Solved external eSATA

[billybellfoot]

hi
i have an external esata port on my net top and an external HDD with an esata port but have no prior knowledge of esata.

is there a benefit to using esata connection over usb 2.0.

also what sort of cable would i need to connect the 2 ports (male - male) (male - female) etc

thanks in advance for any advice info provided

 

[Brink]

Hello Billy,

eSATA has about 3 times faster read/write speeds that USB 2.0. eSATA has the same speed as an internal SATA drive.

The PDF link below can help give you some more details and comparisons between them if you like.

http://www.aztcs.org/meeting_notes/winhardsig/USB3/USB3versus.pdf

It depends on the connections, but this link below can help you determine what you need.

Serial ATA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[MilesAhead]

A guy on another forum I frequent uses BlacX docking stations with eSata. Often an external drive is not set up with the fastest connections. They just figure you'll park data on it. But try it out and see what speeds you get. I think the guy with the BlacX dock was getting in the vicinity of 45 MB/s or better when copying on a large file.. like a GB video file. Of course copying a bunch of small files will show as a lot slower.

 

[billybellfoot]

HI BRINK

eSATA has about 3 times faster read/write speeds that USB 2.0. eSATA has the same speed as an internal SATA drive.

so as my net top has external eSATA and my drive has eSATA option i would see an improvement over usb 2.0 so may as well make use of it.. do you reccomend esata or are there some disadvantages worth noting. other than esata not being able to supply power as this point is null due to my external drive needing external power due to its size anyway.

thanks

also as far as i can tell my pc has female port as does my external drive. do i need a male to male lead? and does such a thing exist?

thanks

 

[billybellfoot]

hi miles ahead

A guy on another forum I frequent uses BlacX docking stations with eSata. Often an external drive is not set up with the fastest connections. They just figure you'll park data on it. But try it out and see what speeds you get. I think the guy with the BlacX dock was getting in the vicinity of 45 MB/s or better when copying on a large file.. like a GB video file. Of course copying a bunch of small files will show as a lot slower.

so thats quite slow then isnt it 45MB as usb 2.0 is 480MB isnt it?
i was under the impression that eSATA could get up to 3.0 GBps

and that as brink said in his post 3 x faster read/write speeds. but from what your friend reports that that is not the case in actuallity.. and is possibly down to connectors etc. is that correct?

thanks

 

[billybellfoot]

hi guys would this be the kind of lead im looking for?

 

[MilesAhead]

hi miles ahead

A guy on another forum I frequent uses BlacX docking stations with eSata. Often an external drive is not set up with the fastest connections. They just figure you'll park data on it. But try it out and see what speeds you get. I think the guy with the BlacX dock was getting in the vicinity of 45 MB/s or better when copying on a large file.. like a GB video file. Of course copying a bunch of small files will show as a lot slower.

so thats quite slow then isnt it 45MB as usb 2.0 is 480MB isnt it?
i was under the impression that eSATA could get up to 3.0 GBps

and that as brink said in his post 3 x faster read/write speeds. but from what your friend reports that that is not the case in actuallity.. and is possibly down to connectors etc. is that correct?

thanks

My USB 2.0 external typically copies large files at 24 MB/s

You're confusing mega bits and mega bytes. The connection speeds are usually listed as mega bit. Like 10 Mb/s or 100 Mb/s ethernet port. The small b is for bit, capital B is for byte.

 

[billybellfoot]

hi
thanks for clearing up however in your origional post you used MB not Mb so assumed thats what you meant. sorry for any confusion

 

[Brink]

Billy,

The speed of your eSATA really just depends on the read/writes speeds of your HDD. The HDD is usually going to be the limiting factor here.

What's the brand and model number of the eSATA enclosure and your acer aspire revo? I'll be happy to look them up to help verify if that is the cable you need for them.

 

[billybellfoot]

hi brink thanks

however my query was is usb transfer method or esata method faster? and if i have both options wichh would be my best option to use? thanks


sorry but all i have on the drive info wise right now is that its WD500GB as for the pc its acer aspire R3600

if you require more info let me know. thanks

 

[MilesAhead]

hi
thanks for clearing up however in your origional post you used MB not Mb so assumed thats what you meant. sorry for any confusion

It is what I meant. You have Mb and MB confused. Not me. Read your posts over again. Figure it out.

 

[billybellfoot]

your right it is indeed me who is confused thats why i came here for some help/assistance on the issue. thats what i thought the idea of vista forums was for people who know to help ppl who dont?

as i say just wanted to know if as i have the option if it was faster than usb 2.0
but brink already gave me a clear straight answer on that one thanks again brink

much apreciated

 

[Brink]

hi brink thanks

however my query was is usb transfer method or esata method faster? and if i have both options wichh would be my best option to use? thanks


sorry but all i have on the drive info wise right now is that its WD500GB as for the pc its acer aspire R3600

if you require more info let me know. thanks

Using eSATA would be faster.

The cable connection for the acer aspire R3600 would need to have a connection like the screenshot you posted.

The cable connection for the HDD would really depend one if you have the WD500GB in external HDD enclosure, or you just connecting directly yo the bare HDD.

If you're using a HDD enclosure, then you have posted the correct eSATA cable you needed.

 

[billybellfoot]

hi brink

Using eSATA would be faster.

The cable connection for the acer aspire R3600 would need to have a connection like the screenshot you posted.

The cable connection for the HDD would really depend one if you have the WD500GB in external HDD enclosure, or you just connecting directly yo the bare HDD.

If you're using a HDD enclosure, then you have posted the correct eSATA cable you needed.

thanks thats brilliant. i will endevour to purchase the correct lead in order to make use of this.

ok thats what i thought as the port on the revo is (female) and the lead is male

the wd500GB is in a non branded HDD enclosure. however the connection looks similar to on the revo and has eSATA pirnted underneath the port as does the acer.


ok brilliant i will get on and purchase one thanks.

another point on the cable is it best not to make the cable to long (say under 1 meter) and is shielded best ?

thanks

 

[MilesAhead]

your right it is indeed me who is confused thats why i came here for some help/assistance on the issue. thats what i thought the idea of vista forums was for people who know to help ppl who dont?

as i say just wanted to know if as i have the option if it was faster than usb 2.0
but brink already gave me a clear straight answer on that one thanks again brink

much apreciated

Didn't mean to byte your head off(pun intended.) But believe it or not there's plenty of chain yanking on these forums. Stuff like, "Hey! Where can I download a pirate Windows disc?" and much more subtle. I never liked the upper/lower case notations as they cause more confusion than anything.

 

[billybellfoot]

no problem.. i appreciate the help

i can understand that some ppl try to mess ppl about but that is not my intention.

i have just recently bought a used / 2nd user pc and have re-installed os and am trying to set up and get to know my system.. so as i say appreciate any help ppl on here can provide very much so..

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Billy. I'm glad that we could help.

I'd say using a cable that's no more than 3 feet in length should work nicely.

 

[billybellfoot]

thanks brink i really appreciate the help

ok the one i have gone for is 50cm as HDD is situated close to the pc. however have heard that these cables are best kept short (like u suggest 1meter or less)

i ask only as if i change my system or where the pc is situated may not always be convenient to keep the external HDD that close to the system but will have to try to make sure its always that close (within a meter)

thanks again for all the help

 

[MilesAhead]

thanks brink i really appreciate the help

ok the one i have gone for is 50cm as HDD is situated close to the pc. however have heard that these cables are best kept short (like u suggest 1meter or less)

i ask only as if i change my system or where the pc is situated may not always be convenient to keep the external HDD that close to the system but will have to try to make sure its always that close (within a meter)

thanks again for all the help

You are right that Brink had the goods in this case. To really post authoritatively you must have experience with the hardware type yourself. My info was second hand. All you need to do is look at Brink's specs to see he actually has the hardware to try what he says. If it's not on the listed setup, it's probably on work benches around his house.