USB Dock or adapter for NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD's?

Evil Scooter

Evil Scooter

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 22, 2000
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These M.2 drives are getting more popular and cost competitive, I've already gotten 4 of em in my household. Does anyone make a decent USB drive dock or adapter for these? I just purchased a newer HP model to replace the Samsung in my main rig. Sure would like to be able to format it before tossing it in so windoze disk image does not have an issue with the new drive. Swapping these in and out of my main rig behind the video card and that small ass screw is a pain... lol.
 
Doubt it. There's not much sense in a USB-to-PCIe adapter.

If not already available, Thunderbolt-to-PCIe m.2 adapters would be a realistic possibility.
 
^^ I do.. but think it's disabled as I'm all outta PCIE lanes... SLI video and M.2 boot drive. Prefer to find something like the old skewl USB docking stations if at all possible.
 
Evil Scooter said:
^^ I do.. but think it's disabled as I'm all outta PCIE lanes... SLI video and M.2 boot drive. Prefer to find something like the old skewl USB docking stations if at all possible.
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wasn't able to find one. every one specifically says NOT FOR PCIE - SATA ONLY etc. sounds like you gonna have to do it the [H]ard way.
 
pendragon1 said:
wasn't able to find one. every one specifically says NOT FOR PCIE - SATA ONLY etc. sounds like you gonna have to do it the [H]ard way.
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Looks that way. Issue I'm having is migrating to this new drive using a windows system image backup. the software see's the new drive.. but will not install the image to it for unknown reasons. I was thinking it might work better if the new drive is formatted.. should not make a difference but ya never know. Taking the new M.2 in and out of the system (M.2 slot is under video card) I've managed to drop that dam lil screw twice and it's a bitch to find. Need to find another way to skin this cat. Might install the m.2 in my wife's pc and put my system image on an external drive and see if that works..
 
Evil Scooter said:
Looks that way. Issue I'm having is migrating to this new drive using a windows system image backup. the software see's the new drive.. but will not install the image to it for unknown reasons. I was thinking it might work better if the new drive is formatted.. should not make a difference but ya never know. Taking the new M.2 in and out of the system (M.2 slot is under video card) I've managed to drop that dam lil screw twice and it's a bitch to find. Need to find another way to skin this cat. Might install the m.2 in my wife's pc and put my system image on an external drive and see if that works..
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got a magnet? stick it too your screw driver, no dropped screws. as long as they are steel...
try macrium or easeus instead. or yeah you might need to format first for the MS stuff to work.
 
pendragon1 said:
got a magnet? stick it too your screw driver, no dropped screws. as long as they are steel...
try macrium or easeus instead. or yeah you might need to format first for the MS stuff to work.
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Using a magnatized jewelers screwdriver already.. that lil sucker just breaks free real easy. Lots of places to hide at the bottom of my case.. had to remove the power supply once to locate it. Thank gawd it's modular.

Do macrium or easeus work from a boot drive once you have an image made? gawd I miss old skewl Norton Ghost... soo simple.. so damn easy to use.. all on a 3.5 floppy..
 
Evil Scooter said:
Using a magnatized jewelers screwdriver already.. that lil sucker just breaks free real easy. Lots of places to hide at the bottom of my case.. had to remove the power supply once to locate it. Thank gawd it's modular.

Do macrium or easeus work from a boot drive once you have an image made? gawd I miss old skewl Norton Ghost... soo simple.. so damn easy to use.. all on a 3.5 floppy..
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oh.
just do a disk to disk clone.
 
I stuffed the new M.2 into my sons rig and backed up a fresh image to an external USB drive. The restore seems to be working as intended on his system. We'll see what happens when I put the new M.2 into my system.
 
Well that did not work either.. I get the image on the new M.2 and it tries to boot.. says inaccessible boot device and craps it's pantelones.
 
pendragon1 said:
is the bios seeing it and is it set as the primary boot device.
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Yes and yes. I think the issue at this point is the OS does not recognize the boot device.. MS has had similar issues from wayyy back. Plan "B" is to wait till the new PCIE adapter comes in... install the drive in it and hope it sees it. If I need to remove a video card to get some pcie lanes back it's gonna suck. If I can get the os to see it and add it to the device list before I do the image I bet it'll work.
 
Evil Scooter said:
If I can get the os to see it and add it to the device list before I do the image I bet it'll work.
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that shouldn't matter. ive cloned to fresh out the pack drives and plopped them right in. you might need to check the settings you used for the cloning(like the old ghost NT tickbox) or the caddy could be throwing it off. do you have a windows disk or usb so you can run the fix boot stuff?

edit: does it give you the windows inaccessible boot device screen or is it bios?
 
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pendragon1 said:
that shouldn't matter. ive cloned to fresh out the pack drives and plopped them right in. you might need to check the settings you used for the cloning(like the old ghost NT tickbox) or the caddy could be throwing it off. do you have a windows disk or usb so you can run the fix boot stuff?

edit: does it give you the windows inaccessible boot device screen or is it bios?
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I used the windows disk image, no boxes to check.

I've had the windows boot screen come up from the new drive so the BIOS settings are correct. Tried to repair boot from drive and USB.. no dice.. Winbloze says inaccessible boot device.
 
Try one of the others I suggested. They are free and easy better than the Windows one. Worth a shot.
 
Well I tried a few different ways and the HP is just not going to make it in this system. Funny thing is I tossed it in the PCIE adapter.. put it in my sons system and it came right up. Son has an Intel based system as well... whatever. I was able to use it to secure erase my daya from the image on the drive and will pay the Egg $45 to restock.. lesson learned. Goof chance I'll replace the 512gb 950 Pro in my system now with a 1tb 960 or 970 pro.. the mobo has 0 issues seeing this drive right off.
 
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