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Retina PCIe SSD module to USB adapter
- Thread starter iVoid
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What if the drive dies?!
Well, then the data is gone.
But I need to be able to pull data off the drive if the computer dies without affecting the ssd module.
Unfortunately getting the 2012 and early 2013 rMBP SSDs connected to USB was much easier than it is with the current PCIe SSDs.
The first issue: the connector Apple uses is not standard PCIe, but a proprietary one.
The second issue: while USB to SATA bridges are cheap and common, there might not be many USB to PCIe bridges available, if any at the moment.
Which brings us to the third issue: the commonly available USB to mini-PCIe adapters are not quite what they sometimes claim to be. Most of them are for mSATA SSDs (USB to SATA bridge), or some WWAN/WLAN cards (mostly USB to USB, no bridge at all). So while the connector is PCIe, only its USB or SATA pins are connected.
OWC features an SSD upgrade kit for the Retina MBP which also features an external enclosure for data migration purposes. Maybe you can get them to sell you just the external enclosure?
Internal Flash Upgrade Kit
I haven't used this kit, but I used the MacBook Air version a couple years ago and was satisfied with the results.
Internal Flash Upgrade Kit
I haven't used this kit, but I used the MacBook Air version a couple years ago and was satisfied with the results.
Unfortunately, that is only for the earlier Retina models, not the current late-2013.
Thanks anyway.
Why not just make regular backups?
I can never understand why some people just don't want to make backups on an external drive.
Feel of losing backup drive and losing information. Does not understand what encryption is and therefore won't enable it. Yes, that's my mom
For my personal systems and even my work system, I do have complete backup to external drives.
But for the 750+ laptops that I manage, buying an external drive for each of them is both cost and support time prohibitive.
Plus, having external drives floating around can lead to data falling into the wrong hands.
So I don't think it's unreasonable to want to pop a SSD module out of a dead laptop and copy/recover the data from it. I do it all the time.
It sounds like I'll have to pop it into another retina MacBook for now when the time comes.
I would not be surprised if a Thunderbolt enclosure for these SSDs would pop up in the near future. It might be expensive compared to dirt cheap SATA enclosures (expect something in the hundreds of $, instead of tens), but when you have 750+ laptops to maintain, I don't think the cost is going to be prohibitive
How about a massive single storage location, like an NAS, where on the NAS are separate disk images for each laptop's backup?
I assume that your workplace (where else would 750 laptops exist together?) will have some form of massive storage.