Planning to make an external nvme SSD my backup PC

oldcpu · August 23, 2025, 6:58am

In regards to this External SSD (with LEAP-15.6 on it) was going to share the additional boot times comparing:

Generation-9 Lenovo-X1 Carbon laptop booting to the external SSD, to
Generation-9 Lenovo-X1 Carbon laptop booting to its internal SSD, to
Generation-4 Lenovo-X1 carbon laptop booting to the external SSD

But it the end I decided not to, as the boot times can (and did) very significantly between different boots, possibly due to the login to the network timing affecting the boot times? < unsure >

What I can say is the boot times of this external SSD when booting from the old Generation-4 Lenovo-X1 carbon laptop (my wife’s backup PC) is competitive to both the desktop and Lenovo Generation-9 laptop when using the external SSD. I think that illustrates the USB-3.1 interface is the main speed limiting factor.

Anyway … on a different aspect, related to the booting of the External SSD - after I press F12 when switching on (or rebooting) the laptop, here are some images, where I marked with a red arrow the boot selection to boot the external SSD to a UEFI boot:

External SSD : F12 boot menu when booting from Desktop PC

In the above image, note I chose “UEFI : Realtek RTL9210B-CG 1.00” to boot to the external SSD to boot to an UEFI mode boot. I also want to point out that selecting instead “Realtek RTL9210B-CG 1.0” also boots to the external SSD MBR/Legacy boot mode.

External SSD : F12 boot menu when booting from Generation-9 Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop
Next I booted the external SSD to my ‘main’ PC, the Generation-9 Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop:

Note I chose “opensuse-secureboot” to boot to the external SSD to boot to an UEFI mode boot. I also want to point out that selecting instead “USB HDD: Realtek RTL9210B-CG” also boots the laptop.

External SSD : F12 boot menu when booting from Generation-4 Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop
Next, I booted the external SSD from my wife’s Generation-4 Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop (this is her (and now mine) backup laptop).
I chose “opensuse” to boot to the external SSD to boot to an UEFI mode boot.

I also want to point out that selecting instead “USB HDD: Realtek RTL9210B-CG” also boots the laptop.

Most important (from my point of view) is the above last image, as most of my use with this external SSD, if it ends up actually being used as a backup, will for the first year or two, will be from this Generation-4 Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop.

MOST important to me is the successful boot and operation from the very old Generation Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop. Booting from this laptop was the main reason for me buying the USB-3.1 external SSD enclosure and the external Samsung SSD.

Perhaps an extra qualifier - ALL of these computers are old. My desktop is the oldest, and I can not recall when I purchased it in Europe, but well over 10 years ago. As for the laptops, Lenovo tend to come out with a new ‘generation’ X1 Carbon laptop every year. So by that logic, given this year the Generation-13 is the latest Lenovo laptop, my ‘new’ backup laptop (the generation-4) is 9-years old, and my main PC (the generation-9 X1 Carbon laptop) is four years old.

I am thinking either next year, or the year after, I will buy a new laptop, and relegate my current main PC (the generation-9 X1 Carbon laptop) to being my backup laptop.

I am not certain then, what I will do with this external SSD, but I will cross that bridge if and when I come to it. At age-71, I am not getting any younger, so who knows what the future holds. Most of my relatives passed away before age-70, but a couple of my relatives lived to their early 90s.
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oldcpu · August 23, 2025, 7:15am

I note (as evident by the boot menus when booting the external SSD from 3 different computers) that the external chipset of this Orico enclosure, which house the SSD, is an RTL9210B.

With regard to what the “B” in the RTL9210 brings? I read

Purportedly the key issues plaguing the original RTL9210 (non-B) and largely resolved in the RTL9210B were:

Heat and Power Management (The Big One): The initial chip had less sophisticated power states (ASPM and PSP). This led to:

Higher idle temperatures: The drive would stay warmer than necessary when not in active use.
Excessive heat under load: This could trigger thermal throttling, reducing speeds during large file transfers.
Higher power draw: Draining laptop batteries faster.
This relates to “stability issues” and “poor performance,” as overheating is a primary cause of both.

Compatibility & Disconnections: Early firmware and hardware on the original chip had more issues with “handshaking” between the USB host, the bridge controller, and the specific NVMe SSD inside the enclosure. This could manifest as:

Random disconnections during use, especially with certain SSD brands or models.
Failure to be recognized by the OS upon plugging in.
Linux Support: Linux support and stability have seen significant improvements through both the hardware revision and subsequent firmware updates for the RTL9210B.

So it reads that I am fortunate that the ORICO M2PV-C3 enclousure has the “B” variant of the RTL9210.

oldcpu · September 10, 2025, 11:40am

duplicate post

oldcpu · September 10, 2025, 11:41am

This is NOT a help request post. Its just more on this external SSD saga.

Initial problem (subsequently solved)

I went to boot this external SSD drive from my Lenovo laptop and it would not boot ! As it turned out the issue was a partitioning boot flag issue.

Detailed story

Encountering the problem:

I went to boot the external SSD drive from Lenovo laptop, where with the laptop switched OFF, I plugged in the USB external SSD housing (that has the SSD inside), switched on the Laptop (pressing F12) and the BIOS boot menu came up.

I selected the external enclosure’s boot menu item (which is a UEFI boot), and the screen ‘blinked’ and same boot menu showed. No matter how many times I selected the external enclosure’s boot menu item, it simply ‘blinked’ and showed the same thing. I could not boot to the external SSD (from my Lenovo laptop)

However the laptop’s internal SSD booted fine.

Switch to Desktop PC

So I switched the laptop off, and took the external SSD enclosure down to my desktop PC, plugged it in a USB port, switched on the PC, and pressed F12. I obtained the BIOS book menu. I observed both the external enclosures UEFI and MBR boot options in the menu, I selected the UEFI boot, and the external enclosure SSD booted LEAP-15.6 ok from the desktop PC. No problems.

Go Figure !

So I then checked the boot flags with : sudo parted -l

(where I will only here show the SSD) part of that command:

Model: Realtek RTL9210B-CG (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/2048B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  3146kB  2097kB                     bios_grub
 2      3146kB  2151MB  2147MB  fat32              msftdata
 3      2151MB  55.8GB  53.7GB  ext4
 4      55.8GB  1000GB  944GB   ext4

There was no esp flag set for the fat32 which is the /boot/efi partition. There should be an esp !! There used to be such.

So I then ran parted to reset the flag, first sending the ‘print’ command at the (parted) prompt to confirm no flag set:

oldcpu@orico-samsung:~> sudo parted /dev/sdc
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sdc
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print                                                            
Model: Realtek RTL9210B-CG (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/2048B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  3146kB  2097kB                     bios_grub
 2      3146kB  2151MB  2147MB  fat32              msftdata
 3      2151MB  55.8GB  53.7GB  ext4
 4      55.8GB  1000GB  944GB   ext4

Then I set the ‘esp’ flag:

(parted) set 2 esp on                                                     
(parted) set 2 boot on

Then I checked to make certain I did not mess things up (and things were ok):

(parted) print                                                            
Model: Realtek RTL9210B-CG (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/2048B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  3146kB  2097kB                     bios_grub
 2      3146kB  2151MB  2147MB  fat32              boot, esp
 3      2151MB  55.8GB  53.7GB  ext4
 4      55.8GB  1000GB  944GB   ext4

(parted) quit                                                             
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.
oldcpu@orico-samsung:~>

The inappropriate “msftdata” was replaced with “boot, esp”.

Test against Lenovo laptop

I switched off the desktop PC and then took the USB external SSD up my Lenovo laptop, plugged it in, switched ON the Laptop, and pressed F12.

At the BIOS boot menu, I selected the UEFI boot drive, and this time on the Lenovo laptop, it worked !!

I am happy it works - albeit a couple of puzzles (which I speculate about).

Why did external SSD not boot in UEFI mode to laptop (where boot flag not set) but it did boot to the desktop in UEFI mode?
.
I attribute that to the different BIOS in each motherboard. Both BIOS had UEFI histories, and I speculate initially the Lenovo, when I selected the UEFI boot selection, did a quality check, noted the boot flag was missing, and did not boot. In contrast, the Desktop, if one is booting from a BIOS ‘memory’ selection, does no such boot flag check if the entry is already in BIOS (from previous boots).
Why did this problem happen?
.
Originally I had ‘esp’ set correctly as the flag and not ‘msftdata’ … I do not know how the change to msftdata happened, but I suspect it may have been some (unknown exactly what) update where I was not careful afterwards to ensure the ‘esp’ flag was not inappropriately changed to ‘msftdata’.

Anyway, its working again. Hopefully I will figure out what caused this, before I have a repeat of the same problem again.