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SATA external enclosures

A

airfoil

Golden Member
Hi,

Could anyone please tell me if they are using an external SATA enclosure to connect an SATA HDD to their USB/Firewire ports? I'm referring to a product such as the one found here. What i'm trying to get around to is connecting such a device with an SATA drive to my laptop, to boost storage.

Thanks!
 
From what I can tell, these devices connect PARALLEL ATA drives to either Firewire or USB2.0. So they will (at best) run at Firewire/USB2.0 speeds (~400Mbps). The speed is adequate for storage. You can find enclosures like this almost anywhere.... Newegg is a good example.

If you want TRUE Serial ATA connectivity, you would need a serial ATA card in the laptop. I, personally, haven't seen one as of yet. HighPoint makes a SATA card that connects to an external enclosure via a Firewire cable that actually transfers at SATA speeds--but its proprietary, and the card occupies a PCI slot.

So, in short--it depends on what you want. If you just want more storage, a USB2.0 or Firewire enclosure is available at Newegg. It is external and the speed is adequate. If you want true external SATA functionality for a LAPTOP, I can't help you.... but if you find it, let me know. 🙂 Good luck.
 
Dude, he's asking about usb enclosures that accept native SATA HDDs, the search at google only yields SATA to IDE, this metal gear box which takes IDE and outputs SATA and USB.

We're looking for SATA >> USB 2.0 output. I've searched for this a lot too and I haven't been able to find anything like it.
 
Originally posted by: ColdFusion718
Dude, he's asking about usb enclosures that accept native SATA HDDs, the search at google only yields SATA to IDE, this metal gear box which takes IDE and outputs SATA and USB.

We're looking for SATA >> USB 2.0 output. I've searched for this a lot too and I haven't been able to find anything like it.
Click to expand...

Well, he wasn't exactly clear in his question... that's why I posed two separate answers.

Plus, why would you want to convert SATA to USB 2.0? If you already possess the drive, then I understand. But USB2's bandwidth is so low (compared to a hard drive) that most 5400 rpm hard drives can saturate it, much less a newer SATA drive (or, god forbid, a WD Raptor).
 
Did a little digging. THIS might be your best bet. Its a PCMCIA SATA adapter. You could DIRECTLY hook up a SATA drive to your laptop. At pretty fast speeds as well (much faster than USB 2.0).

I, however, didn't see any SATA to USB2 enclosures.... as in my previous post, I don't think there is really a demand yet. The extra "bandwidth" afforded by SATA can't be utilized by USB2.0... and USB2.0 is already hot-pluggable. And the SATA versions of drives are historically more expensive than the PATA counterparts.

So, if you want a FAST solution (and you already have a SATA drive), I would suggest the card above. But if you just want a USB2 solution, get a PATA drive and put it in one of the ubiquitous enclosures.
 
Originally posted by: ColdFusion718
Dude, he's asking about usb enclosures that accept native SATA HDDs, the search at google only yields SATA to IDE, this metal gear box which takes IDE and outputs SATA and USB.

We're looking for SATA >> USB 2.0 output. I've searched for this a lot too and I haven't been able to find anything like it.
Click to expand...
You obviously didn't check any of the links. Or atleast not enough of them, and if yer that lazy then it's no skin off my back if you don't find it.

Thorin
 
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