1TB Samsung 870 EVO drive die on me recently. Wasn't even a year old.
> Never heard about drive types not being suitable for USB enclosures. If it shows bad sectors already I'd format it and try to get a replacement from Amazon if you still have warranty on it.


Thank - yes, it's backed up. I was able to run a Disk Utility check on it, and it found no issues. But then crashed my computer! I don't know if there is warranty with Amazon (bought 10months ago, so currently checking), but there presumably should be with Samsung, assuming having used it as an external drive doesn't void the warranty somehow.



> Is the cable you use compatible with SSD or is it normally a HDD cable. It only could be that it
> cannot handle the drive properly and finally breaks it down. Do you have a friend or so who
> has an enclosure for SSD, to test if he can use it?


Yes, it's an SSD to USB cable. I wasn't using an enclosure, but just had both SSD drives plugged into my USB 3.0 hub, and since this was working fine, didn't think anything of it. Since the 870 has had problems, I've plugged it directly into the iMac, but that doesn't resolve it, but perhaps the USB hub caused the problem? I have no other way of testing it unfortunately. My only way of testing it is using the cable that I use with the 860, which works fine, but doesn't work with the 870, so the cable is clearly functional.


----------



## ashX (Dec 23, 2021)

As if they dont want to fix your issue, if I were you I would write them again from a new e-mail without mentioning that I use adapter and ask them to replace that SSD. Because now they might blame you for breaking it (in fact that's obviously not your fault)


----------



## d.healey (Dec 23, 2021)

Has the SSD just sat on your desk permanently plugged in, or has it been unplugged and plugged in repeatedly?


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

> As if they dont want to fix your issue, if I were you I would write them again from a new e-mail without mentioning that I use adapter and ask them to replace that SSD. Because now they might blame you for breaking it (in fact that's obviously not your fault)


Yes, I'm pushing both Amazon and Samsung for a response - will update when I hear more, as my understanding from this forum is that many people are doing similar to me: using an internal SSD plugged in externally (with or without enclosure, presumably doesn't matter). I can't just resend them a new enquiry, without mentioning the adapter (which I agree, seems a non-issue), because the initial enquiry has to include photos of the serial number.



> Has the SSD just sat on your desk permanently plugged in, or has it been unplugged and plugged in repeatedly?


Just sat there, permanently plugged in. I didn't get it because it was portable, as I don't have need for that, so no damage based on repeated reconnection.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

> It shouldn’t matter that the SSD has been plugged into an external drive hub, or whatever you call it.
> 
> (I have one too and have also plugged SSD’s into it when needed)



Thanks, good to know - yes, it's my impression this is a reasonably common practice. I will try to push either Amazon or Samsung to provide a replacement.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

Henrik B. Jensen said:


> It’s a unit such as this one you’re using, right:



No, I just use a SATA to USB cable: (https://www.amazon.de/SATA-Adapter-Converter-Drives-Supports/dp/B081W2CQ66/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=15J41GZLMI9W9&keywords=usb+3%2C0+auf+sata+adapter&qid=1640262008&sprefix=usb+3.0+to+sata+adapter%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=AHFWEH0W5YQ4X&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyUTQ5VjFBV1JLM0U4JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjczNDU1M01MRzhFUTc0WjFERCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTYzMDkwMUpJQlNSSlpTUVRLNCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU= (link))


----------



## darkogav (Dec 23, 2021)

d.healey said:


> You also won't find anything that says it shouldn't be placed in a fish tank
> 
> I don't know why using it with a USB adapter would cause it to fail, did Samsung give you any explanation for why it shouldn't be used externally?


perhaps when using it on a low speed connection (external cable vs internal PCI) it generates a lot more read and writers and results in faster failure rate?


----------



## Sergievsky (Dec 23, 2021)

You said cards…but they’re drives right? Like, 2.5 Internal drives? You really should have those inside a proper external casing, like those sold by OWC, & preferably connected to your iMac using Thunderbolt not Usb. I wouldn’t trust my data using just an adapter like that, too many power issues & OS issues that leads to disconnection…& sometimes even if you have a decent case a MacOs update would still screw up a perfectly working setup. And SSDs really don’t like power interruptio…..it’ll corrupt files. Download Drive Dx or Techtool Pro or something like that if you don’t have it already…they have a trial period. it’ll tell you if its about to die. BTW, if you do decide to get a TB enclosure, don’t get Akitio…I had better luck with OWC (who bought Akitio haha)


----------



## d.healey (Dec 23, 2021)

Has anything changed with your setup recently. Updated the OS? Hardware upgrade (if that's possible with a mac...)? Have you tried connecting the drive, externally, to another computer?


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

d.healey said:


> Has anything changed with your setup recently. Updated the OS? Hardware upgrade (if that's possible with a mac...)? Have you tried connecting the drive, externally, to another computer?


Tried it with my MacBook, and things seem to be getting worse with this drive: it could initially read it (as does my iMac) and I can see the files on there, but whereas before it would just automatically eject, it now crashes the computer (did the same with both the MacBook and iMac). So... it's definitely the disk. 

No recent changes to the hardware/setup etc.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

Sergievsky said:


> You said cards…but they’re drives right? Like, 2.5 Internal drives? You really should have those inside a proper external casing, like those sold by OWC, & preferably connected to your iMac using Thunderbolt not Usb. I wouldn’t trust my data using just an adapter like that, too many power issues & OS issues that leads to disconnection…& sometimes even if you have a decent case a MacOs update would still screw up a perfectly working setup. And SSDs really don’t like power interruptio…..it’ll corrupt files. Download Drive Dx or Techtool Pro or something like that if you don’t have it already…they have a trial period. it’ll tell you if its about to die. BTW, if you do decide to get a TB enclosure, don’t get Akitio…I had better luck with OWC (who bought Akitio haha)


Thanks, yes I plan to get an enclosure, though I had 2 drives plugged in to the same USB hub, but only the 870, but not the 860, has become dysfunctional. That said, the 870 is a few months older, so if there is any progressive deterioration using this connection method, I may be headed for the same with the 860, so I should definitely get an enclosure. But Disk Utility did not find any errors on the 870, despite all the problems I'm having with it.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

Samsung's reply: "On the specs there is written that it is a SATA III SSD, which means has to be used internally: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/870evo/" and highlight the interface in the image attached.

They have offered to review the drive at their service centre, which I will take them up on, and hope that they replace it...


----------



## darkogav (Dec 23, 2021)

BigMal said:


> Thanks, yes I plan to get an enclosure, though I had 2 drives plugged in to the same USB hub, but only the 870, but not the 860, has become dysfunctional. That said, the 870 is a few months older, so if there is any progressive deterioration using this connection method, I may be headed for the same with the 860, so I should definitely get an enclosure. But Disk Utility did not find any errors on the 870, despite all the problems I'm having with it.


I am not an expert on this, but my understanding is, the enclosure should have controllers in it which control the flow of data written to the drive. Good luck









StarTech.com 2.5in USB 3.0 External SATA III SSD Hard Drive Enclosure with UASP - Portable External USB HDD with Tool... | Dell Canada


Turn a 2.5-inchSATA Hard Drive or Solid State Drive into a UASP supported USB 3.0 External Hard Drive. The S2510BPU33 USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure with UASP lets you connect a 2.5in SATA III hard drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) through an available USB port. The enclosure delivers optimal...



www.dell.com


----------



## Hadrondrift (Dec 23, 2021)

BigMal said:


> which means has to be used internally:


The Samsung support is not helpful. A billion dollar group and then such a quibble.

It is nonsense to say a SSD _must_ be used internally. Using it externally is not even a non-intended use, in my view. An external SATA interface is not different from an internal. There can only be problems with the power supply, if at all. USB ports (especially 2.0) can be quite tight compared to an internal connection.

Some time ago, Samsung even included such SATA-USB cables with new SSDs to support the cloning process. These were called "Samsung SSD PC & Notebook Upgrade Kits" or "All-in-One Installation Kits".


Spoiler: more infos



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NHAFBA (Amazon-Link: Samsung Desktop Installation Kit) with SATA-USB cable (like the one you have used):
Cite: "What is in the box? 840 Series SSD, ..., *SATA-to-USB adapter cable*, ..."

Samsung FAQ:








SSD Installation FAQs | Support | Samsung Semiconductor Global


Find frequently asked questions and solutions for your upgraded computing life with Samsung V-NAND SSD products. Consumer SSD Installation FAQs.




www.samsung.com










So much for my attempt to refute the statement that the SSD has to be used internally. 



I hope the service center will help you.


----------



## Zoot_Rollo (Dec 23, 2021)

i JUST configured a 2tb 870 in an external Thunderbolt 3 enclosure.

works great so far.






i recently had a 2tb 870 m.2 fail in my system, and it was my boot drive.

i'm hearing more and more about 870s failing with bad sectors.

time to shop for another brand. for me at least.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

I've submitted the RMA, so let's see what their assessment is.

I plan on getting an enclosure, based on the feedback here. The one suggested by Henrik earlier looks fine:


However, this is USB. I would prefer to use USB than thunderbolt, as I only have 2 thunderbolt ports on my iMac, and both are in use. Is there any reason not to use a USB connection for bays like this? The speed of 450 Mb/s I was getting with the SATA-to-USB cable seems reasonable - presumably this would be the same?

Also, this is not fully enclosed - is there a difference between a bay like this, and a full enclosure? Any reason to prefer the latter? If so, any examples you'd recommend to hold 2 SSDs?


----------



## Sergievsky (Dec 23, 2021)

BigMal said:


> ….. But Disk Utility did not find any errors on the 870, despite all the problems I'm having with it.


Ya Disk Utility isn’t gonna tell you anything about an ssd drive’s imminent failure, you really need one of those other software like Drive Dx or one of the Micromat disk utilities.


----------



## Sergievsky (Dec 23, 2021)

BigMal said:


> I've submitted the RMA, so let's see what their assessment is.
> 
> I plan on getting an enclosure, based on the feedback here. The one suggested by Henrik earlier looks fine:
> 
> ...



if you’re going to stream samples you really need to use Thunderbolt. The enclosures usually have two TB connectors so you can still connect another drive or interface or whatever. Unless your USB ports are the newer 3.2 spec (and pls correct me if I’m wrong, but I dont believe a 2017 iMac has 3.2 usb ports) it’s best to leave that to other less intensive tasks.


----------



## rrichard63 (Dec 23, 2021)

The difference between the adapter cable @BigMal started with and an enclosure is the power supply. For disk drives -- both HDD and SDD -- you need an enclosure that powers the drive from a wall outlet rather than an adapter that tries to power the drive from the USB interface. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the 2TB drive draws more current than the 1TB and that's why one is failing and the other is not. I don't know this for a fact, but it also wouldn't surprise me to learn that using an SSD with an inadequate power source causes progressive physical damage over a period of time, until it eventually fails.

It also wouldn't surprise me to learn that, as several folks mentioned, this particular Samsung model seems to have had a run of bad luck, and that this is actually the problem.

I wonder whether Samsung's policy about external use of their drives differentiates between adapter cables and enclosures.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

Sergievsky said:


> if you’re going to stream samples you really need to use Thunderbolt. The enclosures usually have two TB connectors so you can still connect another drive or interface or whatever. Unless your USB ports are the newer 3.2 spec (and pls correct me if I’m wrong, but I dont believe a 2017 iMac has 3.2 usb ports) it’s best to leave that to other less intensive tasks.


Is that because of speed? Connecting them using a USB 3.0 hub, I was getting around 400 Mb/s, which seemed to work great. Would I expect a meaningfully higher speed with a thunderbolt connection via an enclosure? I'd understood that the much higher speeds with thunderbolt were not achievable in practice with SSDs, because of bottlenecks elsewhere. Did I misunderstand?

Or is to do with power, as @rrichard63 is referring to? I ask because both of my thunderbolts are taken up, so I'd really prefer to use USB for the SSDs, unless that itself creates the drive failure I've experienced, in which case I'll have to rethink my setup. I take your point about the USB hub potentially not providing enough power, I hadn't thought of that. But would a USB enclosure work - do people do this, or is thunderbolt the only way, in terms of speed and/or power?


----------



## rrichard63 (Dec 23, 2021)

BigMal said:


> But would a USB enclosure work - do people do this,


I'm convinced that an enclosure would work with a drive that is not defective. (That's assuming USB 3.0 speed is adequate for your sample libraries, as you say it is.) But the question is whether it would resuscitate your existing 2TB SSD. My guess is probably not. What we don't know, and probably can't find out for sure, is whether it is dying in part because of the adapter or would have died anyway.


----------



## Paulogic (Dec 23, 2021)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> i JUST configured a 2tb 870 in an external Thunderbolt 3 enclosure.
> 
> works great so far.
> 
> ...


This is the one I also bought. Great value for money and the plastic holder can be usefull.
I have them in an unused TV-CD-... remote control holder thingy...


----------



## Nigel Andreola (Dec 23, 2021)

I'm on windows 10. I had the same problem with the same EVO SSDs. I have not had that problem with the pro series. They kept disconnecting and become unrecognized by windows, even when plugged in to an internal SATA port. I thought they were going bad, but their health check kept coming back perfect. One day I decided to check my recycle bin. It was filled with left over files from sample library installs. Now I make sure the recycle bin on those drives are always empty. I haven't had connection issue since. I know you are on a Mac OS, but, it might be worth a try.


----------



## CSS_SCC (Dec 23, 2021)

My experience with unpowered external enclosures - I have about ten of them, different brands and different applications (SATA HDDs and SSDs & NVMe) - if the computer you are connecting to does not provide enough power, you will have random disconnects, very often on long write cycles. If you have tried the enclosure on different machines and on different ports on different machines and with other drives and there is no issue, it's simply the drive that's close to dying. Have had a few HDDs and one SSD that exhibited that behaviour. Just back-up the data (as you already did) and send it for repair. My Kingston SSD that died, the support has asked me to provide the log from their SSD manager which, incidentally, came out fine. But two days later, the drive was dead, after a week or so of inconsistent performance and constant disconnects.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

CSS_SCC said:


> My experience with unpowered external enclosures - I have about ten of them, different brands and different applications (SATA HDDs and SSDs & NVMe) - if the computer you are connecting to does not provide enough power, you will have random disconnects, very often on long write cycles. If you have tried the enclosure on different machines and on different ports on different machines and with other drives and there is no issue, it's simply the drive that's close to dying. Have had a few HDDs and one SSD that exhibited that behaviour. Just back-up the data (as you already did) and send it for repair. My Kingston SSD that died, the support has asked me to provide the log from their SSD manager which, incidentally, came out fine. But two days later, the drive was dead, after a week or so of inconsistent performance and constant disconnects.


I didn't have random disconnects - it worked flawlessly for 10 months, and then all of a sudden, it won't stay connected for more than 5 minutes, but it's not random, it's annoyingly consistent!  

I hope you're right - if they replace it, then no issue, but if they try to claim that connecting it as an external drive has voided the warranty (which they seem to imply in their current correspondence), then I may be in for a fight, so this will have been worth altering others know who may similarly have used these internal drives in the same way as I did.


----------



## BigMal (Dec 23, 2021)

Nigel Andreola said:


> I'm on windows 10. I had the same problem with the same EVO SSDs. I have not had that problem with the pro series. They kept disconnecting and become unrecognized by windows, even when plugged in to an internal SATA port. I thought they were going bad, but their health check kept coming back perfect. One day I decided to check my recycle bin. It was filled with left over files from sample library installs. Now I make sure the recycle bin on those drives are always empty. I haven't had connection issue since. I know you are on a Mac OS, but, it might be worth a try.


Thanks, will definitely try that. I have to wait though, as the drive now seems to be crashing my computer, so need to do it last thing tonight, just in case.


----------



## Nigel Andreola (Dec 23, 2021)

BigMal said:


> Thanks, will definitely try that. I have to wait though, as the drive now seems to be crashing my computer, so need to do it last thing tonight, just in case.


Sorry about the drive crashing your system. That's super frustrating. I was getting crashes too. For a while it was almost every day and would usually only happen when working on an important project! I hope you can get things sorted.


----------



## MartinH. (Dec 23, 2021)

BigMal said:


> Samsung's reply: "On the specs there is written that it is a SATA III SSD, which means has to be used internally: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/870evo/" and highlight the interface in the image attached.



This would be the first time I'm hearing this. 

I googled around a bit and so far the consensus seems to be external adapters/enclosures are fine, but there was one comment that was interesting:



> Yes. Just get an USB to SATA or NVME enclosure.
> 
> One thing to watch out NVME enclosures. Most won’t support the TRIM operation that the OS issues periodically. This means the more you use (write and erase) to it, the slower and slower it gets. This is the case even on many commercially built external NVME based drives. It’s horrible.
> 
> Be sure to get an enclosure that does support TRIM





I have two enclosures without external power adaptors and you can run them with or without the metal case around the SSD. It seemed to me like they get noticably hotter with the case. Not to the touch, but measured internally, which means the heat conductivity is very bad. So I'm using them like adapter cables without enclosure now. I don't think you can generally say that non powered enclosures are in any meaningful way electronically different from adapter cables like you used. So if you get a new encloser/adapter, try to get an externally powered one and try to make sure it supports TRIM and also correctly reads out SMART attributes, which contain useful drive health information like bad sector count.


----------



## Mr Greg G (Dec 24, 2021)

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread, but have you checked the drive health externally AND internally with Samsung Magician or CrystalDiskInfo?


----------



## BigMal (Dec 24, 2021)

Mr Greg G said:


> Sorry I haven't read the whole thread, but have you checked the drive health externally AND internally with Samsung Magician or CrystalDiskInfo?


Thanks for the suggestion - I can't use Samsung Magician as it's Windows only (I'm on a Mac), and the drive is now consistently crashing the computer, so at this point, I think best just to submit the RMA, and see what they make of it. I'll update once I get a resolution with them.


----------



## Mr Greg G (Dec 24, 2021)

If you start the computer without it, the computer works fine but when you boot with the SSD connected or connect it afterwards, it makes everything crash? Have you tried to use the internal diagnosis? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257


----------



## Zoot_Rollo (Dec 24, 2021)

additional anecdote,

when my boot m.2 970 developed bad sectors, it switched to read only.

even when i install it in my external Thunderbolt enclosure, i can read it, but i can't partition, format, delete, write, etc.

i've tried everything to backdoor remove the read only - nada.


----------



## BigMal (Jan 3, 2022)

So, a good update: today Samsung sent me a brand new EVO 870 2TB drive to replace the faulty one. Great!

But there was a lot of good suggestions on this thread as to the best way I should connect these drives, which are ostensibly for internal use only, but clearly can be used externally. Previously, I had just connected them to an external USB 3.0 hub, each via a SATA-to-USB cable. All worked well for 10 months, and either the drive was faulty, or my connection had something to do with it. Not sure which.

The best/cheapest recommendation seems to be this:



Should I go ahead and order this? Is this what people would recommend, given that I will be housing them externally?


----------



## jbuhler (Jan 3, 2022)

BigMal said:


> So, a good update: today Samsung sent me a brand new EVO 870 2TB drive to replace the faulty one. Great!
> 
> But there was a lot of good suggestions on this thread as to the best way I should connect these drives, which are ostensibly for internal use only, but clearly can be used externally. Previously, I had just connected them to an external USB 3.0 hub, each via a SATA-to-USB cable. All worked well for 10 months, and either the drive was faulty, or my connection had something to do with it. Not sure which.
> 
> ...



I prefer actual enclosures, and have shifted to bays. I have two OWC Thunderbays that each hold four SSDs and are thunderbolt. But I used USB 3 enclosures before then. Even relatively cheap ones worked well. I have one of the units pictured here but only used it for temporary use of things like cloning drives before swapping.


----------



## Zoot_Rollo (Jan 3, 2022)

BigMal said:


> So, a good update: today Samsung sent me a brand new EVO 870 2TB drive to replace the faulty one. Great!
> 
> But there was a lot of good suggestions on this thread as to the best way I should connect these drives, which are ostensibly for internal use only, but clearly can be used externally. Previously, I had just connected them to an external USB 3.0 hub, each via a SATA-to-USB cable. All worked well for 10 months, and either the drive was faulty, or my connection had something to do with it. Not sure which.
> 
> ...



doesn't look like that Sabrient handles EVO 870 form factor.

how many M.2 2280 drives do you plan on housing?


----------



## BigMal (Jan 3, 2022)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> doesn't look like that Sabrient handles EVO 870 form factor.
> 
> how many M.2 2280 drives do you plan on housing?


I have a 1TB EVO 860, and a 2TB EVO 870. What is it about the Sabrent that doesn't suit the 870? It states, "Supports Standard Desktop 2.5"/3.5" SATA Hard Drives or SSD" - does this not include the 860/870 drives?

If not, would this work?



When I was using the SATA-to-USB cables, I was getting around 400Mb/s read speeds - would I see a noticeable difference with another connection, or is this the correct speed to expect from these drives?

(apologies for my ignorance here - completely out of my depth, but hoping to address this as cheaply as possible!)


----------



## Zoot_Rollo (Jan 3, 2022)

BigMal said:


> I have a 1TB EVO 860, and a 2TB EVO 870. What is it about the Sabrent that doesn't suit the 870? It states, "Supports Standard Desktop 2.5"/3.5" SATA Hard Drives or SSD" - does this not include the 860/870 drives?
> 
> If not, would this work?
> 
> ...



the products you mention are for 2.5 and 3.5 SSDs.

you need an enclosure for the NVMe M.2 2280 form factor.

I just bought a single NVMe M.2 2280 enclosure from OWC for my 2TB EVO 870.

it is Thunderbolt 3 though - what is your PC connection?


----------



## BigMal (Jan 3, 2022)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> the products you mention are for 2.5 and 3.5 SSDs.
> 
> you need an enclosure for the NVMe M.2 2280 form factor.
> 
> ...


I'm very confused!! Aren't both the 860 and 870s, 2.5 inch SSDs? Eg, https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Samsung-Intelligent-TurboWrite-Magician-Software/dp/B08PC5DKZQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21Q087USMCXGJ&keywords=evo+870&qid=1641243667&sprefix=evo+870%2Caps%2C72&sr=8-1 (here): it states, "Samsung SSD 870 EVO *Form Factor 2.5 Inch*", or is that referring to something else? I therefore presumed I need an enclosure that takes 2.5 inch SSDs - is that not correct?

I saw the one you mentioned earlier, but it's $80, just to house a single drive - almost as much as the drive itself! Hoping there's a cheaper option!

I'm connecting the drives to my 2017 iMac; my 2 thunderbolt ports are already taken, so I've been connecting via USB 3.1.
​


----------



## BigMal (Jan 3, 2022)

BigMal said:


> I'm very confused!! Aren't both the 860 and 870s, 2.5 inch SSDs? Eg, https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Samsung-Intelligent-TurboWrite-Magician-Software/dp/B08PC5DKZQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21Q087USMCXGJ&keywords=evo+870&qid=1641243667&sprefix=evo+870%2Caps%2C72&sr=8-1 (here): it states, "Samsung SSD 870 EVO *Form Factor 2.5 Inch*", or is that referring to something else? I therefore presumed I need an enclosure that takes 2.5 inch SSDs - is that not correct?
> 
> I saw the one you mentioned earlier, but it's $80, just to house a single drive - almost as much as the drive itself! Hoping there's a cheaper option!
> 
> ...


Also, from here: "Furthermore, the new 870 EVO no longer caters to either mSATA and M.2 SATA form factors, focusing solely on 2.5-inch drives." Perfectly possible I'm missing something here, but doesn't this mean I need a 2.5 SSD enclosure?


----------



## Zoot_Rollo (Jan 3, 2022)

BigMal said:


> Also, from here: "Furthermore, the new 870 EVO no longer caters to either mSATA and M.2 SATA form factors, focusing solely on 2.5-inch drives." Perfectly possible I'm missing something here, but doesn't this mean I need a 2.5 SSD enclosure?


i am SO sorry, yes, my confusion, not yours.

i thought you were asking about the 870 m.2 sticks.


----------



## Zoot_Rollo (Jan 3, 2022)

BigMal said:


> So, a good update: today Samsung sent me a brand new EVO 870 2TB drive to replace the faulty one. Great!
> 
> But there was a lot of good suggestions on this thread as to the best way I should connect these drives, which are ostensibly for internal use only, but clearly can be used externally. Previously, I had just connected them to an external USB 3.0 hub, each via a SATA-to-USB cable. All worked well for 10 months, and either the drive was faulty, or my connection had something to do with it. Not sure which.
> 
> ...



i've owned similar docking stations, they worked great - for a while.

then they stopped connecting for some reason. not Sabrient brand, though.

affordable!


----------



## BigMal (Jan 3, 2022)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> i've owned similar docking stations, they worked great - for a while.
> 
> then they stopped connecting for some reason. not Sabrient brand, though.
> 
> affordable!





Zoot_Rollo said:


> i am SO sorry, yes, my confusion, not yours.
> 
> i thought you were asking about the 870 m.2 sticks.


Ah ha, now I see! Thanks for confirming. Ok, great - I'll go ahead and get one of the 2.5 drives. Cheers all!


----------



## BigMal (Jan 6, 2022)

In case anyone is reading this, and it's helpful to them: just to confirm, I installed the https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01BHR3VPA/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=&linkCode=w00&linkId=&creativeASIN=B01BHR3VPA (icybox), and it's working great - slightly faster read speeds (420Mb/s) for both drives with a USB3.0 connection using the enclosure, compared to just using the SATA-to-USB cable, where I was getting around 400Mb/s, and considerably faster if I connect the enclosure via USB-C/thunderbolt, where I get read speeds of 527Mb/s.

My problem now is, I'd really like to benefit from that increase in speed, but I only have 2 thunderbolt ports on my iMac, which are taken up by 2 external screens, so I need to figure out a way I can free one of those up - a new thread...

Thanks everyone for your help in resolving the SSD enclosure issue for me.


----------



## eightieskid (Jan 13, 2022)

My Samsung EVO 870 2TB SATA drive is failing after only 9 months of regular use. It's installed internally direct to motherboard running Windows 10. Bad sectors keep getting higher and higher. Drive health is at only 42% now. Looking across the web and at recent reviews, it seems to be a major widespread issue with this drive. Affecting the 2 TB one, not sure about others.


----------



## Nigel Andreola (Jan 13, 2022)

eightieskid said:


> My Samsung EVO 870 2TB SATA drive is failing after only 9 months of regular use. It's installed internally direct to motherboard running Windows 10. Bad sectors keep getting higher and higher. Drive health is at only 42% now. Looking across the web and at recent reviews, it seems to be a major widespread issue with this drive. Affecting the 2 TB one, not sure about others.


It appears the EVO series is vastly inferior to the Pro series. I too have had problems with them, but not with any of the other series or brands of SSD that I own. It's almost as if this is intentional to force us folks who do more than just use FB and play PC games to spend the extra money on a Pro series drive.


----------



## Jordan37 (Jan 13, 2022)

BigMal said:


> My problem now is, I'd really like to benefit from that increase in speed, but I only have 2 thunderbolt ports on my iMac, which are taken up by 2 external screens, so I need to figure out a way I can free one of those up - a new thread...


You may want to consider this product:
OWC THUNDERBOLT HUB


----------



## jbuhler (Jan 13, 2022)

Jordan37 said:


> You may want to consider this product:
> OWC THUNDERBOLT HUB


The version of OWC Thunderbay 4 I have had both thunderbolt through and a DisplayPort. Do you can daisychain both thunderbolt and have a monitor, which avoids the monitor dead end. I also have that OWC thunderbolt hub, which is very useful.


----------



## BigMal (Jan 14, 2022)

Jordan37 said:


> You may want to consider this product:
> OWC THUNDERBOLT HUB


Thanks, that does look nice, but in my case it becomes $179 for a HDMI port - the extra thunderbolt ports are great, but I don't need them. I'm thinking I can get around it by just using a USB-A to HDMI for 1 of my displays. Anyone done this, does it work? If so, a $10 cable will address my issue.


----------



## BigMal (Feb 12, 2022)

Just to follow up, in case anyone has the same issue: I got one of https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B08B1M79ZV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (these) from IcyBox. Works great, and I can even run it off USB-A, thereby freeing up both thunderbolt ports on my iMac, that previously had my 2 external screens connected. 

I had been reading that Macs have issues with extended displays across multiple monitors; well, this one works great. It does require you to be on MacOS 11 or later though (Big Sur), which I went ahead and installed, and all is working well.


----------

