When installing an SSD in a desktop, is the USB to SATA cable shown in the installation diagram indispensable? I thought it would be just like installing an HDD, that you could just hook it up to ...

2. Buy a SATA to USB data transfer cable The data transfer cable is what you will use to clone your existing hard drive onto your new SSD using your laptop’s USB port.

Always SATA, vary in size from Slim SATA to 3.5". drive-in-a-box with plug&cable form factor. This is the only one used by mechanical hard drives in addition to SSDs.

I know, you know what you're doing, but just do this one for me, OK? We've all forgotten to plug in a SATA cable, or not quite mounted an NVMe SSD correctly. There's no shame in it.

This article explains the differences between NVMe, SATA, and M.2 SSDs, including form factors, interfaces, and protocols.

The first is a SATA SSD, which comes in a 2.5-inch form factor and connects to your motherboard with the same cables and ports as a SATA HDD. The second (and newer) is the M.2 SSD.

I had a spare NVMe SSD lying around (a Western Digital's SN850x) and plenty of USB-C cables. All I needed to do was pick an enclosure that let's the SSD connect to my PC through a USB port.

A typical SATA SSD may have read/write speeds of around 500MB/s, but new NVMe SSDs operating on the PCIe 5.0 interface can hit 14,500MB/s.