[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Good fast IDE hard drive but cheap and BIG.

[Grant Edwards]

On 2009-09-24, James Ausmus <james.ausmus@×××××.com> wrote:
> paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com <paul.hartman%2Bgentoo@×××××.com>> wrote:
>>
>> I think eSATA and SATA physically have different connectors,
>> but they are the technically same (you can buy simple
>> adapters...).

They're compatible but not technically the same.  The
electrical specs for eSATA are stricter and provide more margin
for noise and signal loss.  I once used an internal-to-external
adapter to connect an external drive to a normal motherboard
SATA port.  It worked most of the time, but there were
occasional problems.  [For all I know the same problems might
have occurred if the drive was internal.]

> I'm don't think that the connectors are different enough to
> care about - I had (in a previous life/system) a PCI SATA
> interface card that had both internal SATA and an eSATA
> connector, and when I ran out of regular internal SATA
> connectors, I just used a regular SATA cable, plugged into the
> eSATA port, then ran the cable back in through an empty
> expansion slot in the case, and hooked it up to a regular
> internal SATA driver - worked like a champ... ;)

The two connector types are supposed to be physically
incompatible, but we'll take your word for it that you can make
them mate.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow! Will the third world
                                  at               war keep "Bosom Buddies"
                               visi.com            off the air?