PCA Forums

I saw this item for sale:

http://www.dinodirect.com/Tronixin-2-Po ... apter.html

Question: if this is connected to your motherboard's sata port, will it act like a USB external device (plug and play)?

Yes and no.

eSATA is SUPPOSED to be a hot swappable connection like USB.

A lot depends on the mobo and whether it supports SATA / eSATA hot swap or not. Even when it does, in my experience, it often doesn't work right. My workbench mobo is supposed to support it but it blue screens whenever I plug something in. It only works if I put the PC in sleep mode first.

My workstation supports it but the one time I used it, it didn't recognize the device.

It's pretty much a dead standard that was poorly implemented. There never were many external hard drives made that supported it. Nowadays with USB 3.0 there's certainly no need for it either.

9 bucks plus shipping is also a lot to pay for that adapter. I probably have a half dozen of them in my parts drawer. They come as freebies with most eSata enclosures.

You also need an eSATA cable which is a stiff and awkward cable like SATA cables. They usually don't make them very long.

Ok thanks for the info. I guess you would need to put the sata port in ACHI mode for it to work? I'm not going to get it considering that USB 3 is out, but I was just curious as I never used the port. Also, the price was $3.29 each with free shipping.

Yeah, I think it only works in ACHI mode.