Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> Thanks for the report and the Amazon link. My daughter just sent me an
> Amazon gift card for some photo rework I did for her and her husband and now
> I know what I'm going to use it for.
>
Nice!
> I have two eSATA connectors on my Dell XPS desktop but they are the result of
> installing an eSATA PCI card.
I've seen these. They are an in between solution, using the PCI bus to
mimic SATA function through an External SATA connection, eSATA. I'm sure
they work fine, but probably are slower than a true, direct, SATA=>eSATA
connection.
> I discovered that the unused SATA connections internal to the machine will
> not work with eSATA drives.
There is no such thing as an "eSATA" drive. The drive is simply SATA.
The eSATA header for the backpanel is simply an interconnect, with no
processing function at all. Inside, it has a standard SATA cable that
connects to the SATA connectors on the motherboard. Outside, it has the
eSATA standard cable connector. ALL is does is connect the wires of the
two different cable configurations.
The computer cannot tell whether a drive is in the box and directly SATA
connected or outside and eSATA connected.
> When I tried connecting my eSATA drives to the internal connectors the drives
> were not seen at all and wouldn't even spin up.
>
Here, I suspect you may indeed be seeing the "refresh the drive list
problem". But I'm not sure how you are connecting them, as the plug on
the external enclosure is eSATA and the internal motherboard header is
SATA, incompatible physical connector form factors. Hook the bare drive
up to power and a SATA cable to the motherboard and it should power up,
then show up either automatically or with rescan drives in the Disk
Manager. It doesn't have to be mounted in anything for that to work.
> As soon as I installed the eSATA card they were recognized and would power
> up. They're also seen as removable hardware although still classified as a
> "hard drive" and not as "removable storage".
>
Makes sense, as the PCI card is handling the eSATA interface, then
presenting the drives to the computer as HDs
> I'm running XP and haven't seen the "refresh the drive list problem" you
> mention. As soon as I power them up they are recognized and added to the
> drives list. If I power them down or disable them with the "safely remove
> hardware" function they disappear from the drives list. I know there is a
> difference between SATA and eSATA cables. Maybe the eSATA cable in
> conjunction with the eSATA PCI card manage an interrupt saying "hey, look
> over here, I just added a drive".
>
Yup, that's the card. The question is, how fast is it? Are you getting
the throughput advantage of true eSATA over USB/Firewire?
> I was a little taken aback at your bravado in using "quick format" with a
> brand new drive. Even though it might take hours to do so, I always do a
> full format on a brand new drive in order to test the writeability of every
> sector on the disk.
>
I figure it's already been formatted at the factory, and the bad sector
table created. Otherwise the quick format function wouldn't be
available. I've done all my drives that way with no problems so far. The
one bad drive I've had out of the box was bad before that point.
> As to how to store drives sans cases I think a shallow Tupperware or similar
> plastic container for cheeses and cold meats might be about right. We used
> to have some which finally deteriorated but I think we had them for about 20
> years. Probably just about the right size for a drive and a small foam pad.
>
Not a bad idea. I'll check some dimensions. There's another solution I'm
considering, which I mention in my reply to Mike.
Moose
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