Comment by bakugo
2 days ago
These shucked USB adapters from WD Elements external drives are pretty reliable, from my experience. They kinda have to be, since otherwise it would affect the reputation of WD's external drives as a whole.
Obviously, direct SATA is still better if possible, but if not, these are probably the next best thing.
Those pesky WD bridges usually support USB Bulk Storage only but not UASP, resulting in worse performance and higher CPU usage.
Also HDD power management is often complicated by the bridge chip sometimes intervening.
Not recommended for long-term use.