External SSD

Hi all,

I have a question regarding using a SSD as an external hard drive. What are the pros/cons of this? I already have a USB 3.0 enclosure laying around and the SSD I'm looking at is:

SanDisk Ultra® 120GB Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Sata II | Staples®

I plan on running a lot of portable apps and store all of my school work on this. Initially, I was gonna buy a USB 3.0 Flash Drive. But a 64GB USB 3.0 cost around $110 or so and this SSD + enclosure will only set my back around 140 but give me twice the storage room.

Thanks for your helps.
Phuc

 

Do you really need an enclosure for a SSD? If you think about it, the metal casing already acts as one, I think most come with a USB cable for data migration and a silicone sleeve for the old drive. Why not just use that?

 

Thanks for your reply Shemmy. The enclosure was a gift from my friend. Besides, Staples.com doesn't specify which accessories come with the SSD itself. It only lists the SSD as the only item in the box. Do you think it's a good idea to use the SSD as an external HDD. Like I said, I'm debating between the Patriot 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive and this SSD (plus the USB 3.0 enclosure).

 

wrong link

As long as portability doesn't matter to you AND you don't afraid of usual troubles of every old SSD you can buy one.

EDIT: just buy any USB 3.0 enclosure for 2.5" drive on eBay and buy good SSD like Crucial or Samsung.

 

@James: It's the right link. That's the SSD I plan to buy (it's OOS now though) since I already own a USB 3.0 enclosure. Portability isn't a big issue since my backpack has enough room for the enclosure. And what are the usual troubles of these old SSD since I was under the impression that this Sandisk is fairly new technology?

 

If you are going to use a SSD for storage purposes, you need to back them up regularly as you don't want to loose any of your valuable work.

 

For what it is worth, Id rather have a Flash Drive. I've got a Patriot Supersonic 32GB, and the thing regularly pulls down 125MB/s read and 75MB/sec write speeds over USB3. Unless you are doing transfers in the GB, you really won't notice that difference. I can copy full ISOs of CDs in under 10 seconds.

 

Doesn't this apply to ANY storage medium? I disagree with how you worded this ellalan as you imply an additional risk to using an SSD as storage without citing any source as to why this is so.

Anything anyone doesn't or can't afford to be lost whether due to user or hardware problems should be backed up.

imho, there isn't anything "extra" risky in SSD storage vs. traditional hard drives for external use, if anything, an SSD should be robust as it has no moving parts and external storage gets moved/bumped around a lot more than internal storage devices.

I like VPR5703's idea of using a large flash if the performance is good enough for the OPs purposes.

Since October I am working from a VM off an external intel 320 series 120gb SSD inside an Addonics external enclosure (Sata/eSata/USB2.0/USB3.0/eSatap) full time - 8+ hours a day with no problems. And yes, it is backed up 3-4 times per week, and the most important data on it is source code that is checked in to source code control located on my client's network.

 

Thanks everybody for your advices. I'd probably go with the Sandisk SSD then since it offers more storage and less cost/GB for me.

 

You better read owner's reviews before buying. I have no idea what is sandisk SSD but I would stay with Crucial, Samsung or else.

 

@James: Thanks for your reminder. Here are the reviews of this SSD on Newegg and Amazon:

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: SanDisk 120 GB Solid State Drive (SDSSDH-120G-G25)

Newegg.com - SanDisk Ultra SDSSDH-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

This SSD averages about 4.5/5 so I think it's a pretty good product.

 

I'm glad to hear that you have no problems, good luck but spare a thought for those who lost their data using Intel 320 due to 8MB bug and now some of them having slight difficulty with their M4s, it's only a precautionary measure everyone should take, we are talking about SSDs here and not any other storage medium.
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