Question M.2 USB enclosure recommendation

MotleyCrew

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I'm looking for a tool-free M.2 USB enclosure or adapter/dock. Intended use is for disk/drive imaging, for a mix of SATA and NVME drives. In many/most cases, drives will be of different capacity, so any kind of dual-bay enclosure/dock with simple push-button cloning isn't realistic. The Sabrent EC-WPTF looks like it would generally do what I want. I prefer more of a drive dock form factor (comparable to 3.5"/2.5" SATA drive docks), but haven't found anything I like. I'm also a bit confused by some of the enclosure options, including some M.2 NVME enclosures by Sabrent, that specifically state M.2 SATA is not supported. Can you explain why this is (enclosure firmware, perhaps)? I'm interested in your recommendations.
Thank you!
 
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MotleyCrew

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Yikes, probably not! I like Icy Dock OK, and have several Icy Dock drive docks for 2.5"/3.5" SATA. The EZConvert MB705M2P-B dock in your images supports only M.2 NVMe drives. M.2 SATA is not supported. The dock provides a U.2 (SFF-8639) external interface. This isn't USB nor does it work with standard SATA interfaces. I would also need something like the Icy Dock ToughArmor MB601VK-B drive interface. Those (dock and drive interface) alone would set me back $150 or so. And since the MB601VK-B presents yet another U.2 interface on the back end, I would need some kind of host adapter (PCIe?) and cable. No, thank you.
I can only assume you or a family member / friend work for Icy Dock?! ;)

The Sabrent EC-SNVE looks much more promising for my needs (supports M.2 NVMe and M.2 SATA) and it's budget friendly (currently $26.99 on Amazon).

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