Moving External USB Drive to ESATA Case?

Hi Folks:

I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB and Firewire
interface. The price was right, $100.00.

The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money, but I'd never
heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.

I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times faster
than USB that this drive has. I don't know if that means this drive
would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that with
an ESATA interface? My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket", which I assume
is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB
interface?

Thanks
Larry

Larry Lindstrom wrote:

I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB
and Firewire interface. The price was right, $100.00.

The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money,
but I'd never heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.

I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times faster
than USB that this drive has. I don't know if that means this
drive would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

No it doesnt. You might be able to pick the speed difference with
some tasks in a proper double blind trial, but only with some stuff
like say moving 50GB of files from your PVR etc to it etc.

Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that with an ESATA interface?

Really depends on what you use the drive for.

My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket",
which I assume is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

Correct.

Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB interface?

Nope, but the real difference in thruput is nothing like the 3 times difference in the interface speed.

On Feb 11, 5:55*pm, "Rod Speed" wrote:
Larry Lindstrom wrote:
I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB
and Firewire interface. *The price was right, $100.00.
The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money,
but I'd never heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.
I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times faster
than USB that this drive has. * I don't know if that means this
drive would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

No it doesnt. You might be able to pick the speed difference with
some tasks in a proper double blind trial, but only with some stuff
like say moving 50GB of files from your PVR etc to it etc.

Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that with an ESATA interface?

Really depends on what you use the drive for.

My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. *Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket",
which I assume is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

Correct.

Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB interface?

Nope, but the real difference in thruput is nothing like the 3 times difference in the interface speed.

Thanks Rod:

This drive would be for external backup.

I'm running Shadowperfect on XP home, and will be running ufsbackup/
ufsrestore on Solaris.

It would be nice to trim some time off of these backups.

I appreciate your assistance.

Larry

Larry Lindstrom wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Larry Lindstrom wrote

I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB
and Firewire interface. The price was right, $100.00.
The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money,
but I'd never heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.
I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times faster
than USB that this drive has. I don't know if that means this
drive would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

No it doesnt. You might be able to pick the speed difference with
some tasks in a proper double blind trial, but only with some stuff
like say moving 50GB of files from your PVR etc to it etc.

Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that with an ESATA interface?

Really depends on what you use the drive for.

My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket",
which I assume is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

Correct.

Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB interface?

Nope, but the real difference in thruput is nothing like the 3 times difference in the interface speed.

Thanks Rod:

This drive would be for external backup.

I'm running Shadowperfect on XP home, and will be running ufsbackup/ ufsrestore on Solaris.

Never tried timing that with different drive speeds.

Some backup doesnt manage to wring out the full speed of USB, others can and so would be a bit faster.

BUT if you are doing the backup unattended, the difference can be academic in practice.

It would be nice to trim some time off of these backups.

I appreciate your assistance.

No problem, thats what these technical groups are for.

Larry Lindstrom wrote:
Hi Folks:

I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB and Firewire
interface. The price was right, $100.00.

The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money, but I'd never
heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.

I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times faster
than USB that this drive has. I don't know if that means this drive
would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that with
an ESATA interface? My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket", which I assume
is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB
interface?

Thanks
Larry

Larry Lindstrom wrote:
Hi Folks:

I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB and Firewire
interface. The price was right, $100.00.

The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money, but I'd never
heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.

So just to clarify, you do or do not now currently have an existing
ESATA connector on your external drive? Just asking if you're asking
would it be worth your time to exchange the case or not?

I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times faster
than USB that this drive has. I don't know if that means this drive
would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that with
an ESATA interface? My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket", which I assume
is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB
interface?


A friend of mine has a WD MyBook with a triple interface,
USB/Firewire/ESATA. There was a thread about it a couple of months back.
So we were able to do test on all three types of interfaces. There was
practically no difference in speed between USB or Firewire. However,
ESATA was nearly twice as fast at transferring a large file as the other
two. The USB or Firewires were in the 20-25 MB/s range, whereas ESATA
was just under 40 MB/s (i.e. 38-39). This was also damn near as fast as
the internal SATA drives, which were just over 40 MB/s.

However, one of the big advantages of ESATA is that it's usually treated
just like an internal SATA connection. Same OS drivers, BIOS recognizes
it, etc. This also means that most SMART monitoring tools will be able
to monitor the health of your external drive just as easily as it can
internal drives. That should be very useful under Solaris, and somewhat
useful under Windows too. However, one thing we found out was that the
WD MyBook was weird and it actually didn't pass SMART info through the
ESATA, but did pass it through USB. I don't know if that's going to be
the case with your case, but it could. But usually ESATA would be
absolutely essential for SMART monitoring.

Yousuf Khan

On Feb 12, 5:01*pm, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Larry Lindstrom wrote:
Hi Folks:

* *I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB and Firewire
interface. *The price was right, $100.00.

* *The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money, but I'd never
heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.

So just to clarify, you do or do not now currently have an existing
ESATA connector on your external drive? Just asking if you're asking
would it be worth your time to exchange the case or not?

* *I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times faster
than USB that this drive has. * I don't know if that means this drive
would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

* *Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that with
an ESATA interface? *My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. *Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket", which I assume
is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

* *Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB
interface?

A friend of mine has a WD MyBook with a triple interface,
USB/Firewire/ESATA. There was a thread about it a couple of months back.
So we were able to do test on all three types of interfaces. There was
practically no difference in speed between USB or Firewire. However,
ESATA was nearly twice as fast at transferring a large file as the other
two. The USB or Firewires were in the 20-25 MB/s range, whereas ESATA
was just under 40 MB/s (i.e. 38-39). This was also damn near as fast as
the internal SATA drives, which were just over 40 MB/s.

However, one of the big advantages of ESATA is that it's usually treated
just like an internal SATA connection. Same OS drivers, BIOS recognizes
it, etc. This also means that most SMART monitoring tools will be able
to monitor the health of your external drive just as easily as it can
internal drives. That should be very useful under Solaris, and somewhat
useful under Windows too. However, one thing we found out was that the
WD MyBook was weird and it actually didn't pass SMART info through the
ESATA, but did pass it through USB. I don't know if that's going to be
the case with your case, but it could. But usually ESATA would be
absolutely essential for SMART monitoring.

* * * * Yousuf Khan

Thanks Yousuf:

Doubling the performance of a backup or recivery seems
worthwhile.

I'll look into ESATA cases tomorrow.

By the way, it's a 1 TB drive, not a 1 GB drive.

I appreciate the effort Rod and you have taken to help me.

Larry

In article , Larry Lindstrom wrote:
On Feb 12, 5:01=A0pm, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Larry Lindstrom wrote:
Hi Folks:

=A0 =A0I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB and Firew=
ire
interface. =A0The price was right, $100.00.

=A0 =A0The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money, but I'd neve=
r
heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.

So just to clarify, you do or do not now currently have an existing
ESATA connector on your external drive? Just asking if you're asking
would it be worth your time to exchange the case or not?

=A0 =A0I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times fast=
er
than USB that this drive has. =A0 I don't know if that means this drive
would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

=A0 =A0Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that w=
ith
an ESATA interface? =A0My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. =A0Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket", which I assume
is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

=A0 =A0Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB
interface?

A friend of mine has a WD MyBook with a triple interface,
USB/Firewire/ESATA. There was a thread about it a couple of months back.
So we were able to do test on all three types of interfaces. There was
practically no difference in speed between USB or Firewire. However,
ESATA was nearly twice as fast at transferring a large file as the other
two. The USB or Firewires were in the 20-25 MB/s range, whereas ESATA
was just under 40 MB/s (i.e. 38-39). This was also damn near as fast as
the internal SATA drives, which were just over 40 MB/s.

However, one of the big advantages of ESATA is that it's usually treated
just like an internal SATA connection. Same OS drivers, BIOS recognizes
it, etc. This also means that most SMART monitoring tools will be able
to monitor the health of your external drive just as easily as it can
internal drives. That should be very useful under Solaris, and somewhat
useful under Windows too. However, one thing we found out was that the
WD MyBook was weird and it actually didn't pass SMART info through the
ESATA, but did pass it through USB. I don't know if that's going to be
the case with your case, but it could. But usually ESATA would be
absolutely essential for SMART monitoring.

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Yousuf Khan

Thanks Yousuf:

Doubling the performance of a backup or recivery seems
worthwhile.

I'll look into ESATA cases tomorrow.

By the way, it's a 1 TB drive, not a 1 GB drive.

I appreciate the effort Rod and you have taken to help me.



Its not as simple as plugging it in. You have to install the proper drivers
and configure the SATA interface for AHDI mode instead of IDE emulation mode
if you ever want that pseudo eSATA port to be hot swappable. Otherwise, youll
have to shutdown every time you want to unplug the drive or plug it in lest
you want data loss.

ESATA
was just under 40 MB/s (i.e. 38-39). This was also damn near as fast as
the internal SATA drives, which were just over 40 MB/s.

As far as I can determine my eSATA case has a straight through connection
from the external connection to 1TB drive, and likewise from mobo skt to
eSATA bracket, so it seems to be 1 to 1 from mobo to drive.
Which would make it as fast as a drive in the case connected
to the mobo.
As below
However, one of the big advantages of ESATA is that it's usually
treated
just like an internal SATA connection.

On Feb 14, 11:11*am, (GMAN) wrote:
In article , Larry Lindstrom wrote:



On Feb 12, 5:01=A0pm, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Larry Lindstrom wrote:
Hi Folks:

=A0 =A0I recently purchased a Maxtor 1 GB Onetouch with a USB and Firew=
ire
interface. =A0The price was right, $100.00.

=A0 =A0The salesman suggested ESATA, for a lot more money, but I'd neve=
r
heard of that standard and decided to go cheap.

So just to clarify, you do or do not now currently have an existing
ESATA connector on your external drive? Just asking if you're asking
would it be worth your time to exchange the case or not?

=A0 =A0I've since read a bit about ESATA, the interface is 3 times fast=
er
than USB that this drive has. =A0 I don't know if that means this drive
would be 3 times faster if it had an ESATA interface.

=A0 =A0Do you think it would be worth moving the drive to a case that w=
ith
an ESATA interface? =A0My motherboard has a three SATA connectors that
aren't being used. =A0Gigabyte offers a "SATA Bracket", which I assume
is a physical interface to an ESATA cable.

=A0 =A0Or is this a drive tuned to the modest performance of the USB
interface?

A friend of mine has a WD MyBook with a triple interface,
USB/Firewire/ESATA. There was a thread about it a couple of months back.
So we were able to do test on all three types of interfaces. There was
practically no difference in speed between USB or Firewire. However,
ESATA was nearly twice as fast at transferring a large file as the other
two. The USB or Firewires were in the 20-25 MB/s range, whereas ESATA
was just under 40 MB/s (i.e. 38-39). This was also damn near as fast as
the internal SATA drives, which were just over 40 MB/s.

However, one of the big advantages of ESATA is that it's usually treated
just like an internal SATA connection. Same OS drivers, BIOS recognizes
it, etc. This also means that most SMART monitoring tools will be able
to monitor the health of your external drive just as easily as it can
internal drives. That should be very useful under Solaris, and somewhat
useful under Windows too. However, one thing we found out was that the
WD MyBook was weird and it actually didn't pass SMART info through the
ESATA, but did pass it through USB. I don't know if that's going to be
the case with your case, but it could. But usually ESATA would be
absolutely essential for SMART monitoring.

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Yousuf Khan

Thanks Yousuf:

* Doubling the performance of a backup or recivery seems
worthwhile.

* I'll look into ESATA cases tomorrow.

* By the way, it's a 1 TB drive, not a 1 GB drive.

* I appreciate the effort Rod and *you have taken to help me.

Its not as simple as plugging it in. You have to install the proper drivers
and configure the SATA interface for AHDI mode instead of IDE emulation mode
if you ever want that pseudo eSATA port to be hot swappable. Otherwise, youll
have to shutdown every time you want to unplug the drive or plug it in lest
you want data loss.

Thanks GMAN:

I'll check out Gigabyte drivers.

Larry