Need to access an SSD and HDD as an external drive. What do I need to buy exactly?

Assuming both are sata and 2.5" then get this https://www.staples.ca/en/RetailPlus-2- ... CA_1_20001
But that ssd might be an m.2 so it gets a bit tricky backing it up.

Not staples but something like this would work (Staples has ones that are like 2-3x the price):
Black: https://www.amazon.ca/ORICO-2588US3-Scr ... +enclosure
Clear: https://www.amazon.ca/External-Enclosur ... +enclosure

But if you must go to staples:
https://www.staples.ca/en/RetailPlus-2- ... CA_1_20001

If the SSD is M.2, you could use one of these.

https://www.amazon.ca/Adwits-SuperSpeed ... r+external
https://www.amazon.ca/QNINE-Adapter-Por ... r+external

My guess is that it's not a M.2 SSD. You should be able to tell what your laptop model came with going to the ASUS site and checking on their support page.

Wouldn't a dock be a better choice?

shabby wrote: ↑ Assuming both are sata and 2.5" then get this https://www.staples.ca/en/RetailPlus-2- ... CA_1_20001
But that ssd might be an m.2 so it gets a bit tricky backing it up.

Actually, it is a laptop with a 128ssd plus 1TB hdd. Does that mean it is one hybrid drive or will it be two drives when I open it up? I'm a newbie- I just want to recover my data before sending the laptop back to the manufacturerer.

vodka wrote: ↑ If the SSD is M.2, you could use one of these.

https://www.amazon.ca/Adwits-SuperSpeed ... r+external
https://www.amazon.ca/QNINE-Adapter-Por ... r+external

My guess is that it's not a M.2 SSD. You should be able to tell what your laptop model came with going to the ASUS site and checking on their support page.

This is the laptop I have: https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.a ... 4232959CVF

I have no idea what m.2 is, but it sounds very scary. I'm hoping I won't have to hire a technician to do this...

Here's ASUS's guide to the drives they use:

https://rog.asus.com/articles/hands-on/ ... 2-and-u-2/

m.2 is a different form factor and interface for an SSD compared to a SATA

If the HDD and SSD are both SATA then you can use the same external adapter to hook them both up.
If the SSD is m.2 then you need a different one.

According to an online review, this laptop has

a 128GB M.2 SATA3 SSD paired with a 1TB HDD

As Asus set the machine up, the SSD is used for the OS and the HDD for data. Since it has USB3 ports, you could backup each to an external drive easily enough without removing them.

Edited to add:

is not turning on

Sorry, I missed that. Yeah, you'll have to remove them.

deal_king wrote: ↑... I need to take out both drives and access them as an external drive so I can back them up.

What exactly do I buy at Staples that will do this? Links?

For the hard drive inside that ASUS,
You can use a 2.5" hard drive enclosure, hard drive dock and/or adapter.
As per request, examples at the following link: Staples

I went to Amazon to buy an mSATA adapter to clone my laptop drive. This was after looking around at local retailers for something similar. Staples had nothing on the shelf I could use or trust.

For an M.2 drive you could use one of these....
https://www.amazon.ca/StarTech-com-M-2- ... B00T8F298Y

or this
https://www.amazon.ca/QNINE-Adapter-Por ... ad/2167445

In my situation the laptop was operational and I was simply looking to move to a larger SSD. As I was transferring to a new Samsung 850 EVO SSD I initially tried the "Data Migration" software downloaded from their web site. I quickly gave up on it because its' user interface was very simplistic and I could not be sure it would also transfer/clone several hidden partitions from the original OEM SSD, one of which was a hidden Recovery partition.

I ended up using Macrium Reflect to clone the drive and enlarge the partitions but looked at several other "free" software. At first it did not appear that the Macrium software could be used to adjust the size of the partitions on the new drive but after a bit of playing around I realized there was a trick to it (click and hold to slide the furthest right hidden partition block to the end of the free space, and then do similar for the middle C: and D: blocks) and then used it. So much easier to explain with a screen shot - wish I had taken some. There are tutorial videos on YouTube but I could not find one that showed the situation I had and that you likely have where the laptop manufacturer has put in a hidden Recovery partition. This is only an issue if you are cloning to re-install in the current laptop. If you are simply copying files for backup, disregard.

I think if your current laptop is not booting up, yet you are able to remove both the M.2 SSD and the 1TB HD, then you can use another PC and the above adapter along with a hard drive dock to clone or copy the contents of the drives to new drives.

To clone the M.2 you will likely need two of those M.2 adapters - one for the OEM M.2 SSD and one for the new SSD. You probably don't have a desktop PC with an open M.2 slot available and even if you did, using the M.2 on the motherboard may demand that you go into the BIOS and make some changes to how the M.2 slot is enabled/configured. If you are novice to PC's you don't want to be doing this - it is simpler and safer to buy the external adapters.

To copy from the OEM M.2 SSD you would only need one adapter.

To clone/copy the 1 TB hard drive then at least one of these:
https://www.amazon.ca/Vantec-NexStar-Du ... B01JNLCFQI

With the above you can have you original 1TB in one slot and the new hard drive in the other slot.

After you get your laptop back to normal, you can then use this hard drive dock to make backups to bare drives and have a couple of these bare drives to rotate your backups.

.

https://www.asus.com/ca-en/ROG-Republic ... fications/

- 1TB HDD 5400 RPM
- 1TB HDD 7200 RPM
- 128GB SSD (M.2 2280) <======
PCIE x 4 256G

Mr. Robo wrote: ↑ Wouldn't a dock be a better choice?

I use a dock. It sits on the desk and you can plug in and out drives as needed.

Does it work with M.2 SSDs?

mr_raider wrote: ↑ I use a dock. It sits on the desk and you can plug in and out drives as needed.

+1 a dock will do the job nicely, http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=14_679

vodka wrote: ↑ Does it work with M.2 SSDs?

Work with M.2 SATA SSD with an adapter https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00OKSFF76/ref ... 20_TE_dp_1 this adapter will not work with nvme m.2 ssd

first, you need a proper screwdriver to open the laptop. Then, I assume you have 2.5" hard drive, you need something like this to act like a hard drive case to put your hard drive in the case, and plug this in to your pc's usb port.

https://www.amazon.ca/UGREEN-External-E ... sure&psc=1