"Techmanblues" <Techmanblues@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:021D89D6-F976-493A-B17D-631E4764E2DD@microsoft.com...
>I just bought a new high end motherboard from Asus, the one that has the
>955
> chipset. It has an eSATA port in the back. I have been doing some
> searching and was surprised to find so little info on this. From what I
> have uncovered eSATA is 100% hot pluggable. That means if I can connect to
> this port an eSATA external enclosure with a SATA drive inside, while the
> PC is on, I can turn off the external harddrive like I would with USB and
> Firewire external drives. However, I cannot find any info on how does XP
> handle eSATA external enclosures. In fact, I cannot even find an eSATA
> eternal harddrive enclosure on the Web shopping sites. Does XP treat an
> eSATA drive as external USB/Firewire drives in terms of hot pluggability?
> That is, there will be an icon with the green arrow in the System Tray
> when I plug in an eSATA drive through which I can use to tell XP that I
> am about to unplug the eSATA drive from the motherboard?


Techmanblues:
The eSATA ("e" for external) port is a wonderful feature on your ASUS
motherboard. By connecting an ordinary SATA HD to this port (but note the
eSATA port needs a special eSATA connector on the signal/data cable that
will be connected to it - see below) you now have an "external" device
that's treated as an *internal* device by the system.

Think of the advantages of this. For the first time in an XP environment,
you will be able to directly install the XP OS onto an "external" SATA drive
and that drive will be bootable. The more common scenario is that you'll be
able to clone the contents of your internal day-to-day working HD (PATA or
SATA) - using a disk imaging program, e.g., Ghost and the drive will be
bootable - a capability that has eluded us with USB/Firewire external hard
drives up to now. What better backup system could we hope for?

Another advantage of using an "external" SATA HD is its speed. It will
operate substantially at the same speed as an internal SATA HD and thus be
considerably faster than a USB/Firewire EHD.

AFAIK, the eSATA port does allow for "hot-swapping" of connected devices
assuming the device itself has no problem with this capability. Again,
AFAIK, SATA II hard drives meeting the 3 Gb/sec specification will support
hot-swapping as long as the motherboard provides this capability.

Still another advantage of the eSATA port is that it supports the latest
SATA 3 Gb/sec specification.

So you could connect a normal SATA HD to the eSATA port without the absolute
necessity of containing that drive in any special enclosure. Theoretically
you could plop it in a cigar box or even run the SATA data/signal cable
directly to a bare drive. Not the most desirable thing to do for the average
user, but it can be done. We generally set up our desktop computers with
mobile racks (2) to contain our removable hard drives. It's a hardware
arrangement that we strongly recommend for many desktop computer users. So
we usually contain the "external" SATA drive in one of the removable trays
that are also used in the mobile racks.

Now, what about the power to that SATA "external" drive? You simply use the
power from your computer's power supply. There's absolutely no need for an
external power supply. So that's another advantage of this eSATA device,
yes? Unfortunately the rub here is that ASUS did not provide an external
power connector alongside the eSATA port. Why they didn't do so is a
complete mystery to us. Actually it's simple enough for a user to run a
power cable from your PS to the external SATA drive, but it does mean that
you have to snake it out probably through one of the slots on the backplane
of the computer's case.

BTW, there's another device we came across that users may be interested in
to connect an external SATA HD. It's called the SATAPOWPLAT1, manufactured
or distributed by StarTech. It's available from http://www.cwol.com for
about $19 (incl shipping) - at least the last time I looked. buy.com shows
it for much cheaper, but it's never in stock. I assume the device is also
available from other online vendors.

This device is simply attached to the I/O bracket on the computer case's
backplane. It comes with two external connectors - the SATA data connector
and the 15-pin SATA power connector. Internally (the other side of its slot
plate) is, of course, the SATA data connector and the normal 4-pin Molex
power plug. So it's a simple matter to connect the device to one of the
power leads of your PS. Why ASUS didn't use the same simple configuration
with its eSATA connector is beyond me. Note that the SATA data connector on
this SATAPOWPLAT1 device is a standard SATA data connector; it is not an
eSATA connector.

As I previously mentioned, the eSATA port connects to a eSATA data connector
cable. One of the sources for this type of cable (comes in 1 meter and 2
meter lengths) is http://www.macgurus.com/productpages...SATACables.php
Item MC39EX-AB
I guess it's also available from other sources. Unfortunately it's quite
expensive for a SATA data cable (although it is shielded) - about $25 for
the 1 meter cable.

I'm not aware of any motherboard manufacturer aside from ASUS that has
equipped their latest motherboards with the eSATA port. If anyone has
information about this I would like to hear about it. And I'm similarly not
aware of any laptop/notebook computers that are equipped with this feature.
And it would seem a most desirable feature to be incorporated in those
latter machines, would it not?

It seems to me the eSATA port is the "wave of the future" that's here right
now since it has the tremendous advantages of treating an "external" device
as a normal internal device together with providing superior performance
when compared with USB/Firewire external hard drives. I would think that
more & more motherboards will come equipped with the eSATA port (as well as
an external power connector port which the present ASUS motherboard lacks as
noted above).

I trust this information will be useful to you and others who might be
contemplating this type of device.
Anna