[PLUG] laptop, eSATAp, bare drive

[David Mandel]

I suppose I would try pretty much what you have mentioned.

I sometimes use usb drives, but as you said are slow - and some of
mine are SLOW, SLOW, SLOW as I still have some usb 1 left.

Recently, I bought an inexpensive Toshiba laptop.  I picked it over
several alternatives, because it had one of those USB/SATA ports built
in.  I use it with a normal full size hard disk (large capacity) in a
case that requires external power.  It is a pain to carry, but the
performance is great.  Couldn't be more pleased with it - although it
would be even better if I used a laptop disk and got my power from the
PC some way.  (By the way, I used to use a passport drive that used
two usb connectors - one for the signal and one for power.)

David

On Sat, Jan 1, 2011 at 8:43 AM, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:
> I like to back up my laptop hard drive overnight when I am on the
> road - a dd copy to an identical drive.  That worked with PATA and
> thinkpad ultrabays.  Not with SATA, though (long story).
>
> Moving 500GB in 6 hours requires a fast connection - 190Mb/s
> sustained rate.  USB with overhead probably doesn't do it.
> I would rather not carry a case and a power adapter.  And the
> drives will get bigger.
>
> With the newer laptop, it looks like the optimum setup, in theory,
> would be an expresscard34 "eSATAp" aka "powered eSATA" aka "USB/SATA"
> card, to a cable that connects directly to the back of a 2.5 inch
> SATA drive.  The SYBA SY-EXP50028 (at Newegg and Amazon) has the
> right form factor, but the JMB360 chipset has bad Linux support.
>
> Another possibility would be a cable with drive connector on one
> end, eSATA and USB (for power) at the other end, and a Linux
> compatable eSATA expresscard.  Plenty of linux compatable cards,
> but I can't find such a cable.  I might be able to make one,
> from an eSATA to SATA cable and a SATA-power and USB cable.
>
> Any suggestions, besides waiting for eSATAp to become more widely
> available?
>
> Keith
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
> KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
> Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
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