eSata into iMac/External Enclosure help

[Philberttheduck]

Can anyone explain to me what eSata is and if it can connect to my intel iMac? It says I don't need a firewire/usb2.0 with an eSata but I'm afraid I don't have an adapter for it. 3GBs sounds unheard of.

Also, assuming I can't hook it up to my iMac, can anyone direct me to a good firewire enclosure with its compatible hardrive (preferably 250) in separate links? I'm looking at OfficeMax's deal on a 89.99 250GB Seagate and wondering if it would work in MacAlly (or any better ones)'s firewire enclosures.

Thx.

 

[robbieduncan]

eSATA is External SATA. No current Mac ships with an eSATA port so you cannot connect an eSATA enclosure to a Mac. Note that the 3Gbps is a max speed: a single drive is not likely to be able to sustain this.

 

[allenhuffman]

Using eSATA/SATA on a FireWire Mac

There are tons of solutions to plug SATA devices up via USB, but I have only found two that work with FireWire (so far). A $30 solution for one drive, and a $129 solution for two drives. Neither support Port Multiplier cases, so you can't get the $30 adapter and use it with a cheap 4-bay eSATA enclosure, alas.

For future reference (even though this post is years old), I link to my extensive post on this subject:

http://web.me.com/allenhuffman/Appl...17_FireWire_to_SATA_adapters_for_the_Mac.html

CoolDrives.com has the $30 USB/FireWire400 to SATA device (and a $60 version that provides a second passthru FireWire port), and FirmTek has their SpyderHub (which they only make for their own enclosures, so it may not really work with others).