Generally if the drive is readable I'll boot off a custom WinPE disk I built and run USMT to salvage the user profile data to a compressed MIG store. Then I'll replace the drive or laptop, re-image, and restore the salvaged profile. So the faster the drive is the faster I can complete these tasks. Which makes users happier. I've been using a M2 Sata enclosure, but I also have 2.5" external cables that let me plug a 2.5" directly into a USB port. I don't have any of the benchmark screen shots, I'd have to grab a virgin drive and test to snag them.

M.2 SSD Enclosure for SATA SSD - USB 3.0 - External Drive

The last enclosure I bought was the TDBT M.2 NVMe enclosure. Like the Shinestar this also uses the JMS583, and despite the inclusion of a larger case, and a heat spreader with thermal pad, it runs slightly hotter than the Tripp-lite unit, but not uncomfortably so. I assume the heat spreader is doing its job and spreading the heat, and the larger enclosure has more surface area to absorb/dissipate heat.

SIIG Full Speed M.2 M Key Nvme SSD to PCIe Adapter, PCI Express X16 Card with Heatsink, Supports Windows 7/8/ 10, Supports 2230, 2242, 2260, 2280 Form Factor M.2 SSDS UGREEN (this one) **** - The construction was fine, but by far the worst of the 3. It is slippery and feels like thin plastic. It flexes when you squeeze it, but does feel rigid enough to not snap in half. The others I felt safe dropping or even driving a car over. Definitely not the sentiment with this guy. Tool-less like the PLUGABLE, but clunkier to get in and out of. It also doesn't come with any thermal pads and of the 3 enclosures, it needs them the most. Without pads my drive was hitting 83c after just a few minutes of heavy load. With a 1mm pad on each side of the drive I could barely get it to hit 60c. Dell Precision Workstation 5820 / 7820 / 7920 PCIe NVMe FlexBay Slots Will Not Detect SATA / SAS Drives M.2 storage devices are classified numerically based on performance. The higher the Class, the faster the overall performance: This module contains - 1.M.2 Carrier; 2.Thermal Pads; 3.M.2 3.5" Module Bay; 4.Capacity Label sheet for M.2 Carrier

M.2 USB enclosure? - Linus Tech Tips Best NVMe M.2 USB enclosure? - Linus Tech Tips

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln313880/dell-precision-workstation-5820-7820-7920-pcie-nvme-flexbay-slots-will-not-detect-sata-sas-drives?lang=en PLUGABLE (AZ #B07N48N5GR) *** - A very well made product. Smaller and dramatically easier to add and remove the drive (tool-less) and came with cables and multiple thermal pads. I couldn't get it to show any of the mounting / unmounting issues the ICY BOX had (phew! my drive is fine) and under certain scenarios it would max out the 10Gbps bus. I wanted to like this one so badly, M3X3 screw(most computers include these. These secure the Y1WJX M.2 drive carrier, or a 2.5" drive into 745TM)Of all three the Shinestar M.2 was the hottest enclosure. Even just sitting idle the enclosure was uncomfortably hot to the touch. It also suffered from random disconnects and at times would not mount. This change of mind return policy is in addition to, and does not affect your rights under the Australian Consumer Law including any rights you may have in respect of faulty items. This enclosure is also the fastest of the bunch, but only by about 15-20MB/s pure sequential with large files. Next is the fastest USB thumb drive I own. These predate me having the USB External M2 adapters. So I used to use them for salvage. Most of the time now they run various bootable things. But the read/write speeds are still impressive for a true USB Thumb drive. Sandisk Extreme 64GB (CZ80)

M.2 SATA SSD Enclosure, M2 NGFF (not NVMe) to USB C UGREEN M.2 SATA SSD Enclosure, M2 NGFF (not NVMe) to USB C

The PCIe NVMe SSD drive FlexBay has the physical data and power connector to allow a SATA or SAS drive to be physically installed. However, the FlexBay is only configured to communicate with PCIe NVMe SSDs. SATA or SAS drives installed in this FlexBay will not work due to an incompatibility with the drive controller. BUT under heavy load it would disconnect 10/10 times after only a few seconds. Transferring files to and from the drive at the same time will trigger this, as well using it as a cache while video editing. The included cables were shorter than the ICY BOX and of poor quality. I actually couldn't get the included USB 3 cable to work at all unless I held it into my computer. At this point in my life I'm guessing my USB cable counter has likely surpassed 1000 cables and I have never had to do this before. Yeah, thats pretty similar to the bench I did in the enclosure. Though for time I limited the run to 3 instead of 5. This change of mind return policy is in addition to, and does not affect your rights under the Australian Consumer Law including any rights you may have in respect of faulty items. To return faulty items see our Returning Faulty Items policy.

The SATA drives were all in a Startech USB M.2 SATA enclosure. The USB's are of course simply USBs. Through a winding road of troubleshooting, I actually ended up with this and 2 competing products so I'll summarize all 3 here. I've got a Shinestar NVMe enclosure, but it tops out around 1GB and I know these drives go faster when plugged directly into an M2 slot. The original SATA protocol was designed to maximize the performance of platter (physical spinning) hard drives. With the proliferation of SSD drives, the SATA storage management protocol has become a limiting factor. The NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory) protocol has been designed for solid state drives and uses the PCIe bus for optimal performance. An M.2 drive may support SATA or PCIe/NVMe but not both. Depending on the drive, and what the computer can support, not all M.2 drives work in all computers. TDBT M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure with Heat Sink, 10Gbps USB-C to PCIe NVMe M.2 Hard Drive Enclosure with Thermal Cooling Pad, NVMe M.2 Drive to USB-C External Storage Enclosure, Fits M-Key B+M Key NVMe SSDby TDBT