Solved USB 3.0 to esata

[Tomtom111]

It does say in my laptop's product info, one of them is also the esata.

That was a typo on my part. I meant to say there's no mention of USB 3.0, so you would know right away that you'd only be getting 2.0 speeds.

Ok, no there's not because I got my laptop before USB 3 became widely used.

 

[Tomtom111]

USB3 has nice specs but eSata is faster. At least that is my experience on a system that has both USB3 and eSata using the same HDD in corresponding external enclosures. There seems to be a lot of overhead with USB3.

As much as I would like to use the esata port, I can't find any adapter to make any use of it. To be honest the express card seems the best option to be able to use the USB 3 on the harddrive.

 

[whs]

An eSata docking station would do the trick.

Newegg.com - Thermaltake BlacX ST0005U External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5” & 3.5” USB 2.0 & eSATA

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173042

 

[Tomtom111]

The only reason I started asking about esata in the first place was because I didn't know that I had an express card port. As I now know this, it would seem a better option, due to it price and simplicity of just inserting a card intead of getting an adapter for the esata port. Thanks anyway.

 

[whs]

Both options are valid. Only advantage of eSata is the faster speed.

 

[DeaconFrost]

An eSata docking station would do the trick.

Newegg.com - Thermaltake BlacX ST0005U External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5” & 3.5” USB 2.0 & eSATA

Newegg.com - Rosewill RX-358 V2 BLK (Black) 3.5" SATA to USB & eSATA Ext. Enclosure w/Int.80mm fan

I have one of them on my desk right now. Invaluable for drive recovery.

 

[Tomtom111]

Both options are valid. Only advantage of eSata is the faster speed.

well just reading an article that esata is onlt slightly faster than usb 3. I think I'll stick to that. Thanks

 

[essenbe]

Perhaps this will help

 

[Tomtom111]

So, esata is at best twice as fast a USB 3? But even so there aren't any available adapters.
And honestly I was looking for a cheap solution. And on a side note, the docks people are linking, are USB 2 and esata ports- I need an adapter of USB 3 (female) to esata (male).
Finally, the hard drive that has USB 3 would only be able to get USB 3 speeds, even if I did get the correct adapter because the hard rive was designed with USB 3, not esata, right?

 

[bobafetthotmail]

And on a side note, the docks people are linking, are USB 2 and esata ports- I need an adapter of USB 3 (female) to esata (male).
Finally, the hard drive that has USB 3 would only be able to get USB 3 speeds, even if I did get the correct adapter because the hard rive was designed with USB 3, not esata, right?

Let's clear this up:

First, what is in your external hdd is basically a computer internal HDD (the 2.5" kind anyway, the ones you find in laptops). It does interface to the world with SATA and sata power connectors just as any other internal HDD. Its specs vary (but usually tend to be on par with laptop HDDs, fancy ones have HDDs that would be good as desktop internal drives as well), but the speed bottleneck is usually the casing's ports which more often than not cannot really compete with the HDD's own SATA (only estata and thundersomething have any chance against SATA).

Then you can place this naked HDD in a case, that contains the circuitry that turns that SATA + sata power into USB 2 or 3 or even esata or firewire and thundersomething (for mac) depending on model.

The dock is just a open-topped HDD case, it connects to the HDD with SATA and sata power, and connects to the computer with whatever ports they decide to put.
Their main good point is that you can hot-swap drives in a few seconds, main drawback is that they are open-topped, so the HDD is half-naked (and exposed to damage or shorts or whatever).
Good for techs, but not good for consumers.

As a side note, the USB 3.0 adapter I told you before had a tendency to get stuck in its expresscard slot. To get it out to examine it the first time I had to loosen a bit the screws in that side of the guy's laptop, shake the machine a bit and then pull it out by hand after I pressed it in and waited the springs to push it out like other expresscards.
Assuming it wasn't a failure of the expresscard slot's springs I personally consider this a feature, as it should stay put under the plug-unplug the USB and other movements a laptop is supposed to endure.

 

[Tomtom111]

Yeah, I know that all drives ar the same on the inside, but I don't want to A: Take apart the hard drives enclosure so that it can be used it the dock and B: shell out £40 or whatever. I'd much rather get an adapter of some sort. Just a thought but if I use the USB 3 cable with an esata adapter (which isn't available) it'll still go at USB 3 speeds because the cable is the bottleneck.

So my two options, as I see it, is to either get an expresscard usb 3 adapter (be it cheap or more expensive) OR get a cable with a male USB 3 type B to male eSATA.

 

[jvellos]

EDIT: Ne'er mind, didn't see that the thread had multiple pages.

 

[Tomtom111]

Don't worry about it.

 

[Tomtom111]

Thanks everyone for your help. I think I'll get an express card. Not sure whether I'll be a cheap one though. Thanks again.

 

[Tomtom111]

Before I decide, which one of these cards do you think would be best, based on price and goodness(?)?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Express-Exp...4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1346965683&sr=1-4

Neewer 54mm 2-Port USB 3.0 ExpressCard Express Card Adapter: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Neewer Expresscard Express 34mm To 2 Port USB 3.0 BC628: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GMYLE-ExpressCard-Express-Adapter-Windows/dp/B004649RZ0/ref=pd_sim_ce_3

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Ok, the first seems legit, but has some differences, namely lacks the chip name on the sticker and lacks the AKU name.

The second is the one that looks exactly like the one I had in my hands. Even the cable and (worthless) driver CD look the same.

The last two are expresscard 34 so they don't have the additional power socked for the USB cable (i.e. may not work with two HDDs connected through USB 3.0) AND need some kind of adapter to stay really safely put in your laptop's expresscard 54 slot (and even then there is lot of space that dust can use to get in your laptop). They also use a different chip, and I don't know if the linked drivers work on it or not (although they should, and maybe for a different product their CD has useful drivers).

All in all, I'd take the second one. Price differences aren't that relevant, and I prefer following my gut feeling. Feel free to choose whatever you like, this is just an educated guess, may still be horribly wrong.