I am currently running three Sonnet 500P eSATA enclosures on a Dell
server using a 4-port Addonics eSATA PCI-X card.
Everything works very well and has been very reliable. However,
recently I had to do some maintenance on some adjacent hardware, and
merely brushed against the eSATA cables. Two of the three Sonnets
went offline! Thanks to RAID, no data or access was lost, but it took
a long time for the RAID mirroring to rebuild, during which time a
drive failure could have meant loss of data.
Are there better, higher quality PCI-X eSATA cards out there that have
better eSATA connectors? The connectors on the Addonics, while they
work, do not result in any sort of satisfying "snap" sound when cables
are plugged into them.
I've found big differences in cables themselves as to how hard it is to
pull them off. I have one that just about slides off by itself and
another that I smashed a cap off my video card with when it finally came
loose.
---
Ed Light
Previously TomViolin <TomViolin@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am currently running three Sonnet 500P eSATA enclosures on a Dell
> server using a 4-port Addonics eSATA PCI-X card.
> Everything works very well and has been very reliable. However,
> recently I had to do some maintenance on some adjacent hardware, and
> merely brushed against the eSATA cables. Two of the three Sonnets
> went offline! Thanks to RAID, no data or access was lost, but it took
> a long time for the RAID mirroring to rebuild, during which time a
> drive failure could have meant loss of data.
> Are there better, higher quality PCI-X eSATA cards out there that have
> better eSATA connectors? The connectors on the Addonics, while they
> work, do not result in any sort of satisfying "snap" sound when cables
> are plugged into them.
> Any shared ideas or experience is very welcome.
Personally I think both the SATA and eSATA connectors
show all the signs of ''design by comitee''. Even gigh
quality variants are pretty bad. For eSATA I typically
need several tries to figure out which way it gies in
as it is non-obvious and there is no good conector guidance.
Cheap, badly designed PC connectors. What else is new. PC
hardwar sucks, but alternatives are either not available or
far too expensive.
>I am currently running three Sonnet 500P eSATA enclosures on a Dell
>server using a 4-port Addonics eSATA PCI-X card.
>
>Everything works very well and has been very reliable. However,
>recently I had to do some maintenance on some adjacent hardware, and
>merely brushed against the eSATA cables. Two of the three Sonnets
>went offline! Thanks to RAID, no data or access was lost, but it took
>a long time for the RAID mirroring to rebuild, during which time a
>drive failure could have meant loss of data.
>
>Are there better, higher quality PCI-X eSATA cards out there that have
>better eSATA connectors? The connectors on the Addonics, while they
>work, do not result in any sort of satisfying "snap" sound when cables
>are plugged into them.
>
>Any shared ideas or experience is very welcome.
I am using a 2-port SiI3132 (Silicon Image) PCI-X eSATAII
card (they make a 4-port). I know what you mean about the
"feel", but I have had no problems even when I have moved
the computer around on the desk.
TomViolin wrote in news:ad550655-cbf8-42f1-a78f-c6f777c697bd@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com
> I am currently running three Sonnet 500P eSATA enclosures on a Dell
> server using a 4-port Addonics eSATA PCI-X card.
> Everything works very well and has been very reliable.
Apparently not.
> However, recently I had to do some maintenance on some adjacent
> hardware, and merely brushed against the eSATA cables.
> Two of the three Sonnets went offline!
See.
> Thanks to RAID, no data or access was lost,
Sounds more like a case of 'despite it being RAID, no data or access was lost'.
> but it took a long time for the RAID mirroring to rebuild,
> during which time a drive failure could have meant loss of data.
If it hadn't been RAID you probably wouldn't have noticed anything
at all.
>
> Are there better, higher quality PCI-X eSATA cards out there that have
> better eSATA connectors? The connectors on the Addonics, while they
> work, do not result in any sort of satisfying "snap" sound when cables
> are plugged into them.
>
> Any shared ideas or experience is very welcome.
Quality eSATA PCI card and cables? 
Linear Mode
