Help re esternal SATA box

nobbyy87 · 6 May 2007 at 19:28

Hi All

I stupidly bought an exernal HD enclosure thinking that it was a USB connection only to find that it is SATA.

My question is can I get an cable adapter from SATA to USB?

squiffy · 6 May 2007 at 19:30

You could use a E-SATA backplate. That drive will require less CPU % than a USB enclosure anyway.

nobbyy87 · 6 May 2007 at 19:38

Hi Squiffy - thanks for the quick response!

1. Two probs there - is there a limit on cable lenght? I need to site the box about 1 metre from the tower.

2. I do not have any extrnal SATA ports

squiffy · 6 May 2007 at 19:40

nobbyy87 said:
Hi Squiffy - thanks for the quick response!

1. Two probs there - is there a limit on cable lenght? I need to site the box about 1 metre from the tower.

2. I do not have any extrnal SATA ports

2. That's what's the E-SATA backplate is for. Google search. You just connect the cable from the backplate header to a SATA connector on your motherboard.

USB hard drives are a poor design, I've had numerous problems..sometimes disconnect by itself, lost data etc. A E-SATA design is the same as internal HD, it doesn't go through another chipset, which can cause problems.

nobbyy87 · 6 May 2007 at 20:05

Reason for external box is that this is all for backing up purposes.

is there a limit on cable length?