My adapter card is actually a PCI Express card which is considerably
faster than PCI. The box says it supports the SATA II 3Gbs transfer
rate. But I have no idea how fast it actually runs but it does seem to
be faster than USB 2.
I know there is no such thing as an eSATA drive. I bought the drives as
SATA II and installed them in eSATA enclosures. But those enclosures,
when connected directly to the motherboard SATA connectors, did
absolutely nothing. But once connected to the eSATA connectors (with
different cables) on the PCI Express card all sprang to life and the
drives were recognized just as they might be if they were USB.
The computer most assuredly can tell that these eSATA drives are
different from the SATA drives in the box. It recognizes both of the
eSATA drives as removable and classifies them that way right along with
the floppy drive, the DVD and the flash card sockets. It does not
recognize the SATA drives inside the computer case as removable.
Chuck Norcutt
Moose wrote:
> Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>> 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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