SSDs are now the norm in computers. With older laptops and desktop PCs, the low capacity of the original SSD is usually the main reason for an upgrade, with the old SSD replaced by one with more space.
However, the old SSD need not be retired completely — it can still be put to good use as external storage.
Think of its repurpose as a means of storage when travelling, or as a fast temporary storage device, or for cloning other SSDs.
There are customized external USB enclosures for all purposes.
In all cases, installation is quick and easy. Read on to find common and perhaps even surprising solutions for your used SSD — including some points you should pay attention to in order to avoid a bad purchase.
One of the easiest ways to seamlessly continue using your old 2.5-inch SSD is to install it in an external hard drive enclosure.
Such an enclosure is suitable for both HDDs and SSDs and can usually accommodate drive thicknesses of 7 and 9.5 millimeters. You can choose between plastic and aluminum for the enclosure material.
The metal versions are generally slightly more expensive than plastic enclosures. You can invest as little as $10 to get started.
As a rule, you do not need any tools to install your 2.5-inch SSD.
One example is the Ugreen 2.5″ Hard Drive Enclosure, which you can find on Amazon for around $10. Here you simply slide the top cover open to insert the drive.
Connect the internal 2.5-inch drive to the SATA III port when inserting the drive. The external SSD is fully installed as soon as you replace the cover and slide it shut.
When connecting to the computer, most external enclosures for 2.5-inch hard drives make do with USB 3.2 Gen1 (formerly USB 3.0). The theoretical transfer speed here is a maximum of 5Gbps. In purely mathematical terms, transfer rates of up to 500MBps are possible.
The results you actually achieve also depend on the internal SSD drive. In our test with the Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD, we achieved around 430- to 450MBps in sequential read and write with the CrystalDiskMark benchmark tool.