Summary

It is recommended that drives be connected directly to the motherboard.

If you are connecting a drive through an adapter or enclosure (USB to SATA, USB to M.2, Thunderbolt™), keep in mind that the BIOS, motherboard, backplane, and tools may not recognize the drive correctly.

Third-party cables or adapters can and do work, but it is important to keep the following in mind:

• Does the adapter or enclosure export the correct model string to the operating system? If the tool does not receive the correct model string, the various tools may not work or have unexpected results.
• The adapter or enclosure must supply power to run the drive.
• Protocols supported by the adapters need to convert the protocols properly between the drive and adapter. For example, a USB 2.0 enclosure will not work with an NVMe* (Non-Volatile Memory Express) SSD, the adapter should be USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt™

Note: Solidigm™ (formerly Intel®) does not provide support for these cables or adapters. There could be a performance impact. For the best performance, connect directly to the motherboard.

Questions?
Contact Solidigm™ Customer Support.