[SOLVED] Adding external WD SSD as second harddrive

brucepascal

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Feb 15, 2020
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Hello,
I store my stuff on external SSDs, but I still run out of storage space inside the my desktop, where I run a 500GB SSD.
I have a WD 1TB external SSD, which I no longer use, and I want to add this as a second drive.
Instead of buying an extra 1TB installable SSD....
To my limited understanding there are two possibilities. I can simply plug it into an empty USB3 socket and just leave it in there, or get some kind of adapter from the SSD's USB cable to the SATA connection on the mother board.... does the needed cable have a special name? I cannot one...

What do you suggest for this?

Thank you
 
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Solution
So the USB connector is itself simply plugged on top of an SATA access?

Depends on the drive. Is it of larger size? It's probably a 2.5" SATA drive then. If it's smaller, it might be M.2 SATA or mSATA which would require an adapter, like this or this. If for some reason it's M.2 PCIe (NVMe) internally, you would either plug it into an appropriate M.2 socket (with motherboard support - this is also true of the M.2 SATA, there's also mSATA to M.2 SATA adapters) or get a M.2-to-PCIe adapter that takes NVMe drives.

If you have the WD Passport SSD, it's a M.2 WD Blue 3D (SATA) drive internally so would require the first adapter I linked unless the motherboard has a spare M.2 socket with SATA support (check manual - it...
So the USB connector is itself simply plugged on top of an SATA access?

Depends on the drive. Is it of larger size? It's probably a 2.5" SATA drive then. If it's smaller, it might be M.2 SATA or mSATA which would require an adapter, like this or this. If for some reason it's M.2 PCIe (NVMe) internally, you would either plug it into an appropriate M.2 socket (with motherboard support - this is also true of the M.2 SATA, there's also mSATA to M.2 SATA adapters) or get a M.2-to-PCIe adapter that takes NVMe drives.

If you have the WD Passport SSD, it's a M.2 WD Blue 3D (SATA) drive internally so would require the first adapter I linked unless the motherboard has a spare M.2 socket with SATA support (check manual - it might conflict with a SATA port). The older Passports also used a M.2 SATA SSD (WD Blue 2D).
 
Solution

brucepascal

Reputable
Feb 15, 2020
40
2
4,535
Depends on the drive. Is it of larger size? It's probably a 2.5" SATA drive then. If it's smaller, it might be M.2 SATA or mSATA which would require an adapter, like this or this. If for some reason it's M.2 PCIe (NVMe) internally, you would either plug it into an appropriate M.2 socket (with motherboard support - this is also true of the M.2 SATA, there's also mSATA to M.2 SATA adapters) or get a M.2-to-PCIe adapter that takes NVMe drives.

If you have the WD Passport SSD, it's a M.2 WD Blue 3D (SATA) drive internally so would require the first adapter I linked unless the motherboard has a spare M.2 socket with SATA support (check manual - it might conflict with a SATA port). The older Passports also used a M.2 SATA SSD (WD Blue 2D).

The connection look like this, is this the usual SATA socket? Or will the USB socket be in the way??

https://ibb.co/gwnyYdp
 
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brucepascal

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Feb 15, 2020
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4,535
I have now taken the old 250GB SSD out of the desktop, and replaced it with the Toshiba 1TB HDD, and it works very well, as it is only used as storage and backup.
I stuck the SATA to USB adapter from the HDD on the removed Crucial 250 SSD and now have a very fast extra storage external SSD.

Thanks again...