Testing old drives as external storage to avoid price hikes — hard drive, SATA SSD, and NVMe in enclosures up to 80 Gbps, tested

Tom's Hardware tested older internal drives in enclosures to see if they still work well as external storage.

The lineup included a 2011 2.5-inch HDD, SATA SSDs like the Samsung 850 Pro and Crucial MX100, and an Intel 660p NVMe SSD.

Results showed these reused drives can be a practical low-cost option for backups and everyday file transfers.

The test is timely because rising prices for external SSDs and flash drives make DIY portable storage more attractive.