Hi, I am considering an external SATA HDD for my server.

1) Assuming my motherboard supports eSATA, or I buy an eSATA controller,
will the eSATA HDD appear as a removable device with the safe removal icon
on the taskbar, like a USB external HDD?

2) There are SATA->eSATA and eSATA->SATA cables. If I connect the first
cable to my m/b that supports only SATA (not eSATA), and then connect the
second cable to the first one, and then connect a SATA HDD to the second
cable, it won't make the HDD hot swappable, will it?

Thanks

cristalink wrote:
1. Not likely - though it can depend on the controller (I've not seen
one that would make it removable like that).

2. The controller and to an extent, the drive determine if it's hot
swappable, not so much the cable.

Thanks! So you are saying that none of the eSATA controllers you've seen
displayed the safe removal icon?

My point is that there is no much sense in the physical hot swappability if
there is no way to ensure the data buffers were flushed properly.

The safe removal icon flushes the buffers and logically removes the drive
from the system to ensure new data won't be written to it.

Cheers


"leew [MVP]" <useContactPage@LWComputing.dot.com> wrote in message
news:TwRVh.939$wM1.843@newsfe12.lga...

cristalink wrote:
Correct. I've not seen an eSATA controller that presented the disk in
such a way to the OS.

Frankly, I wouldn't be using eSATA for removable drives myself. I use
them for extending storage when the bays inside a system are full.

I'm considering using an external SATA enclosure for backup data
storage. I was considering using a Sonnet Fusion 500P enclosure and a
Sonnet Tempo SATA X4P eSATA controller. This combination can provide
5 separate drives to the system. I want to be able to remove (and
replace) one of them weekly for off-site storage without having to
shutdown/restart the server. The 500P enclosure is touted as being
hot swappable. However, a footnote in the specs for the X4P states
that under Windows, hot swapping is not possible, due to Windows
itself, not the controller. I have a SIIG eSATA II-150 PCI
controller. Its manual states that hot swapping can be accomplished
by disabling the target drive via Device Manager and then removing it.
The manual does not go beyond that statement. However, I believe it
infers that the replacement drive can then be attached and the OS will
detect and enable it. Would this work?


On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:43:28 -0400, "leew [MVP]"
<useContactPage@LWComputing.dot.com> wrote:

--
Bob Felton

This should work. Connect a new drive then enable the drive in Device
Manager.


"Bob Felton" <bob123.removethis@fieldtown.net> wrote in message
news:ut0f331g2cs90a0v5ilnai88k0ero3dijn@4ax.com...

I thought so. Will be checking it out in a week or so.


On Wed, 2 May 2007 09:40:26 +1200, "cristalink"
<cristalink@nospam.nospam> wrote:

--
Bob Felton