what cable? eSATA to eSATA or SATA to eSATA

[Unique]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=676547

i'm interested in Lycom eSATAII - 3Gbps Dual Port ExpressCard, but to connect to an external HD that has eSATA, do i need an eSATA to eSATA cable or a SATA to eSATA cable?

presumably the connection on the card is eSATA and the HD will be the same, thus eSATA to eSATA?

(and SATA to eSATA cables are for connecting an external HD to an SATA socket internally inside your pc?)

one other small question is if that card works fine with mac's (i want a card for my own use on a dell laptop and my friend wants one for her mac laptop, and if it works with that mac she wants another for her dads laptop, but i need to make sure it's expresscard instead of cardbus as it's about 4/5 years old). i don't know much about mac's (remember to remove, neither do most mac users comment )

cheers!


oh, one other thing, if you attached two SATA2 drives to the two ports, can you copy between the two drives at full speed (ie. the card has twice as much bandwith as one drive needs), or will the speed be halved copying between two drives like that, and is that common with these type of cards? ie. if you read from one drive to your laptop and it read at full speed of 3gbps, would it copy to the other drive at that speed or at 1.5gbps (or whatever - obviously dependant on how fast the drive actually is etc etc)

[staffsMike]

eSATA to eSATA

Not sure about copying one to the other. Shouldn't think it would be painfully slow even it it was halved though. I don't think it is halved anyway

[alexp999]

eSATA is the same as SATA. Cables can be used on/for/mixed with both.

e stands for external, and it means literally that, it is an externally (as in not inisde your PC) mounted SATA port.

Whatever cables you use to connect your mobo to HDD on the inside of your case to your mobo, can be used between an eSATA port and an eSATA HDD.

[Unique]

eSATA is the same as SATA. Cables can be used on/for/mixed with both.

e stands for external, and it means literally that, it is an externally (as in not inisde your PC) mounted SATA port.

Whatever cables you use to connect your mobo to HDD on the inside of your case to your mobo, can be used between an eSATA port and an eSATA HDD.

i understood an esata cable should be sheilded, but apart from that, i understood the pins inside were the same, but the physical connection was slightly different, with a different notch, with the esata cables having a stronger end part so they don't break when being plugged and unplugged

thing is, scan for example have both esata to esata and esata to sata cables for example, so what is the difference between them? is it just that the esata cables are sheilded, but otherwise the same connections on the end?

[staffsMike]

They are different and are not interchangeable.

[Unique]

eSATA to eSATA

Not sure about copying one to the other. Shouldn't think it would be painfully slow even it it was halved though. I don't think it is halved anyway

thanks, and yes i agree with you, even if it was halved it would be a hell of a lot quicker than usb2 or even firewire 800 and especially 400, but when copying large amounts of data, such as 1TB drives, it makes a difference. it took 7 hours to copy a full 1TB drive to another on a mac with a USB2 connection on one drive and firewire 800 on the other, but it took 4 hours to copy on my home pc with esata to sata, with one pci-e esata internal card connecting to one external drive and the other drive internally connected to the mobos attached sata port

and before anyone asks, about copying 1TB of data from 1 drive to another and then to another, it's music and my friend is a musician, likewise her dad, and this is their work. music recording uses up a lot of HD space, so the speed of data transfer can make a fair difference, but everyone is on a budget these days

[bibio]

Hi,PATA(IDE),SATA 150,SATA300 are just like motorway speed limits(each getting higher limit).One HDD is like a moped(if allowed)on one of these,lucky even if PATA(IDE)motorway to get to the speed limit(except maybe a burst speed),mind i think fastest HDD's now can get to limit or over a bit.
Even with multi HDD's in Raid,lucky to get to SATA150(SATA1 & SATA2 are not official names).
You will only transfer data at the lowest speed rate device in the system you are using ie your HDD.
Speed of motorway don't make your car(your HDD) go faster.
Its more to do with loads carried than speeds thou ie a lorry will carry more than a car.So not a perfect analogy.
Regards your last question its all to do with read write speeds of the HDD's.Ignore whether SATA 150,300 etc.Or even PATA(IDE)if RAID & multi HDD's are not involved.

Regards eSATA its main use is for external HDD's,its not faster than SATA etc.Better physical connector,increased Ex cable lenght etc.

Bit of reading here:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA


Cheers BOB

ps ain't looked for ages,but don't think much as changed.

pps been 4 posts since i started writing this,GF been here annoying me Hee Hee.