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[SOLVED] Are there any e-sata drives?

948 views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  XEyedBear 
#1 ·
I have an e-sata port on 2 of my computers. For both of them I would like to have more disk space, but in neither case can I install an additional hard drive. This looks like an obvious opportunity for adding an e-sata drive. However when I look at the top 10 component suppliers in UK, and even on Ebay and Amazon, I am unable to find a true e-sata drive. In every case the drivers are USB2 with an adapter for SATA, meaning that the drive is SATA (usually SATA II) but it connects to the motherboard via USB. This is not what I want; the performance won't be good, will it?

Can anybody recommend a true e-sata drive, or even just an enclosure for one into which I could move one of the SATA drives in my cases, and replace it with something larger.

Does the external enclosure need an external power supply, or can sufficient power be provided via the e-sata port/cable?
 
#4 ·
Re: Are there any e-sata drives?

You have to read the External enclosure details closely many are both(Either/Or) USB or Esata> Vantec-NST-300S2-BK-3-5-Inch-External-Enclosure

See if Amazon UK lists any like the one above, That's a empty enclosure you'll need a drive to put in it.

Some do come without a external power adapter but I prefer units with a power adapter to not draw the power through the motherboard.
 
#5 ·
#9 ·
Re: Are there any e-sata drives?

forgot to mention I do have a couple actual externals that have esata. one of these (w/ a Hitachi inside and I hate Hitachi). I've heard of them having samsungs in them as well (my preferred storage drives).

Amazon.com: Iomega 1 TB eSATA 3 GB/USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 34280: Electronics

and an old seagate 500gb. that said I much prefer to buy bare drives and put them in an enclosure.
Thanks for the Amazon link. I feel I must make comment on this Iomega product:

I actually have a version of this device (in the guise of their Home Media Network Drive; I TB). I bought this drive on the basis of my experience with an IOmega 500 GB EXternal USB drive. This had been a non-problem 'works as described in marekting blurb' product, even though I've dropped it twice in 2 years.

In contrast the HMND drive has been such a disaster that I know now that I will not deal with Iomega again. The drive worked, in a fashion, for about 9 months. It suffered a loss of communication ability. After a truly eye-opening dialog with Iomega tech support (masters of un-truth, obfuscation and delay) I finally found out that there was no way (according to Iomega) of recovering my 670 GB of key data (which I had commiied to a single spindle!). They were prepared to offer a replacement.

Without informing Iomega, I disembowled their network drive to discover a fairly standard SATA drive formatted to an unusual Linux file system type (can't remember name, but not Extn) which I was then able to connect to my Home Theatre system, which runs Ubuntu and Win 7. So I was able to recover my data and return the re-assembled HMND to IOmega.

The first replacement took 3 weeks to arrive. It was in pieces - broken pieces. The packaging was more than adequate and was unmarked. This unit left production in pieces. Can you imagine using an electronic product with a piece of metal (a small screw) roaming free across a small circuit board? What a joke.

The 2nd replacement was just plain DoA.

The thrird replacement took a total of 6 weeks to make the less than 100 mile journey to my house.

Bottom line: Iomega have no interest at all in Customer Experience Management. I therefore return the compliment by having no interest in experiencing their customer relationship management.

Never again.
 
#6 ·
Re: Are there any e-sata drives?

Thanks guys; it an interesting list. After an extensive browse this morning I come to 2 conclusions:

1. Google believes that USA is part of United Kingdom - hah! the truth always leaks out, finally.....

2. There is no credible supply of a 2-bay (minimum) e-sata enclosure available from within UK. Granted there are some seriously deluded suppliers offering no-name boxes (with support to match) at the same price of a decent used car.

There is one interesting looking docking solution, but (a) I don't like the idea of docking a hard disk (unless it has been designed for this from the start) and (b) I'm not going to commit important data to a single spindle - RAID 1 is my minimum requirement.

Any other advice (aside from pay through the nose for freight from USA, and then pay duty and VAT on those freight charges..don't go there!) ?
 
#8 ·
Re: Are there any e-sata drives?

On Amazon UK: yes and no: plenty of items but when you start to probe into the specs there is not a single 2-bay true e-SATA enclosure. The very few that are 2-bay turn out to be USB 2 or USB 3. The former are too slow; the latter can't be supported on my motherboard, which, being SFF (Fujitsu SCaleo EV Home Theatre sysem, now used for other duties because it is so small and quiet) cannot accept another card (no free slots; power suppply at limit).

In fact I found only one company offering a 2-bay e-SATA enclosure from any source in UK: Startech (unknown to me). But when I examine everyone of their quoted dealers (all the top UK retailers), not one of them carries the product!

Startech also offer a twin docking station, requiring 2 e-sata conections to the computer (I have only 1 e-sata port) and 'do-it'yourself' RAID - i.e. do 2 explicit writes! What a farce; that's a 1970s approach to data protection.

When we lost of our North American colonies in the 18th century it was with French assistance (not to us); we don't need that assistance now - we could do it all by ourselves....
 
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