Brian wrote on Mar 1^st, 2006 at 10:10pm:

A while back I temporarily mounted a 120GB Maxtor SATA HDD in a Bytecc ME-320U2 USB enclosure kit and routed a 36-inch conventional SATA cable directly from the SATA HDD to: (1) the SATA port on the motherboard of my Dell Dimension 8300; and (2) later on, to the PCI-to-SATA adapter card of my Dell Dimension 8100.  The SATA HDD was receiving power from the external enclosure via a MOLEX-to-SATA converter harness, and in both instances flawlessly behaved as if it were an internal HDD, i.e., no host/bridge/device controller headaches.

CLICK HERE to view commentary on with Ghost 2003 using USB 2.0 external HDD enclosure kits.  Do note that modest size tasks (less than 4GB, i.e., no more than two spanned images) were frequently successful, but full-scale "disk-to-image" undertakings would consistently fail.

Brian wrote on Mar 1^st, 2006 at 10:10pm:

Brian wrote on Mar 1^st, 2006 at 11:10pm:

As a temporary measure - proof of concept and all that - can you bypass (much as I did above) the eSATA connectors and rig exclusively with conventional SATA connectors between your external SATA HDD and your SATA ports?  It would be very fascinating to either absolve or else vindicate the eSATA architecture in your particular case.

Brian wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2006 at 7:33pm:

A rational stance, indeed - but do consider the plausible demystification of this matter by operating with both external enclosure and PC case open so as to either exonerate or condemn the eSATA hookup.

EP,

This image shows the enclosure connection.

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/Vantec%20Nexstar%203/

So I can't run a SATA cable from my HD to the motherboard and use external power. It's pointless to run an internal data cable and internal power because that's how it was last week while it was working. We still don't know if the problem is eSATA or the Power Supply but I think I have an eSATA incompatability.

What I might do later, when I get bored, is buy a longer SATA data cable and a power cord extender. The final power plug can be either SATA type or Molex from what I can see. Then I can just have the HD sitting on the table (I'll be careful not to move it) and have it in SATA mode. I only connect external HD's to copy data then I disconnect them.

Does that sound reasonable? Any cooling problems likely?

Now it works perfectly.

Two months ago I sent my Dell 8400 away for a warranty repair. Dell rang to say that the plastic exterior case was damaged in transit but they would replace the case when they found a spare. They couldn't find a case as the 8400 is a discontinued model so they swapped my computer for a new Dell 9150. I'm very pleased with the new computer and with Dell's approach.

The eSATA II enclosure no longer locks the computer with large file transfers. I copied a 15 GB image file to the external HD in 5 minutes. I copied another 60 GB of data files to the external HD while watching the HD temperature. The maximum temperature was 41° C which was comparable to the internal HD temperatures.

So the previous problem was related to incompatibility.