Question My SSD drive needs an adapter

[Rick Altman]

On the (bad) advice of a Dell support rep, I purchased a Micron 7300 Pro SSD drive for a Precision 3630 desktop, being assured that it would be completely compatible.

It is not.

Instead of the standard SATA connectors, one for power and one for data, this drive has one long connector that actually has two tiers -- see photo below. Adding to my frustration:

• Judging by my many futile Google searches, you would think that nobody else in the known universe has encountered this issue.
• micron.com is zero help, as its website includes no phone numbers and the entirety of its customer support is a contact form that does not function.

My exasperation has brought me to this fine forum, so that's a silver lining for sure. Here's hoping that someone here might be able to point me to an adapter cable that will allow this drive to play nicely in my Dell sandbox.

This is a 3.8T SSD drive, Micron 7300 Pro, Model No. MTFDHBE3T8TDF. Many thanks in advance.

 

[MrLitschel]

The Micron 7300 Pro is a U2 NVMe drive for a Data Centre. It is not a SATA drive for a PC. You will need to find an U2 to SATA adapter.

I'm not sure what will work.

 

[Rick Altman]

Thank you, Mr. Litschel -- I will look into those. I have to wonder what type of performance sacrifice I will incur with an adapter that retrofits a NVMe drive. I would be willing to incur some performance hit for a quick fix...

 

[MrLitschel]

Look at finding a U2 Expansion Card. This way you won't sacrifice the performance.

https://www.amazon.ca/StarTech-com-PEX4SFF8639-U-2-PCIe-Adapter/dp/B072JK2XLC

 

[Rick Altman]

Let me see if I understand this: I would add that card to an available expansion slot and then attach the SSD drive to that card? And even though I am bypassing the conventional drive installation method, the new drive will be recognized as a drive and be formattable and addressable.

Do I have that right?

 

[USAFRet]

I do not believe there is a SATA -> U.2 adapter.
At all.

Return it for a refund, and buy something actually compatible. A SATA III SSD.

 

[geofelt]

Return the drive in favor of a conventional ssd.
Any ssd will be much faster than any HDD; and it should cost much less.
You would likely not notice any difference in performance between sata and pcie devices.

 

[Rick Altman]

Many thanks to all who have chimed in here. The host adapter that Mr. Litschel recommends above can be ordered for same-day delivery, so that is the path of least resistance here. And a side benefit is that I can keep my old HDD in place for the purposes of data migration.

I will report back if there are any hiccups.

 

[MrLitschel]

Let me see if I understand this: I would add that card to an available expansion slot and then attach the SSD drive to that card? And even though I am bypassing the conventional drive installation method, the new drive will be recognized as a drive and be formattable and addressable.

Do I have that right?

Your computer should be able to recognize it as a fully formattable and addressable drive.

 

[Rick Altman]

Success! That host adapter worked like a charm. Drive is in place, formatted, and ready to gulp up data. Many thanks to all.