ESATA – Worth using? – Forumite.site

Tagged: esata, hard drive, laptop?

This topic has 10 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by Tippon.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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August 2, 2018 at 8:52 pm #24092
Tippon
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@tippon
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The new laptop’s got an ESATA port on the back, and as I still potter with other people’s computers from time to time, I was wondering if it’s worth using, and maybe buying a card for the PC too.

As I understand it, it works in the same way as a USB drive in practice, but is faster. Am I right, or is it more complicated? Could I just get a cable like this to plug drives into the laptop?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-3-5-HDD-Hard-Disk-Drive-SATA-22Pin-to-USB-combo-DUAL-Power-ESATA-Cable/282984162598
August 3, 2018 at 6:24 am #24149
Dave Rice
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@ricedg
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It’s not like USB, it’s like SATA. It’s basically like running a SATA cable from your motherboard.

What that means is that drives may not be hot swapable i.e. you may not be able to just plug them in like you do a USB drive. You would hope a laptop was a hot swap port though.
August 3, 2018 at 11:26 pm #24182
Tippon
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@tippon
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Thanks Dave 🙂

I would have thought that they were all hot swappable. Surely it defeats the object if they’re not? One day I’ll understand the thinking behind engineering decisions…
August 4, 2018 at 9:24 am #24194
Ed P
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@edps
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One case I had (a Coolermaster iirc) was fitted with a hot-swappable esata on its top. Although it made some internal plumbing/wiring more difficult it was a huge advantage when it came to organising backups. It was a nice to have plus, as it made sticking in a backup drive an easy routine. It seemed to give pretty much full sata speeds, though I never did a speed check. I do not have it now, and I miss it!
August 4, 2018 at 3:09 pm #24210
Bob Williams
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@bullstuff2
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I had a CM case like that Ed, racked my brains for the name but can’t recall and CM have dumped their legacy case site, also some CM techs left the company, with the older designs, to form Silverstone I believe.

You are correct, that hot swap worked fine and I also regret losing it. The case was huge though, as I needed several Hdd’s at the time, when running a design & print business. My current CM N300 is a lot smaller, just 1x (1TB) Hdd, 1x SSD Cache disk and a DVDRW I hardly use.

How much our computing needs change over time!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.
August 4, 2018 at 4:19 pm #24214
Tippon
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@tippon
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Thanks both 🙂

You’ve just reminded me that one of the cases I looked at had a hard drive slot on the top, which I think was ESATA. I didn’t really think about it then, but with the laptop too, it would have come in handy.

Does anyone have any recommendations for an ESATA card, or is something like this fine if I’ve got spare ports?

https://www.ebuyer.com/266639-1-port-sata-to-esata-slot-plate-esataplate1
August 4, 2018 at 4:25 pm #24215
Dave Rice
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@ricedg
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Might as well just run a cable outside of the case, that’s all this is really doing. This will not solve the hot swap issue, that’s down to the motherboard, nor will it supply power.
August 4, 2018 at 6:13 pm #24231
Tippon
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@tippon
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Dave Rice wrote:

nor will it supply power

I knew I’d missed something ??

Adding ESATA seems to be quite expensive. An external drive bay is about £50 on Ebuyer 🙁
August 4, 2018 at 7:57 pm #24237
Dave Rice
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@ricedg
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It’s yesterdays technology now. USB 3 has seen it off.

Earlier I cloned my laptops’s 120GB SSD to a larger one via a <£10 USB 3 caddy in less than half-an-hour.
August 4, 2018 at 9:52 pm #24241
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
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My CM690MK ll has one of those docking stations on top, it is connected to a standard SATA port on my MoBo and a spare SATA power connector. As long as the port is set to AHCI and not IDE then it is hot swapable and I have used it that way.

A standard eSATA port will not supply any power so you will need a powered enclosure for your drive. There is a version called eSATAp that does supply power but it uses different cables and sockets. To be honest I would avoid both in favour of USB 3.

On a side note Gigabyte threw everything but the kitchen sink at my MoBo as it has 10xSATA2, 2xSATA3, 1xeSATA, 1xFireWire, 1xIDE and a Floppy connector! Should be enough drives to be getting on with ?
August 4, 2018 at 10:00 pm #24242
Tippon
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@tippon
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Thanks Dave. I might invest the £4 in an adapter to try it out on the laptop as a new to me technology, but I won’t bother wasting any more.
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