I had a couple of SSDs sitting around and wanted to use them over USB instead of leaving them sit on the shelf so I looked at inexpensive enclosures on Amazon and came up with ORICO 2.5 inch USB C Hard Drive Enclosure USB 3.1 Gen 1 to SATA III External Hard Drive Case for SSD HDD 9.5 7mm Tool-Free with UASP for under $10.
I’d definitely wanted a USB C interface on the device for the ease of connecting the cable. This version is supplied with a USB-C to USB-A cable which was good for connecting directly to a Raspberry Pi. They also sell a version that appears exactly the same but is supplied with a USB-C to USB-C cable.
This works as promised but I noticed the strange thing that it hides information about the disk that’s installed. The powered dock I used in my recent installation, the Vantec Nexstar, reports the actual drive name in linux, which leaves me a little more comfortable. Here’s the relevant dmesg output, followed by fdisk and usb details for the drive in the Vantec dock.
[75735.042244] usb 2-2.2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[75735.064039] usb 2-2.2: New USB device found, idVendor=174c, idProduct=5516, bcdDevice= 1.00
[75735.064079] usb 2-2.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
[75735.064085] usb 2-2.2: Product: USB Mass Storage Device
[75735.064090] usb 2-2.2: Manufacturer: VANTEC
[75735.064095] usb 2-2.2: SerialNumber: AD41314000038
[75735.068759] usb-storage 2-2.2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[75735.072590] scsi host1: usb-storage 2-2.2:1.0
[75736.074134] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB EMT0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[75736.074465] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[75736.080433] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/932 GiB)
[75736.081152] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[75736.081165] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[75736.081818] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[75736.081832] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[75736.085623] sdb: sdb1 sdb2
[75736.086411] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
wim@WimPi4-Backup:~ $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: SSD 850 EVO 1TB
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x928e5154
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 8192 532479 524288 256M c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdb2 532480 1953525167 1952992688 931.3G 83 Linux
wim@WimPi4-Backup:~ $ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 174c:5516 ASMedia Technology Inc. USB Mass Storage Device
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bc2:ab38 Seagate RSS LLC Backup Plus Hub (Mass Storage)
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bc2:ab45 Seagate RSS LLC Backup+ Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bc2:ab44 Seagate RSS LLC Backup Plus Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:3431 VIA Labs, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
wim@WimPi4-Backup:~ $ lsusb -t
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
|__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/3p, 5000M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
|__ Port 2: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 5000M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
|__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/3p, 480M
The Orico details:
[75201.010963] usb 2-2.2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[75201.032436] usb 2-2.2: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=0576, bcdDevice=12.01
[75201.032455] usb 2-2.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[75201.032461] usb 2-2.2: Product: External Disk 3.0
[75201.032466] usb 2-2.2: Manufacturer: JMicron
[75201.032470] usb 2-2.2: SerialNumber: 000000778899
[75201.041093] scsi host1: uas
[75201.042342] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access JMicron Tech 1201 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[75201.045191] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[75201.045564] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/932 GiB)
[75201.045572] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 4096-byte physical blocks
[75201.045779] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[75201.045785] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 53 00 00 08
[75201.046159] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[75201.050811] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Preferred minimum I/O size 4096 bytes
[75201.050827] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Optimal transfer size 33553920 bytes not a multiple of preferred minimum block size (4096 bytes)
[75201.053405] sdb: sdb1 sdb2
[75201.053747] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
wim@WimPi4-Backup:~ $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: Tech
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x928e5154
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 8192 532479 524288 256M c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdb2 532480 1953525167 1952992688 931.3G 83 Linux
wim@WimPi4-Backup:~ $ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 152d:0576 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. Gen1 SATA 6Gb/s Bridge
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bc2:ab38 Seagate RSS LLC Backup Plus Hub (Mass Storage)
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bc2:ab45 Seagate RSS LLC Backup+ Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bc2:ab44 Seagate RSS LLC Backup Plus Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:3431 VIA Labs, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
wim@WimPi4-Backup:~ $ lsusb -t
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
|__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/3p, 5000M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
|__ Port 2: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
|__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/3p, 480MThe Vantec device is designed to support one or two disks, while the Orico is a single disk device. I find the differences interesting. I’m left wondering if either device hides any important details of the SSD itself that might improve the performance or longevity.
WimsWorld 