Windows 11 – Configure External m.2 SSD as Removable Drive

external hard drivessdstoragewindows-11

Installed a 1TB 22×80 M-key NVMe SSD into an external enclosure with a USB-C type connection. On Windows 11, created a GPT partition table and allocated the whole thing with an ExFAT partition, so I can move it around to Macbook and Linux as needed.

The drive does not appear as a removable USB drive, so unable to eject/dismount. I gather this is due to the drive type, or maybe the enclosure's circuit board presentation on the type.

What options are available for using m.2 SSDs as external and recognized as removable by the operating systems? Even if it means using a different enclosure. The one I bought was maybe low-end, but I don't know. SABRENT USB 3.2 10Gbps Type C Tool Free Enclosure for M.2 PCIe NVMe and SATA SSDs (EC-SNVE) with XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB m.2 2280 Gen 3×4 SSD.

Best Answer

AFAIK, even non-removable / fixed drives (as in, its SCSI Removable Medium Bit is 0) can be ejected (as in, "safely removed") in Windows, as long as Windows finds the drive to be "external" / "de facto removable" (e.g. the connection type being USB).

(Note: I'm referring to the system tray icon only. It is normal that you don't see any eject button in Windows Explorer when RMB is 0, even when you have only one single partition / volume on the drive.)

Most if not all HDD/SSD enclosures have SCSI RMB being 0, whereas thumb drives normally have SCSI RMB being 1, and for the record, RMB is not something that can be toggled by the user like SCSI Write Cache Enabled (WCE), as its not part of a mode page. (But certainly, you can change it by flashing a modified firmware or so, if you can.)

So it's more likely that the issue is some sort of hiccup in the specific installation you are using, which is not a rare thing when it comes to Windows. It can be due to some registry crap or bug in some vendor-made drivers. The bottom line is, I don't think the enclosure is the reason. I am not aware that one needs to report anything explicitly for Windows to identify it as "de facto removable".

I have some not so convenient alternatives for you. You can go to the Settings -> Bluetooth & devices -> Devices and see if your enclosures are listed there and if so, see if you can "remove" it there. AFAIK it is equivalent to eject / safely remove.

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Alternatively you can set the drive to Offline in Disk Management:

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Which is even less convenient though, since you will need to set it to Online when you have the drive attached again.

I do NOT recommend changing the Removal policy of the drive to Quick removal, especially if it is some SATA SSD with volatile write cache in it, since it would significantly hurt write performance and might even cause greater write amplification. It might be more tolerable when your drive is an NVMe one though, especially if it's DRAM-less anyway.

(Also, in my experience, Quick removal does not always guarantee WCE to be set to 0. Sometimes the bit can be "out of sync" from the policy, but it could be some old-time bug that got fixed at some point.)

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