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DIY eSATA issues...

Chuck(G)

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Jan 11, 2007
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Pacific Northwest, USA
This has got me wondering.

I have an external drive box with a 2TB WD SATA drive in it. If I connect it to my system with a stanard SATA cable, it works fine.

Peachy, says I--Let's make it a little nicer and use a bulkhead eSATA-to-SATA adapter cable on the box and then use either an eSATA-to-eSATA or eSATA-to-SATA cable to connect things up.

So I ordered some cheap Chinese cables that appear to look just like everyone else's cables.

Plug it together--nothing doing. The system doesn't see the drive when wired with an eSATA-to-SATA cable. I've also got a Fantom 1TB external USB/eSATA drive, so I tried that using the same eSATA to SATA cable. Nothing. I've got three of these cables and all work identically--nothing happens.

Is there some sort of generic flaw in these cables? If so, how can I find a good one?
 
Well, have you checked simple continuity on all lines? If they have continuity and are wired pin-to-pin then it has to be something in the overall impedance/transmission characteristics. We had a tech here that wired ethernet plugs in order instead of the correct paired wiring. Anything over a few feet would only work at 10mb because the network wasn't running on twisted pairs.

Or, there could be a mating problem. There may not be enough surface area on the contacts, the contacts may be too short or there may be some physical obstruction. I'd test continuity on the bulkhead connectors and if that shows good, plug in the connecting cable and check continuity end to end. Of course, continuity and impedance is not the same, but it will give you some idea.
 
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Thanks Kelly, but continuity was the first thing I checked. I know that some eSATA cables have connectors that don't like to go all the way through bulkhead cutouts, but I've eliminated that.

It has occurred to me that perhaps the 100 cm. eSATA cable is too long. I'm going to order a 50 cm one and see if that makes a difference.
 
I had assumed you knew and had tried everything I had to suggest, but you never know. What does the eSATA spec say about cable length? I'm too lazy to look it up myself.
 
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eSATA specs say 1m (100 cm), but I've seen postings from people saying that 2m and 3m works fine for them. I'll report back on what happens with a different cable.
 
Follow-up: The short half-meter shielded SATA-eSATA cable works fine. Moral: Don't buy cheap red 1m eSATA cables--they don't work (and I had 3 of them).
 
ESATA is very picky about shielding, and for all it's speed the reliability SUCKS. BAD. OMG BAD!!!

I've got an ESATA top loading dock that also does USB 2.0, I use it just as USB 2 because the ESATA even with a short shielded cable is unreliable at best, a disaster at worst.

A bit like my experience with HDMI... Whoever thought these rinky little cheap connectors for HDMI and SATA were a good idea needs a serious bitch-slap. When it makes USB connectors look robust, there's something WRONG with the design... I've lost count of the number of internal SATA connectors I've broken BOTH on the cable AND the drives. Makes me wish we were still using IPC's as I never once had ANY of the problems people reported with 'ripping drives and cards apart' wtih them.

It's bad enough to make you long for everything to use 4 pin DIN or D-Sub 9. But that's always the trend with connectors, just look at audio where EVERYTHING is the crappy breaks if you look at it wrong 1/8" instead of the good old rock solid reliable smack it with a hammer and it doesn't even chirp 1/4"
 
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