External Samsung Spinpoint 2TB to Internal Conversion

Stumbling upon a thread detailing which external drives have a 2TB Samsung M9T internal drive inside, I went ahead and purchased a Samsung M3 Portable given its slightly lower price point with the added bonus of being able to reuse the Toshiba MK7559GSXP drive that I'm replacing in the external enclosure. Or so I thought. After carefully disassembling the M3 Portable, what I found inside was not an ST2000 LM003 hooked up to an interface adapter. Instead, the M3P contains an ST2000 LM005 drive, a variant of the M9T with a different circuit board that has omitted the SATA interface in favour of micro USB 3.0. Now I'm looking at the following options:

1. Reasemble the M3 Portable and return it. (evil)
2. Purchase a USB to SATA adapter and install the LM005 internally. (likely to pose size constraints, performance degradation)
3. Purchase a LM003 PCB and convert the drive. ($50 part, appears to require a firmware swap which may or may not require a NAND programmer)
4. Attempt to swap the PCBs of the ST2000LM005 and MK7559GSXP. (vastly different PCB layouts, screw placement, controllers, and firmware = fantasy/crazy talk)
5. Reasemble the M3 Portable and use it as intended. (don't want to rely on an external drive)

Any advice?

 

Convel, I was sure it'd happen sooner or later right from the start. =( Options 1 and 5 are the only realistic ones, messing with this ugly USB-interfaced drive is counter-effective. I strongly suggest 1.

 

Return it.

Let the manufacturer know loud and clear (after your funds have been returned) that mickey mouse proprietary connectors (eewwww... USB...) are not tolerated for normally user replaceable components like the HDD/SSD.

 

You're right. I've got it packaged up nicely with the return form filled out. Fingers crossed. I wonder if Samsung taking action by printing a new type of circuit board has to do with the sales surge caused by space hungry PS4 users.

Would you consider the Seagate Backup Plus Slim a safe option for obtaining the SATA-interfaced M9T, or would you recommend a different drive? Maybe I should just purchase the actual internal drive by itself, but I'd prefer a new home in the form of an external enclosure for my old drive.

 

Convel, I believe it is no longer safe to buy any of those drives. The only more or less safe bet should be Seagate Backup Plus fast, which is 2xM9T sata in RAID0. However, since you are not likely to reuse this box, I advice you getting a bare drive. FWIW there ain't no alternative SATA drives at 2TB capacity. If your notebook can handle 12.5mm drives, it may be wise to wait a while for soon-to-be-released Seagate 4TB 2.5" drives. They may have SATA connector with USB bridge and be 12.5mm height if we are lucky, or have native USB / 15.5mm height or both, if not.

 

I have the bare drive ordered. My current notebook supports 9.5 mm drives, while the Aorus X5 that I'm eyeing supports no more than 7 mm. I think I'll just get a simple SATA-USB adapter from eBay for easy transfer between the two drives. Thank you for the advice.