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wallaby

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
514
143
Iowa
Was just wondering if anyone had a backup setup with an eSATA connection to their Mac. I'm thinking about getting an eSATA expresscard, 500GB HD, and 3.5" eSATA enclosure to go with my Macbook Pro, but I wondered if anyone already had this setup and how successful it is (vs. buying firewire external hard drives).
 
works fine

I have external enclosure with eSATA and connect to macbook pro using eSATA express-card. It works fine.

Only downside is , you can not boot from external drive if its connected via eSATA. OS X and macbook pro's firmware are not set-up to do this. So, if you want fast bootable external drive for your macbook pro you need to use firewire 800 or usb connection.

Best thing would be to be eSATA+firewire 800 enclosure. :p Use eSATA when you don't need to boot from external as its faster than firewire. Use firewire 800 connection when you need to boot from external.
 
Check out OWC's great enclosures at www.macsales.com

I use their Mercury Elite esata dual drive model with my PM G5. They have another model of the Mercury that has both eSATA and FW4/800. OWC's stuff has been highly regarded on these forums. :)

They're products are high quality, however you should only buy ram from them as it either works or doesn't, as something as simple as a SATA cable broken in shipping or a production defect case is apparently the user's fault. They're customer service is awful. Good product though if you're lucky to get one that works.

I use a 1TB 7200RPM FD-GreenDrive via eSATA on my 17" MacBook Pro for professional audio applications such as Logic Studio. Good buy with lower power consumption perfect for regulated power systems with audio electronics. Happy computing.
 
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