External SATA 2 disk solution

[Bill Wiegand]

Hi, looking to add external SATA disk to be used by mine and my wife's laptops which each support the Expresscard interface. I am looking at the SIIG SC-SAE512-S1 SATA II ExpressCard 54 and attaching to it the ICY DOCK MB559 Series MB559US-1S 3.5" eSATA + USB2.0 combo External Enclosure with a Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive installed. Buying all three items and from specs think all is compatible and all will support the SATA 2 speeds but wondering what others think. Hate to order then find out things like SIIG card uses SATA connector not eSATA as info I read says and ICY Dock uses eSATA and cable from ICY Dock is eSATA to SATA not eSATA to eSATA or for some reason one component doesn't support SATA 2 such as ICY Dock is SATA 2 outside but SATA only inside where WD disk would attach. Thanks for any advice and welcome to better combinations if know of issues with any of this stuff. Thanks

 

[raybay]

There isn't a whole lot of experience out there yet on the SATA externals, but we have seen no problems in our shop.

 

[MOZO]

I have a question though regarding my eSATA hard drive....

I have a Vantec NexStar 3 that has both a USB and an eSATA connection, and the USB connection works just fine. However, the computer does not recognize that I have connected the drive when I use only the eSATA connecting cable, and when I have the eSATA cable AND the USB cable in at the same time, the computer cannot see the hard drive either...but, with both connected, if I unplug the eSATA connection, leaving the USB connection in, the computer instantly recognizes the drive. What gives?