 AframePremium
join:2008-01-30
Uvalde, TX
kudos:1 | eSATA CONTROLLER I am looking to purchase a esata controller for my PC. I have pci express slots available. Need it to support esata II and be able to hot plug a external drive.
Can anyone recommend one that will do the job?
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HN9000/Spaceway III,74m/1w,Elite package,XP Pro, |
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 janderso1JimPremium,MVM
join:2000-04-15
Saint Petersburg, FL | I currently use (without any problems) a SIIG SC-SAE212-S2 in a Dell SC420 “server”. It has one ESATA and one internal SATA port. It claims to support hot swap, but I have never tried it. I do use both the internal and ESATA port.
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···16150024
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Jim Anderson |
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AframePremium
join:2008-01-30
Uvalde, TX
kudos:1 | said by janderso1:I currently use (without any problems) a SIIG SC-SAE212-S2 in a Dell SC420 “server”. It has one ESATA and one internal SATA port. It claims to support hot swap, but I have never tried it. I do use both the internal and ESATA port. » www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···16150024 Thanx. It certainly looks like it should do what I want. I would sure like to know if you can connect the external drive without having to reboot the pc. Maybe some one else has tried it.
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HN9000/Spaceway III,74m/1w,Elite package,XP Pro, |
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 koitsuPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
kudos:13 | reply to Aframe
janderso1  , what OS are you running with that? I'm curious given that Silicon Image-based controllers have a history of having bugs (one of which experiences data corruption).
I'd recommend some alternatives, but they're more expensive and intended mainly for RAID setups:
»www.promise.com/product/product_···t_id=168
»www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr2314.htm
Aframe , I'm certain that as long as the SATA drivers for the controller you choose properly recognise eSATA port devices as removable, you should be able to disconnect/connect the drive at will.
Also, you're doing the Right Thing(tm) by buying a real eSATA controller. Don't use eSATA-to-SATA brackets (eSATA on the backplane, which runs to a SATA cable that you connect to a SATA port on your mainboard or otherwise); the total cable length often exceeds the specification, resulting in timeouts or data loss.
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Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer. |
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janderso1JimPremium,MVM
join:2000-04-15
Saint Petersburg, FL | The Dell is currently setup as triple boot – XP home, XP pro, and Windows 2000. The SI card is a PCI express 1x . Soon either Vista or Windows 7 RC1 will replace XP home. Since the Dell maintenance takes one primary partition I only have three primary partitions left on the boot drive for other operating systems.
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Jim Anderson |
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 Doctor FourMy other vehicle is a TARDISPremium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX | reply to koitsu
Interesting you mention that Silicon Image eSATA controllers have bugs in them. I may have encountered one with a drive I have connected through that interface. It is a Seagate ST31000340AS 1000GB drive (one of the ones that had the firmware bug in it - it was upgraded to SD1A when I sent it in for data recovery). It is connected through a Silicon Image SiL 3132 eSATA controller card I have on my PC, and is in a Venus DS3 external enclosure. When I look at the SMART data, it indicates the temperature is 61 deg. C. This cannot be right as the enclosure has an internal fan, and there is also an external fan blowing cool air onto it. When I took the drive out to check how hot it was, it was warm to the touch but not hot. I believe either the controller card or enclosure interface is improperly reporting some of the SMART data.
I am going to try it in another enclosure, and also internally as well to see if the temperature stays the same.
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"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)
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AframePremium
join:2008-01-30
Uvalde, TX
kudos:1 | reply to Aframe
So which chipset should I be looking for or which should I not consider? I always buy the wrong one and wind up have to buy two. I really don't plan on using raid, just want to be able to use esata like a fast usb drive.
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HN9000/Spaceway III,74m/1w,Elite package,XP Pro, |
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koitsuPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
kudos:13
1 edit | reply to Doctor Four
said by Doctor Four:... When I look at the SMART data, it indicates the temperature is 61 deg. C. This cannot be right as the enclosure has an internal fan, and there is also an external fan blowing cool air onto it. This would be a bug/quirk in either the software you're using to monitor SMART data, or a bug in the drive firmware. As much as I'd love to blame SilI controllers for this... 
Seagate has a history of changing the data format of their attributes stored in SMART. This is permitted within the ATA specification (thanks to loopholes/vagueness). This is one of the reasons utilities like smartmontools have an internal database of drive models/revisions, so the software can deal with said quirks.
FWIW, I had a single Western Digital drive many years ago which had the same problem. Turns out it was a firmware bug which was corrected silently (WD didn't even change the firmware version string after fixing it -- naughty!), as I found tons of forum posts online of other users reporting the same thing. My temperatures were off by about 20C. I simply did an RMA with WD (support folks thought I was crazy, until I showed them the evidence) and got a different drive -- same f/w revision, same model, but the problem was fixed.
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Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer. |
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koitsuPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
kudos:13
1 edit | reply to Aframe
said by Aframe:So which chipset should I be looking for or which should I not consider? I always buy the wrong one and wind up have to buy two. I really don't plan on using raid, just want to be able to use esata like a fast usb drive. With mainstream generic/cheap controllers, the only chipset you're going to find is Silicon Image.
The specific Silicon Image chipset to avoid is the 311x series. The 3112 in specific is a pile of *bleep*, but other subrevisions may behave the same.
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Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer. |
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Doctor FourMy other vehicle is a TARDISPremium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX | reply to koitsu
This drive was one that had stopped being accessible by the BIOS due to the SD15 firmware bug. I sent it to their data recovery company i365 to get free repair, and they replaced the controller card. My guess is that this is due to the SD1A firmware.
The odd thing about it was that yesterday I turned it off for a few hours to cool, then turned it on again. The temperature just after being turned on was 54 deg. C. It would seem to be about 30 degrees off.
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"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)
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AframePremium
join:2008-01-30
Uvalde, TX
kudos:1 | reply to Aframe
OK. Finally ordered this controller.
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···16150027
Seems to work great. Out of the box, installed and working in 10 mins. Did not like how they suggested removing the drive but added a utility called HOT SWAP and now it works like windows with a icon in the system tray. Works great with 64 bit Win7 and Vista Business 32. Have not tried it on any thing else. Hope it remains this way.
Thanks to everyone for the input.
Frank
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HN9000/Spaceway III,74m/1w,Elite package,XP Pro, |
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