[SOLVED] external NVMe SSD runs like USB 2.0

[PC-Cobbler]

I bought a slightly used (100 hours) Samsung PM961 NVMe SSD. Then I bought a Vantec external enclosure for it. Since my laptop does not have USB-C ports, I expected the performance to max-out USB 3.0. But no, the performance is worse than an HDD in an external enclosure. And sometimes the SSD acts like an HDD that has gone to sleep, in other words, I see a waiting icon after clicking on a folder/directory. I do not understand this. The poor performance is seen both on Windows 10 and Linux. Here are all the things I could think of:

1. The SSD is defective.
2. The external enclosure is defective.
3. The cable is defective.
4. TLC SSDs are super-slow.
5. Proper drivers for the OEM SSD were not given to Microsoft and the Linux community, so it's running on generic drivers

I did some swapping, so I do not believe that 1, 2, or 3 is the problem. Since the SSD is OEM, I cannot use Samsung's driver for its cousin the 960 EVO (on Windows, anyway). Any ideas?

 

[Lutfij]

Link to the Vantec enclosure? Make and model of your laptop? Can you check and see if it's got any BIOS updates pending?

 

[PC-Cobbler]

The Vantec part # is NST-205C3-SG. The link is ridiculously long. I bought it directly from Vantec, via its ebay page.

As to the make and model of the laptop, that may be the issue. I didn't know it when I bought it from Newegg (advertised as "refurbished"), but it's an Asian gray market. If I enter the serial # into hp.com, I am informed that the laptop is not supported and has no warranty. The model # is 17-ca1xxx and the product # is 38Z77U8R. Only via surfing around on hp.com was I able to find a product support page at https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-17-ca1000-laptop-pc/26210380. All of the drivers offered at that page appear to be valid, as I rebuilt Windows 10 on a different internal NVMe SSD -- the supplied one was bargain-basement -- and all of the drivers installed okay.

Funny thing about the BIOS. I installed the latest and greatest (F.62), but shortly thereafter I started seeing new error messages on Linux boot. I installed the previous one (F.61), but the error messages still appear. They're probably unrelated, but I don't know. I will install Linux on a different external SSD to see if the same messages appear.

I think I learned an expensive lesson: don't buy "refurbished" from Newegg or anyone else.

 

[USAFRet]

Performance depends on the slowest device in the chain.
You can have the fastest drive and adapter, but if the USB port is slow....thats what you will get. Slow.

Does this drive and adapter work any better on a different system?

 

[dwd999]

I bought a slightly used (100 hours) Samsung PM961 NVMe SSD. Then I bought a Vantec external enclosure for it. Since my laptop does not have USB-C ports, I expected the performance to max-out USB 3.0. But no, the performance is worse than an HDD in an external enclosure. And sometimes the SSD acts like an HDD that has gone to sleep, in other words, I see a waiting icon after clicking on a folder/directory. I do not understand this. The poor performance is seen both on Windows 10 and Linux. Here are all the things I could think of:

1. The SSD is defective.
2. The external enclosure is defective.
3. The cable is defective.
4. TLC SSDs are super-slow.
5. Proper drivers for the OEM SSD were not given to Microsoft and the Linux community, so it's running on generic drivers

I did some swapping, so I do not believe that 1, 2, or 3 is the problem. Since the SSD is OEM, I cannot use Samsung's driver for its cousin the 960 EVO (on Windows, anyway). Any ideas?

Did you run the firmware update for the enclosure from Vantec's website?

 

[PC-Cobbler]

@dwd999

That's only for Windows. Vantec does not have one for Linux. And I did not notice any difference on Windows.


@USAFRet

Unfortunately the other system I have is an older laptop with failing USB 3.0 ports (the USB 2.0 ones work, but that wouldn't prove anything). I will try to use the drive at the library; hopefully the admins have not cranked-down permissions too much.

 

[PC-Cobbler]

I found the problem. I made backups, then reformatted the drive to EXT4, as I only use the drive on Linux (the drive had been formatted NTFS). Wow, what a difference, it runs around five times faster. NTFS runs poorly on Linux, contrary to popular e-magazines.

 

[PC-Cobbler]

UPDATE:

I actually had two NVMe SSDs -- Toshiba and Samsung -- and two external enclosures -- Vantec and Plugable. With so many variables, I made some bad calls at first.

After reformatting both SSDs to EXT4, I noticed that the Vantec was still having problems. It actually crashed the system a few times. After swapping, I found that Toshiba/Plugable or Samsung/Plugable was about five times faster than before, but Toshiba/Vantec or Samsung/Vantec was slow and prone to strange happenings.

I wonder if Vantec's capability to make the drive read-only is the problem.

So I actually had two problems: NTFS and defective Vantec. I ordered another Plugable and will recycle the Vantec.

For Linux-only external drives, I highly recommend formatting in EXT4.