Problem with SATA external hard drive

I'm going nuts here!!!

I just bought a SATA external enclosure and attached a new 320G SATA
drive in it. I try to attach the enclosure/drive to the back on my PC
with the cable that came with the enclosure, but I can't insert it.
It's slightly different

Are there different SATA connectors? I have an ASUS P5WD2-E Premium
with an eSATA slot in the back. Does anyone know what kind of connector
is needed to go from it, to a SATA enclosure?

Any help appreciated!!

The external HDD enclosure will have either a USB 2.0 or a Firewire (or
both) interface to the PC. So therefore use the correct cable - a USB 2.0
specification cable with a A and B end or a Firewire cable. It sounds to me
as if you are trying to plug a Firewire cable into a USB port which of
course you cannot do.

If the external HDD housing only has a firewire connection, and your PC has
not then you need to get a Firewire PCI card and install this in your PC to
be able to connect the external drive.

Hope this helps - Mike


<> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
>
> I'm going nuts here!!!
>
> I just bought a SATA external enclosure and attached a new 320G SATA
> drive in it. I try to attach the enclosure/drive to the back on my PC
> with the cable that came with the enclosure, but I can't insert it.
> It's slightly different
>
> Are there different SATA connectors? I have an ASUS P5WD2-E Premium
> with an eSATA slot in the back. Does anyone know what kind of connector
> is needed to go from it, to a SATA enclosure?
>
> Any help appreciated!!
>

wrote:
> I'm going nuts here!!!
>
> I just bought a SATA external enclosure and attached a new 320G SATA
> drive in it. I try to attach the enclosure/drive to the back on my PC
> with the cable that came with the enclosure, but I can't insert it.
> It's slightly different
>
> Are there different SATA connectors? I have an ASUS P5WD2-E Premium
> with an eSATA slot in the back. Does anyone know what kind of connector
> is needed to go from it, to a SATA enclosure?
>
> Any help appreciated!!
>
>
There are two types of e-SATA cables - Type "I" and Type "L". And you
can have I to I, L to L and I to L. See
http://www.satacables.com/html/sata_...al_cables.html

HTH,
Mike
<http://www.satacables.com/html/sata_external_cables.html>
<http://www.satacables.com/html/sata_external_cables.html>

You could conceivably have a USB enclosure, a Firewire enclosure or a
SATA enclosure. [I say this because the term "SATA Enclosure" might
well mean an enclosure for a SATA drive, but NOT NECESSARILY an
enclosure that connects to the host computer by a SATA port on the host
computer.]

Further, there are multiple kinds of both Firewire and external SATA cables.

So there are at least 5 possible type of connection that your drive
and/or your computer could use, and clearly whatever they are, they are
different.

We really need some photos to help you out.


wrote:
> I'm going nuts here!!!
>
> I just bought a SATA external enclosure and attached a new 320G SATA
> drive in it. I try to attach the enclosure/drive to the back on my PC
> with the cable that came with the enclosure, but I can't insert it.
> It's slightly different
>
> Are there different SATA connectors? I have an ASUS P5WD2-E Premium
> with an eSATA slot in the back. Does anyone know what kind of connector
> is needed to go from it, to a SATA enclosure?
>
> Any help appreciated!!
>

Finally, got the proper cable today. I needed an eSATA to SATA cable
for my ASUS P5WD2-E Premium motherboard. The cable that came with the
SATA enclosure was SATA to SATA.

The drive is now connected and recognized by XP and seems to be working
well. But, I only got it working after flashing with the latest bios
and Marvell Raid drivers for my P5WD2-E Premium.

As I have a new bios, I need to watch my PC carefully for the next few
days, but so far so good!!!!