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Level 1

10 points

M1 Compatibility Issue? External Drive is Unreadable / Causes Hard Crashes

I have an external Sabrent Rocket M.2 SSD formatted with the exFAT file system that I've tried using on my new M1 MacBook Pro w/ 16 GB RAM and two other computers, a 2019 iMac and a PC workstation. Here are my results:

M1 MacBook Pro w/ OWC Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure & 8TB Sabrent Rocket M.2 SSD >> HARD CRASHES, FAILURE TO BOOT WHILE PLUGGED IN

M1 MacBook Pro w/ Plugable USB-C Enclosure and Sabrent Rocket M.2 8TB SSD >> Error message, Drive unreadable, option to initialize yields a screen showing a SSD with 97 TB of space, unable to format.

2019 iMac w/ 8-core i9 & Plugable USB-C Enclosure w/ Sabrent Rocket 8TB M.2 SSD, works as expected, drive benchmarked at 900 MB/s.

PC workstation w/ Thunderbolt 3 expansion card, Plugable USB-C Enclosure w/ Sabrent Rocket M.2 SSD >> Drive works as expected, benchmarked at 900 MB/s via USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 connections.

PC workstation with Sabrent Rocket M.2 SSD installed directly onto ASROCK Taichi x570 motherboard >> drive works as expected, benchmarked at 2.7 GB/s.

PC workstation with OWC Envoy Express TB3 Enclosure and Sabrent Rocket 8TB M.2 SSD >> Device does not appear when connected to my TB3 expansion card. Expansion ports appear in device manager and have been tested with a successful TB3 connection to a QNAP server.

In summary, the M.2 SSD fails to connect to my M1 MacBook Pro with either a USB-C or TB3 enclosure using properly rated cables (and the OWC has a built-in TB3 cable). The Drive is tested perfectly on a 2019 iMac and PC with the USB-C enclosure, but fails to appear on my PC workstation via the TB3 enclosure. The TB3 enclosure is not tested on the iMac (it's far away at my friend's house and I forgot to bring the enclosure with me).

I really just need to get this drive working on my new M1 MacBook Pro so that I can edit PRORES video on location. That's mainly the only reason I bought this Mac.

Any thoughts?

Thank you!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Dec 11, 2020 4:15 AM

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m010726 Author

Level 1

10 points

Posted on Jan 21, 2021 5:15 AM

Thanks for replying. I had forgotten to close out this forum with... ta da! The correct answer!

Sabrent eventually suggested that I use one of their TB3 enclosures for the M.2. I tried their own design, which was really really nice, and it works great for the 8TB model. I also tested the Sabrent waterproof USB-C enclosure for the 8TB model, and it did NOT work, despite the fact that the specs on that enclosure suggest full compatibility.

I am left to conclude, based on my argument with Sabrent tech support, that the 8TB drive actually has slightly different power requirements from the M.2 specification, and that most enclosures are not compatible with that particular drive. When I used Sabrent's own design for the TB3 enclosure, it is great--my favorite drive. I wish that their tech support had suggested that first, since using their enclosure is a $80 solution for a very expensive SSD.

Bottom line: the OWC and Sabrent enclosures both work fine for all SSDs I tested under 8TB, and only the Sabrent TB3 enclosure works with the Sabrent Rocket 8TB M.2 SSD.

Thanks for the feedback from everyone who took the time to say something, and thanks to the folks at the Apple Store who let me test these enclosures on some of their Genius Bar laptops!

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27 replies

m010726 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 17, 2020 4:31 PM in response to ibskat2

Update... issue not solved yet, but I've isolated the problem to either a defective Sabrent 8TB drive, or widespread compatibility issues with Sabrent drives, not only on the M1 Mac, but also two other earlier Macs Mac to 2018, a Windows 7 surface laptop from 2019 and my Windows 10 PC's Thunderbolt expansion.

I tested the enclosures with a different 500GB M.2 SSD by Crucial, and both enclosures worked perfectly on the M1 and other systems! Unfortunately, Sabrent insists that mine is not a defective drive, and they point the finger at "Bug Sur" which suggests to me that they may not be taking the issue seriously enough. They also conveniently forget to notice to that their drive also failed on four other systems that were not running Big Sur: two macbok pros, a surface and my PC with TB3.

The same technical support person specifically stated that power requirements are different for different drives and he implied that the enclosures may not be adequate. Not true. Both enclosures are certified for their respective busses, and the M.2 spec has a maximum of 7 watts, which is a fraction of what USB-C and TB3 can deliver.

I requested a return for Sabrent to test my drive for defects, and they refused. At this point, I would simply recommend not using Sabrent drives until they can acknowledge that they either sold me a defective drive (most likely) or they have a widespread compatibility problem that nobody mentioned before (less likely).

For the community, I can affirm that the Crucial 500GB M.2 SSD works great with the Envoy Express TB3 enclosure at about 1400 MB/s on an M1, and about 900MB/ss with the same SSD in the Pluggable USB-C enclosure.

No need for further comments (unless it relates to getting better customer support from Sabrent!). I'll post a final update if they actually own up to the problem and fix it... Assume it's unresolved until that post and caveat emptor!

etresoft

Level 8

46,626 points

Dec 17, 2020 5:24 PM in response to m010726

You should also contact OWC. Their product page for the Envoy Express says, "Uses any 2280 M.2 NVMe SSD available today and in the future". Personally, I don't see how that could possibly be true but if they make that claim, they should back it up.

Dec 17, 2020 6:09 PM in response to m010726

Experience here on this MacBook Pro forum suggests the M1 has been remarkably trouble-free. We are seeing FAR more problems caused by Big Sur than by the Apple-Silicon M1.

You may be complaining about the wrong part of the system. Not the processor, but lack of compatibility with the newest MacOS may be causing your problems.

Dec 18, 2020 10:43 AM in response to m010726

Thank you for this thread. I have 2 Sabrent external enclosures that I'm using with a 2TB Sabrent M.2 drive. They will both work on my M1 Mac Mini while plugged into the USB-A port, but not the Thunderbolt/USB-C port. While plugged into the Thunderbolt port, if I do an Apple "system report", I can see the Sabrent drive appearing under the USB 3.1 bus, but not Thunderbolt header. The drive will not appear in Disk Utility.

I don't have a different M.2 drive to try in the enclosures.

Sabrent has also told me that Apple will fix this in a future update.

ibskat2

Level 1

4 points

Dec 18, 2020 1:07 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

Update-The Apple M1 appears to be incompatible with early USB 3.1 chipsets due with rest state implemented. Great news is I emailed Pluggable and they are sending me an updated enclosure that works with Apple M1 for free! truly amazing since my current enclosure is years out of warranty.

ibskat2

Level 1

4 points

Jan 20, 2021 8:58 PM in response to IronFather

Sure, I reached out to plugable support and told them about my issue. They quickly responded back asking for my purchase information and swiftly sent me an updated enclosure with a new chipset, which works perfectly. I was out of warranty, so they didn’t have to replace my enclosure, but because of this I am a plugable fan for life!

Jan 21, 2021 2:35 PM in response to jjwallack

Follow up:

I purchased an OWC Envoy Express Thunderbolt 3 Bus-Powered Enclosure for M.2 NVMe SSD (OWCTB3ENVXP00) and my Sabrent (SB-ROCKET-2TB) drive is working perfectly.

That drive would not work with the Mac Mini M1 using either Sabrent's (EC-TFNE) or (EC-NVME) enclosures.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,429 points

Dec 11, 2020 7:36 PM in response to m010726

It's not only M1 Macs.

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,239 points

Dec 17, 2020 2:24 PM in response to ibskat2

Or with the Pluggable enclosure. Have you tried contacting them?

ibskat2

Level 1

4 points

Dec 17, 2020 3:07 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

It's a compatibility issue between the Apple M1 USB controller and my enclosures JMicron JMS583 chipset. Hopefully Apple can fix this with a software update.

Jan 20, 2021 6:38 PM in response to ibskat2

I have same question, can you tell me "updated enclosure that works with Apple M1 for free", thank you very very very much.

[Email Edited by Moderator]

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,239 points

Jan 20, 2021 6:46 PM in response to IronFather

No, but try a Mac-specific vendor like OWC to see if they have ideas.

Other vendors are great too, it's just that OWC is very Mac-centric and would likely have tried many enclosures themselves.

M1 Compatibility Issue? External Drive is Unreadable / Causes Hard Crashes