Using an SSD externally via USB as a data drive

[Crucial_M4-RK]

All of our 2.5” SSDs can be used externally as data storage drives, where they can be installed in an enclosure and connected via USB. We offer a USB 3.0 enclosure for this purpose, which can be purchased separately:

USB3 Enclosure - UK / EU / US

When connecting externally, the data transfer speeds of the SSD will be limited to the maximum performance of the USB connection but you will still experience the added benefits of SSD technology, such as their unbeatable durability and reliability.

[jbr]

The Answer above doesn't explain anything.

In shopping for an external enclosure, I found the following

are important characteristics to look for:

* the enclosure supports USB 3.0 or 3.1, AND 

* the USB-SATA chip supports USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP or simply UAS).

  UASP will greatly increase peak transfer rate, reduce latency, and

  reduce host CPU usage.

* The most reliable USB-SATA bridge chips are the newer

   ASMedia ASM1153E or similar, and JMicron JMS578, but the JSM567

   is considered poor and should be avoided.  If you use Linux, note that

   older kernels don't support UASP, and the UAS code doesn't support

   UAS on older ASMedia chips.

* The enclosure is designed for 7mm height drives.  Most are designed

   for 7mm-9.5mm heights, in which case the enclosure should provide screws

   (as Crucial does) or a foam pad to fill the space (as Inateck does).

* Look for a solid USB connector on the enclosure, as this is a common point

   of failure. Checking customer reviews helps. The full-size USB-A and USB-C

   are probably most reliable connector sockets.

Crucial's SSD enclosure looks good: its aluminum, apparently uses screws,

(avoids drive movement inside the enclosure),

but is bulky as an SSD enclosure, since it accommodates drives up to 12.5mm high.

Crucial fails to specify where it supports UASP or the bridge chip used.

Hope this helps.

[tomlok]

i agree.  the answer above is even vaguer than apple's info.  i was told by my vendor that i could put this drive into a buffalo NAS.  this was a total failure.  so i plugged it into a usb - hard drive adaptor.  once again, total failure.  all i can do is read the drive's serial number via the "support" software, which quickly tells me i have transfered NO data to my new expensive brick!  somehow this software is able to read the serial number, but I CANNOT ACCESS THE DRIVE VIA WINDOWS!