External Drive Enclosures

[Grinder]

I'm shopping for an external drive enclosure. It makes sense to me to
get one that will take either PATA or SATA drives, and have found a few
of those at newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Subcategory=92&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

I'm surprised that so many of these products do not support drives
larger than 500GB. Am I really reading those descriptions right? Why
would there be a limit so far short of the ATA/ATAPI-6 standard?

Thanks for your consideration.

 

[Citizen Bob]

I'm shopping for an external drive enclosure.

Check some of the most recent posts in the thread " Fire wire and USB
the same?"

The consensus among the experts is go with 3.5" with external power
supply and stick to PATA.


--

"Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverence. Talent
will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent."
--Calvin Coolidge

 

[Rod Speed]

Check some of the most recent posts in
the thread " Fire wire and USB the same?"

The consensus among the experts is go with 3.5"
with external power supply and stick to PATA.

I wouldnt stick with PATA myself, limits you too much in the future
if you want to use the drive as an internal on a motherboard with
bugger all in the way of PATA ports and most of those used for
optical drives which still arent commonly available any other way.

 

[Citizen Bob]

I wouldnt stick with PATA myself, limits you too much in the future
if you want to use the drive as an internal on a motherboard with
bugger all in the way of PATA ports and most of those used for
optical drives which still arent commonly available any other way.

My son, who in his youth is willing to sail close to the wind with
computers, recently started replacing PATA with SATA. He says they
work just fine and plans to continue the conversion.


--

"Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverence. Talent
will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent."
--Calvin Coolidge

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I'm shopping for an external drive enclosure. It makes sense to me to get one that will take either PATA or SATA drives, and have
found a few of those at newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Subcategory=92&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

I'm surprised that so many of these products do not support drives larger than 500GB. Am I really reading those descriptions
right? Why would there be a limit so far short of the ATA/ATAPI-6 standard?

Those all use USB 2.0 ports. Why not go with SATA all the way?
If your motherboard has eSATA jacks (or if your PCIE card has eSATA
jacks), use an external enclosure with an eSATA cable, and enjoy the
full speed (now and in the future) of SATA. Do a search on Google for
"eSATA external enclosure" and "eSATA PCIe" for lots of links. Here's
just one:

http://www.a1-electronics.net/PcHardware/Various/2006/3rd/Thermtake_eSATA-Muse_May.shtml

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Those all use USB 2.0 ports. Why not go with SATA all the way?
If your motherboard has eSATA jacks (or if your PCIE card has eSATA
jacks), use an external enclosure with an eSATA cable, and enjoy the
full speed (now and in the future) of SATA. Do a search on Google for
"eSATA external enclosure" and "eSATA PCIe" for lots of links. Here's
just one:

http://www.a1-electronics.net/PcHardware/Various/2006/3rd/Thermtake_eSATA-Muse_May.shtml

Here's a link to all the bits 'n pieces to implement an eSATA connection:
http://www.firewire-1394.com/external-sata-solutions.htm .

*TimDaniels*

 

[Grinder]

Those all use USB 2.0 ports. Why not go with SATA all the way?

It would be useful for my enclosure to take either a PATA or a SATA
drive. There are a number of those devices floating around in different
machines that will likely be "liberated" for general use, and I'd like
to have a box to put it in.

If your motherboard has eSATA jacks (or if your PCIE card has eSATA
jacks), use an external enclosure with an eSATA cable, and enjoy the
full speed (now and in the future) of SATA.

The PC in the house that this enclosure would be for (I'm asking around
for a friend) is one of those low profiles PCs that has a single
SATA/150 port on the motherboard, and barely enough room for 1 drive in
its case. They will probably want to put a SATA drive in the case, so
that it can be moved to the system if the HD fails. Also, theres a PS2
with a PATA drive in it, and it would be handy to have some means to
connect it to the PC.

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[kony]

I wouldnt stick with PATA myself, limits you too much in the future
if you want to use the drive as an internal on a motherboard with
bugger all in the way of PATA ports and most of those used for
optical drives which still arent commonly available any other way.

True, but at that point in the future you may find more SATA
optical drives. On the other hand, getting a 5-1/4"
enclosure means you can use it with existing optical drives
instead, if the need arises.

 

[Rod Speed]

True, but at that point in the future you may find more SATA optical drives.

Still makes more sense to be using sata hard drives now anyway.

On the other hand, getting a 5-1/4" enclosure means you can
use it with existing optical drives instead, if the need arises.

Makes more sense to be using sata hard drives and only bother
with a 5-1/4" enclosure if you actually end up needing one.

 

[Citizen Bob]

Makes more sense to be using sata hard drives and only bother
with a 5-1/4" enclosure if you actually end up needing one.

Are you saying that you can connect a SATA disk to the motherboard
externally?


--

"Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverence. Talent
will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent."
--Calvin Coolidge

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Are you saying that you can connect a SATA disk to the motherboard
externally?

That can be done, but doing it with an eSATA cable and connectors
is preferable. eSATA cables have shielding, a latching mechanism
at the connectors, and the specs allow them to be longer than SATA
cables. See the links in my posting in this thread.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

Are you saying that you can connect a SATA disk to the motherboard externally?

Yes you can, but that wasnt what I was saying there. I was just
commenting on it making more sense to use sata drives in an
external box than pata drives, just because it gives you more
flexibility in future if you replace the system and end up with a
motherboard which has few pata ports. You can put one of those
drives that you had in an external box internally if you want to.