eSata

ROfu · 14 Sep 2009 at 20:00

Hey folks just a quick question about esata ports.
Are esata ports just external ports for the sata bus?
I only ask as i have 1 "esata" port on my motherboard but i also have backplate sata ports... are these not the same? isnt the "e" just short for external.

The reason i ask, is i'm thinking of getting two external drives which support esata, and am wondering if i connect one to the esata port and one to the external backplate port if this is essentially the same thing?

Cheers
RO

edit: just to qualify what i mean by backplate - i am talking about the plates which cover the pci/pciexpress backplates - Not the actual IO backplate with the usual USB/sound/parallel ports.

blaineoliver · 14 Sep 2009 at 20:05

Yes, any sata will work, sometimes esata ones are designed for plug and play sata. Make sure you have all the correct drivers before installing the external, i made the mistake of not having them properly installed, the system would hang once drive plugged in, and it would crash after unplugged.

ROfu · 14 Sep 2009 at 20:17

ahh cool.. does this then mean you could raid two external drives?

I'm sure this has been asked on multiple threads before, but im asking again

Cheers for the reply
RO

AbsenceJam · 14 Sep 2009 at 20:23

Usually exactly the same, just that sometimes boards have two SATA controllers.

AbsenceJam · 14 Sep 2009 at 20:24

ROfu said:
ahh cool.. does this then mean you could raid two external drives?

I'm sure this has been asked on multiple threads before, but im asking again

Cheers for the reply
RO

Yes.

ROfu · 14 Sep 2009 at 20:59

thank you gentlemen much appreciated

RO