Need Hard Drive Enclosure for Serial ATA drive with FireWire 1394a external connection

M

I have a lot of data on both internal hard drives and external Firewire
drives. I have found on my PC at least that Firewire is more reliable than
USB.
None of my data is backed up and now that 1000GB drives are now available
this seems like a good backup solution. Unfortunately all 1000GB drives
have a SATA interface and my PC will not take any more expansion cards.
I have always bought eMagic enclosures
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=307146 can anyone recommend an
equivalent with a SATA internal interface and a 1394a external interface?
Thank you.

Anna

"M" <spamtrap@spambouncer.org> wrote in message
news:O7381s8oHHA.4400@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>I have a lot of data on both internal hard drives and external Firewire
>drives. I have found on my PC at least that Firewire is more reliable than
>USB.
> None of my data is backed up and now that 1000GB drives are now available
> this seems like a good backup solution. Unfortunately all 1000GB drives
> have a SATA interface and my PC will not take any more expansion cards.
> I have always bought eMagic enclosures
> http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=307146 can anyone recommend an
> equivalent with a SATA internal interface and a 1394a external interface?
> Thank you.


M:
I may have a suggestion or two for you but before doing so it would be
helpful if you would clarify your present situation...

1. You're working with a desktop PC I assume. Assuming it is, do you have
one or more vacant 5 1/4" bays available?
2. Is your system SATA capable? How many SATA connectors does your
motherboard have?
3. Assuming your system is SATA-capable, how many of those SATA connectors
are in use?
4. Re your present two internal HDDs - are they PATA or SATA?
5. You say "None of my data is backed up". What are you using that second
internal HDD for, just storage? Or are you working with a RAID
configuration?
6. And you say you've "always bought eMagic enclosures". Then you didn't use
those external enclosures for backup purposes? Just additional storage,
perhaps?
Anna

Anna

"M" <spamtrap@spambouncer.org> wrote in message
news:O7381s8oHHA.4400@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>I have a lot of data on both internal hard drives and external Firewire
>drives. I have found on my PC at least that Firewire is more reliable than
>USB.
> None of my data is backed up and now that 1000GB drives are now available
> this seems like a good backup solution. Unfortunately all 1000GB drives
> have a SATA interface and my PC will not take any more expansion cards.
> I have always bought eMagic enclosures
> http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=307146 can anyone recommend an
> equivalent with a SATA internal interface and a 1394a external interface?
> Thank you.


M:
I may have a suggestion or two for you but before doing so it would be
helpful if you would clarify your present situation...

1. You're working with a desktop PC I assume. Assuming it is, do you have
one or more vacant 5 1/4" bays available?
2. Is your system SATA capable? How many SATA connectors does your
motherboard have?
3. Assuming your system is SATA-capable, how many of those SATA connectors
are in use?
4. Re your present two internal HDDs - are they PATA or SATA?
5. You say "None of my data is backed up". What are you using that second
internal HDD for, just storage? Or are you working with a RAID
configuration?
6. And you say you've "always bought eMagic enclosures". Then you didn't use
those external enclosures for backup purposes? Just additional storage,
perhaps?
Anna

Anna

>> "M" <spamtrap@spambouncer.org> wrote in message
>> news:O7381s8oHHA.4400@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>I have a lot of data on both internal hard drives and external Firewire
>>>drives. I have found on my PC at least that Firewire is more reliable
>>>than USB.
>>> None of my data is backed up and now that 1000GB drives are now
>>> available this seems like a good backup solution. Unfortunately all
>>> 1000GB drives have a SATA interface and my PC will not take any more
>>> expansion cards.
>>> I have always bought eMagic enclosures
>>> http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=307146 can anyone recommend an
>>> equivalent with a SATA internal interface and a 1394a external
>>> interface?
>>> Thank you.


> "Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message
> news:enIdy48oHHA.588@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> M:
>> I may have a suggestion or two for you but before doing so it would be
>> helpful if you would clarify your present situation...
>>
>> 1. You're working with a desktop PC I assume. Assuming it is, do you have
>> one or more vacant 5 1/4" bays available?
>> 2. Is your system SATA capable? How many SATA connectors does your
>> motherboard have?
>> 3. Assuming your system is SATA-capable, how many of those SATA
>> connectors are in use?
>> 4. Re your present two internal HDDs - are they PATA or SATA?
>> 5. You say "None of my data is backed up". What are you using that second
>> internal HDD for, just storage? Or are you working with a RAID
>> configuration?
>> 6. And you say you've "always bought eMagic enclosures". Then you didn't
>> use those external enclosures for backup purposes? Just additional
>> storage, perhaps?
>> Anna


"M" <spamtrap@spambouncer.org> wrote in message
news:eZtXMB9oHHA.4532@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> My PC predates SATA and all hard drives are PATA IBM/Hitachi Deskstars. I
> use the external Firewire ones for storage and the internal two for
> multibooting and storage. My PC does not support RAID. All internal bays
> are used as are all PCI slots. The eMagic enclosures look neat and seem
> reliable. Somehow I seem to have built up a large collection of data and
> as the drives are now getting old backing up seems like a good idea!


Well, since you don't have SATA capability, that negates one suggestion I
was going to make. I was thinking about an external HDD enclosure that has
SATA-to-SATA connectivity capability. The significant advantages - there are
two that come to mind - of that hardware device is that you gain
substantially better HDD performance in comparison to PATA HDDs, and
secondly, the SATA HDD is treated as an *internal* HDD by the system even
though it physically resides outside the computer case. In so doing, the
drive becomes bootable when the OS is installed (or cloned) onto it.

The other suggestion I was thinking about - depending upon whether your
computer case had at least one 5 1/4" vacant bay available - was to equip
your desktop PC with a removable HDD (PATA or otherwise). But since you
apparently do not have such a vacant bay available, that is not a viable
option unless it's possible (and you have the desire) to manipulate one or
more of your present devices installed in a 5 1/4" bay to create a vacant
bay to house the removable HDD.

So I guess your use of a USB/Firewire external HDD will best meet your
objective. I've no experience with the eMagic model you mentioned, but since
your experience with those devices has been positive, it seems sensible to
continue using them, no?
Anna

Anna

>> "M" <spamtrap@spambouncer.org> wrote in message
>> news:O7381s8oHHA.4400@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>I have a lot of data on both internal hard drives and external Firewire
>>>drives. I have found on my PC at least that Firewire is more reliable
>>>than USB.
>>> None of my data is backed up and now that 1000GB drives are now
>>> available this seems like a good backup solution. Unfortunately all
>>> 1000GB drives have a SATA interface and my PC will not take any more
>>> expansion cards.
>>> I have always bought eMagic enclosures
>>> http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=307146 can anyone recommend an
>>> equivalent with a SATA internal interface and a 1394a external
>>> interface?
>>> Thank you.


> "Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message
> news:enIdy48oHHA.588@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> M:
>> I may have a suggestion or two for you but before doing so it would be
>> helpful if you would clarify your present situation...
>>
>> 1. You're working with a desktop PC I assume. Assuming it is, do you have
>> one or more vacant 5 1/4" bays available?
>> 2. Is your system SATA capable? How many SATA connectors does your
>> motherboard have?
>> 3. Assuming your system is SATA-capable, how many of those SATA
>> connectors are in use?
>> 4. Re your present two internal HDDs - are they PATA or SATA?
>> 5. You say "None of my data is backed up". What are you using that second
>> internal HDD for, just storage? Or are you working with a RAID
>> configuration?
>> 6. And you say you've "always bought eMagic enclosures". Then you didn't
>> use those external enclosures for backup purposes? Just additional
>> storage, perhaps?
>> Anna


"M" <spamtrap@spambouncer.org> wrote in message
news:eZtXMB9oHHA.4532@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> My PC predates SATA and all hard drives are PATA IBM/Hitachi Deskstars. I
> use the external Firewire ones for storage and the internal two for
> multibooting and storage. My PC does not support RAID. All internal bays
> are used as are all PCI slots. The eMagic enclosures look neat and seem
> reliable. Somehow I seem to have built up a large collection of data and
> as the drives are now getting old backing up seems like a good idea!


Well, since you don't have SATA capability, that negates one suggestion I
was going to make. I was thinking about an external HDD enclosure that has
SATA-to-SATA connectivity capability. The significant advantages - there are
two that come to mind - of that hardware device is that you gain
substantially better HDD performance in comparison to PATA HDDs, and
secondly, the SATA HDD is treated as an *internal* HDD by the system even
though it physically resides outside the computer case. In so doing, the
drive becomes bootable when the OS is installed (or cloned) onto it.

The other suggestion I was thinking about - depending upon whether your
computer case had at least one 5 1/4" vacant bay available - was to equip
your desktop PC with a removable HDD (PATA or otherwise). But since you
apparently do not have such a vacant bay available, that is not a viable
option unless it's possible (and you have the desire) to manipulate one or
more of your present devices installed in a 5 1/4" bay to create a vacant
bay to house the removable HDD.

So I guess your use of a USB/Firewire external HDD will best meet your
objective. I've no experience with the eMagic model you mentioned, but since
your experience with those devices has been positive, it seems sensible to
continue using them, no?
Anna

Rock

"M" wrote

<snip>

> My PC predates SATA and all hard drives are PATA IBM/Hitachi Deskstars. I
> use the external Firewire ones for storage and the internal two for
> multibooting and storage. My PC does not support RAID. All internal bays
> are used as are all PCI slots. The eMagic enclosures look neat and seem
> reliable. Somehow I seem to have built up a large collection of data and
> as the drives are now getting old backing up seems like a good idea!

It's not a good idea to make a correlation between the need to backup and
the age of a drive. The time to backup is immediately upon getting any data
you can't afford to loose. New drives die. I don't know about the
reliability or quality of your drives, but in the past the IBM Deskstars
were so bad they were nicknamed the "Deathstar". I believe that was before
Hitachi took over. In any event many things can precipitate data loss, not
just drive failure. Always have a full and complete backup. It's good
you're finally going to get his done. Consider yourself fortunate.
--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

Rock

"M" wrote

<snip>

> My PC predates SATA and all hard drives are PATA IBM/Hitachi Deskstars. I
> use the external Firewire ones for storage and the internal two for
> multibooting and storage. My PC does not support RAID. All internal bays
> are used as are all PCI slots. The eMagic enclosures look neat and seem
> reliable. Somehow I seem to have built up a large collection of data and
> as the drives are now getting old backing up seems like a good idea!

It's not a good idea to make a correlation between the need to backup and
the age of a drive. The time to backup is immediately upon getting any data
you can't afford to loose. New drives die. I don't know about the
reliability or quality of your drives, but in the past the IBM Deskstars
were so bad they were nicknamed the "Deathstar". I believe that was before
Hitachi took over. In any event many things can precipitate data loss, not
just drive failure. Always have a full and complete backup. It's good
you're finally going to get his done. Consider yourself fortunate.
--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]