[wellylug] USB 3.0 via PCI-e, & SATA HDD enclosures/docks

[David Antliff]

On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 15:32, Daniel Reurich wrote:
> On Tue, 2011-07-05 at 15:04 +1200, David Antliff wrote:
>> I also understand that some controllers have problems with
>> hot-plugging, and I definitely need hot-plugging ability. Perhaps
>> there's an eSATA PCI or PCI-e card you can recommend that is known to
>> have Linux support for hot-plugging?
>>
> Most recent SATA-300 and later chipsets are fine with it.  If your
> maninboard has an e-sata port it will be all good.  Just remember to
> properly unmount the disk before you power it down/unplug it.  If their
> is a risk it will be hot unplugged without unmounting it then mount it
> with the "sync" option reduce the risk of FS corruption.

I'm not sure the mainboard has, or supports eSATA, so I'd be stuck
with a PCI or PCI-e card I think. I don't have the motherboard ID on
hand, but I can tell you it's an Athlon 64 3400+, probably a good 4 or
5 years old. I doubt it supports hot-plugging of the native SATA
ports.

Presumably if the Adapter card supports hot-plugging, then Linux takes
care of the rest via udev? Is it possible for an adapter card to
support hot-plugging if the mainboard & BIOS do not?

So the question is, which eSATA adapter cards are suitable? You say
"most", but I don't really want to take a shot in the dark here :)
First-hand experience from list readers is what I'm after here.


> The e-sata cables are different, but most e-sata drives will come with
> both the cable and a pci-slot bracket to patch it to internal sata
> ports.
>
>> Would you (or anyone) happen to be able to recommend a good (reliable)
>> eSATA external "dock"?
>
> Sure.  Do you want just a dock you can plug the bare disks in, or do you
> want fully enclose caddies.


Ideally something to simply plug bare disks into, perhaps something like this:

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=381917

Fundamentally, I want to be able to walk up to the machine, un-mount
the disk, remove it, slot in a replacement, mount it, and walk away.
Then cron/scripts will take over and begin the backup (or restoration)
automatically, until I revisit it the next day. I'll have a number of
disks, so I don't really want enclosed caddies for all of them, so a
dock suits best I think.

Thanks for your help,

-- David.