OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Storage => Topic started by: Per E. Johannessen on December 11, 2020, 04:43:12 pm

Title: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on December 11, 2020, 04:43:12 pm
I have a ThinkStation P520 with an eSATA port and I'm trying to find some "external SSD disk system" to connect to it.
All systems I find use either USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt. Preferably I'd like to have an external enclosure/cabinet that can hold one or two SSD's. Any ideas?
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: roberto on December 11, 2020, 05:10:29 pm
I have eSATA on my laptop, and it works like any other hard drive. The condition is that you connect the external disk, before turning on the computer, and disconnect it when turning it off.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on December 11, 2020, 06:03:18 pm
What external disk brand/model do you have?
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: ivan on December 11, 2020, 08:17:37 pm
I have an eSATA to SATA cable which I use to connect an SATA drive to my test computer.  That allows me to attach any size drive (largest I have used is 2TB).  The only drawback is that you need an external power supply for the drive, I am working on getting a power connector to attach to the computer to solve that problem.

Since we don't have hot swapping for drives the drive needs to be connected before the computer is switched on.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Doug Bissett on December 12, 2020, 09:00:34 am
Quote
I have a ThinkStation P520 with an eSATA port and I'm trying to find some "external SSD disk system" to connect to it.
All systems I find use either USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt. Preferably I'd like to have an external enclosure/cabinet that can hold one or two SSD's. Any ideas?

I have two Nexstar enclosures, with e-Sata. One has USB 2, and the other has USB 3. I usually use USB, because e-Sata is "inconvenient" most of the time. You do need to have the device attached at boot time, or it won't be recognized. The disk that is inside can be SSD, or HDD. SSD prices have dropped, so they are now a good option (more for resistance to shock, than for speed). Performance will depend a lot on exactly what you are doing with it (the same is true for internal disks).

I would seriously question why you would want more than one physical disk in a single enclosure. If there is a hardware RAID, it may make sense (OS/2 doesn't know about RAID, so it needs to be hardware controlled, if you use it). Then again, there are better ways to do that, without spending a lot of cash.

Quote
I have eSATA on my laptop, and it works like any other hard drive. The condition is that you connect the external disk, before turning on the computer, and disconnect it when turning it off.

Well, not quite. E-Sata, and Sata, are both "hot plug" technologies, You do not need to have power off to physically connect/disconnect them. You do, need to have the device attached at boot time, or the driver will never "see" it. You cannot eject the drive dynamically either. There is no way (in OS/2) to eject it (without shutting down), however, you CAN power it off, and turn it back on later, just don't try to use it while it is off, and don't try to shut down, or re-boot without turning it on again. I don't recommend doing it, but it does work (it can take a LONG time to do a CHKDSK on a 1 TB drive, when it isn't properly closed out).

In fact, there is a program that does partly eject the drive, so you can turn it off, and don't need to worry about shut down, or re-boot. I am NOT going to suggest it, because it is not very user friendly, and it would be easy to lose data, if you are not careful. It can re-mount an e-Sata disk that was mounted at boot time, but it can't mount a disk that wasn't attached at boot time.

I did some tests with the USB 3 device. Doing a copy with RSync using USB 3, and e-Sata (same device). The speed (as displayed by RSync) was almost identical.

Quote
That allows me to attach any size drive (largest I have used is 2TB

The largest physical disk that OS/2 can support (currently)  is 2 TB. You can get larger disks, but OS/2 can't use them (yet). I am not even sure that you can make a larger one work, by limiting the available size to 2 TB. I do know that work is being done to fix that problem, but it is not one of the high priority projects.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: roberto on December 12, 2020, 02:14:29 pm
What external disk brand/model do you have?
It does not seem to me that it is a problem of the disc, if not of the feeding. As Ivan told you. I use an e-sata cable with a usb booster just to have more amps as booster. The disk is a small one from a normal 2 1/2" laptop not ssd. It is not a large disk 3 1/2" that possibly needs more power and this cable that I am telling you is insufficient.
https://www.ebay.es/itm/USB-Power-Data-Cable-for-2-5-HDD-SATA-Hard-Disk-Drive-22Pin-to-eSATA-50CM/402579530540?hash=item5dbb9c232c:g:2DsAAOSwViVfv6Md
saludos
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Pete on December 12, 2020, 03:01:11 pm
Hi Per

I have an Icy Box external disk enclosure, model IB-351StU3S-B, which has both USB3 and eSATA connection options - see https://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/Icy-Box-IB-351StU3-B-35-inch-HDD-Enclosure-USB-30-Black_48539.html

It is for 3.5" disks but should be possible to find or make some sort of 3.5" to 2.5" adaptor.

As others have pointed out eSATA disks need to be already attached at boot time so the disk is treated as a standard SATA drive - hot plug and eject are missing from our OS. Now that we have USB3 that is the preferred connection option here for convenience.


Regards

Pete

Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on December 12, 2020, 03:54:46 pm
Thanks to all for info.

Doug, I had hardware controlled RAID in mind when mentioning an enclosure for 2 disks.
Not really necessary, just that I'd like to try it.

Pete, I was actually looking at various Icy Box disk enclosures but couldn't find any wth eSATA.

Anyway, both of you mentioned USB 3 so I think I'll go for that.

Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Andi B. on December 12, 2020, 06:41:52 pm
I've an internal Fantec enclosure where I can insert 3.5" and 2.5" SATA disks. Maybe you can find an external one. Mine works very well with 3,5" disks but has some compatibility problems with different 2.5" SSDs. Not what you're looking for but USB3 is terrible slow compared to that. About 5-10 times slower. Regarding the discussion at the testers group about USB transfer speed it seems we can never get more than about 20MB/s. Although I can't believe it this is what David has to say about that. While with other OSes write/read speed to USB3 attached disks is only limited by the disk speed, for us it stays at about 18MB/s (same as with USB2 and even slower as with old USB2 drivers a few years ago). Of course all measurements made with the same system and same disk and same connector/cable.....
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Doug Bissett on December 12, 2020, 08:38:26 pm
Quote
Regarding the discussion at the testers group about USB transfer speed it seems we can never get more than about 20MB/s

I have seen a little faster than 20 MB/s, with the AN USB X driver. It all depends on whether the connectors work properly ( (A type, especially, are very marginal), which USB 3 adapter I use, and which device. Most devices just won't go as fast as USB 3 is supposed to go (you are lucky if they do 20% of what they should do). That usually has nothing to do with the driver, most of the time, it is the device (some controllers aren't worth even trying too). You also need to remember, that USB write, is always slower than USB read (usually half). There is also a feature (called "USB BOOST", on my machine), that helps USB speed, when the OS knows about it. I think that needs some sort of support from the OS. It also needs to be enabled in the BIOS.

FWIW, I don't get more than 20 GB/s using e-Sata either. It can be affected by how fast the (e-)Sata controller is designed to run. It also depends on how you measure the speed. There are many things that can affect it (including the cable length). On disk cache seems to be important.

Quote
About 5-10 times slower.

This is almost guaranteed to be a bad USB connector. 5 -10 times slower indicates that you are connecting to the HS controller, not the SS controller. There is a tool, supplied to the Arca Noae testers, that tells you exactly how a device is connected. It seems to be essential to be able to adjust the connectors so they actually work. Unfortunately, there are no plans (that I know of) to release that tool to the users (they probably don't want to support it). There is a tool, by the same name, that does something similar in windows. It is called USBTREE, if anybody wants to give it a shot. I have no idea if it is actually the same program, and I haven't tried it myself. YMMV.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on December 12, 2020, 08:57:46 pm
Well, that's a surprise to me. I never thought that we would achieve USB 3 transfer speeds that the hardware manufacturers lists as max speeds but only 20% of what they should be able do is very disappointing.
Slow, or not, I will eventually need an external USB 3 drive and will also continue trying to find eSATA solution.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Doug Bissett on December 13, 2020, 05:03:20 am
Well, that's a surprise to me. I never thought that we would achieve USB 3 transfer speeds that the hardware manufacturers lists as max speeds but only 20% of what they should be able do is very disappointing.
Slow, or not, I will eventually need an external USB 3 drive and will also continue trying to find eSATA solution.

It is disappointing, but not surprising. USB has always had the problem where manufacturers don't follow the rules, and build product that doesn't even come close to what the specs say they should be. When they say it is "USB3", people just assume that they will run at USB 3 design speed. It isn't so. I have had very good results with my (Vantec) NexStar  enclosures (I usually use Seagate drives in them), but the cheap USB sticks are mostly garbage (not unusable, but some are pretty close). Even the more expensive sticks are not built to run at design speed. There are a few sticks that do run near design speed, but they are very expensive, and I find it difficult to justify even thinking about them. Watch the specs closely, or you can waste your money. If they don't tell you the specs, it is probably not as good as they lead you to believe. "Expensive" doesn't always mean faster, and/or more reliable.

FWIW, my newest enclosure is a Vantec NexStar 6G device. That one is USB (3) only. The one that has e-Sata, and USB (3) is a Vantec NexStar 6G too. They are both for 3.5 inch disks. There are similar models for 2.5 inch disks, and they would be more suitable for SSD drives. It seems that e-Sata has never become popular, probably because it is more difficult to handle than USB drives. E-Sata does have the advantage that they are built closer to the e-Sata design specs, so they are more likely to work as advertised.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Andi B. on December 13, 2020, 12:07:33 pm
Quote
Quote
    About 5-10 times slower.
This is almost guaranteed to be a bad USB connector. 5 -10 times slower indicates that you are connecting to the HS controller, not the SS controller. There is a tool, supplied to the Arca Noae testers, that tells you exactly how a device is connected. It seems to be essential to be able to adjust the connectors so they actually work.

No, definitely no. I clearly said in that thread that it is the same system, the same connector, the same disk and reproducible. Probably I don't even disconnected the cable/disk between rebooting/testing. And I posted the output of the tool.

We had more than enough of all that unrelated general talking about USB defects in that thread. (I don't need them I know USB is crap. But it's a fact it only behaves so slow and bad with our OS, not with others. No that's not bashing, that's telling the truth.) And David explained in that thread that we should not think that we can get any better values. It is what it is and it will not be faster in the future. I can't believe it and still hope he didn't read carefully enough what I wrote and my findings. Maybe David got lost in that thread cause you Doug used that thread for general, unrelated USB bashing and bubbling about connectors and .... Maybe sometimes it's better to stay on topic instead discuss hardly related off topic things. Sorry that I by myself didn't follow this advice in this thread. Promise that I'll do better in future.

Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on December 13, 2020, 05:28:07 pm
Roberto,  I meant to ask for the brand/model of the disk cabinet/enclosure, sorry for being unclear.
I see now that you don't use any external enclosure at all so I'll try to get such a cable that you mentioned.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: roberto on December 13, 2020, 10:12:42 pm
The disk I use is a 8455mb thosiba, MQ01ABD100, 2 1/2 "
But like I told you before, that is not important. As the ones I use are from old computers, they are ready to use in os2, like jfs, plug and play. If not, you will have to prepare it as when you install the system.
Saludos
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Pete on December 15, 2020, 02:29:18 am
Hi Per

Sorry, I see that Icy Box dropped eSATA support from that enclosure at some point - I have exactly that model but *with* eSATA capability - see attached photo - IcyBox.png - of part of box clearly showing USB3.0/eSATA capability.

Maybe you will find 1 on ebay...


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on December 15, 2020, 04:22:42 am
Thanks, Pete.
For now I've ordered a similar cable as the one Roberto is using.
Will keep searching for an external eSATA enclosure though. Based on the comments that USB 3.0 is slow on our platform it's even more important.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: ivan on December 15, 2020, 08:24:11 am
Hi Per,

Just remember that cable gets the power for the drive from the USB connector and is therefore designed for 2.5 inch SSD drives - DON'T try and use it with a 3.5 inch drive, you will burn out the USB connector supplying the power and, depending on the computer design, maybe all the USB ports.

Did that and finished up having to replace the motherboard. 

Edit:
Though I should add a picture to show my cabling with a 3.5 inch drive (the red cable is a eSATA socket to be added to the new computer I'm building).
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Andi B. on December 15, 2020, 02:51:56 pm
FANTEC has a few on their site f.i. 225U3eSATAp-6G or fanbox FB-C25US2 or DB-228U3e. See
https://www.fantec.de/produkte/speicherprodukte/ssd-festplattengehaeuse/25-zoll-festplattengehaeuse/
But I hardly find shops where one of them is on stock.

There are more offers for 3.5" disks but as you're looking for SSD here are a few others -
https://geizhals.at/?cat=gehhd&xf=840_eSATA~840_eSATAp&asuch=&bpmin=&bpmax=&v=e&hloc=at&plz=&dist=&mail=&fcols=339&sort=p&bl1_id=30
or this one as overview without the 2.5" filter -
https://geizhals.at/?cat=gehhd&xf=840_eSATA

Didn't try one by myself though. Be aware, with OS/2 you need to attach the eSATA drive before booting. Think someone said it before but for me this is a big drawback compared to other OSes. 
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on December 15, 2020, 08:03:59 pm
Thanks Ivan, I'm going to use SSD's, but good to know.

Thanks for links Andi.
I noticed that they mention eSATAp so they get power over eSATA and my system does only have eSATA port.

Anyway, I've asked a local computer reseller to come up with a solution.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Andi B. on December 16, 2020, 10:16:46 am
I noticed that they mention eSATAp so they get power over eSATA and my system does only have eSATA port.
I read that if no power is delivered over eSATA(p) then it works like eSATA. Power has to come over another channel then - external power supply or preferable USB. But again, I didn't test until now. Maybe the user manual of such device has something to say about that 'not so unusual' situation.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on March 23, 2021, 07:19:55 pm
Just FYI,

I ended up with these:
 1 x USB 3.0 / eSATA Dual-Bay Trayless 3.5” SATA III Hard Drive
https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/s352bu33rer
and for using SSD's with it
2 x 2.5” to 3.5” SATA Aluminum Hard Drive Adapter Enclosure
https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/25sat35hdd

eSATA works fine but I have some issues with USB3 on this system.
(I've created at ticket about that AOS)
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Martin Iturbide on March 23, 2021, 07:49:09 pm
Thanks Per.

I know I may be annoying sometimes, but I made these two wiki pages:
- StarTech USB 3.0 / eSATA Dual-Bay Trayless 3.5” SATA III Hard Drive (https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/StarTech_USB_3.0_/_eSATA_Dual-Bay_Trayless_3.5%E2%80%9D_SATA_III_Hard_Drive)
- StarTech 2.5” to 3.5” SATA Aluminum Hard Drive Adapter Enclosure (https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/StarTech_2.5%E2%80%9D_to_3.5%E2%80%9D_SATA_Aluminum_Hard_Drive_Adapter_Enclosure)

Let me know if you want to add more about it, tricks, ArcaOS tweaks, rating, hardwareID, anything :)

Noob question, how eSATA works on ArcaOS? With the OS2AHCI driver?

Regards
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on March 23, 2021, 09:19:38 pm
Hi Martin,

Not annoying at all, I appreciate your work at os2world.com :)

Had no need install any drivers, the external SATA uses same driver as the internal SATA disks.

Had to create a volume when connected via USB as Airboot refused to boot when an empty/unpartioned disk was connected through eSATA.
After creating the volume and rebooting, using the eSATA cable, the drive behaves like any other internal SATA disk.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Martin Iturbide on March 24, 2021, 01:46:22 am
Sorry, I see that Icy Box dropped eSATA support from that enclosure at some point - I have exactly that model but *with* eSATA capability - see attached photo - IcyBox.png - of part of box clearly showing USB3.0/eSATA capability.

Hi Pete

I had also added your device on the wiki: Icy Box IB-351StU3S-B 3.5-inch HDD Enclosure USB 3.0 - Black (https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Icy_Box_IB-351StU3S-B_3.5-inch_HDD_Enclosure_USB_3.0_-_Black)

Let me know if you want to add something.

Thanks
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Pete on March 25, 2021, 05:19:43 pm
Hi Martin

I think you should mention the following

   1] eSATA works as per SATA ie must power off system to eject drive.

   2] eSATA support was dropped at some point, I do not know when.


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Doug Bissett on March 25, 2021, 08:05:31 pm
Quote
1] eSATA works as per SATA ie must power off system to eject drive.

Not true. SATA and eSATA, are both hot plug technologies. Power off is not required to physically attach, or detach, either one. In OS/2 you MUST close out the file systems before detaching them (shut down the system). You can attach them, at any time, but in OS/2 you must reboot to get them recognized.

Note that some systems have a physical connector for eSATA, and the BIOS should, automatically, recognize that port as being for eSATA. Other systems may use an adapter (or just a cable) that plugs into a normal SATA connector on the motherboard. In that case, the BIOS should have a setting to tell it that the port is used with eSATA (but that doesn't seem to exist in all cases). In fact, that is only used with operating systems that recognize that eSATA can be plugged in, at any time, so it is irrelevant to OS/2.

I am not familiar with eSATA(p), so I don't know how the connector gets power for the external device. The devices, that I have, all use their own power source.

Quote
2] eSATA support was dropped at some point, I do not know when.

Not true. All that was dropped is the built in eSATA connectors. You can still use eSATA devices connected to normal SATA ports (see above).
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: ivan on March 25, 2021, 10:19:51 pm
Quote
I am not familiar with eSATA(p), so I don't know how the connector gets power for the external device. The devices, that I have, all use their own power source.

In all the systems I have seen the eSATA socket is beside a USB socket and in a couple of cases the manuals stated that the eSATA was for use with a 2.5inch drive powered from the USB socket - in fact one of them came with the connecting cable rather like the SATA/USB unit in the attached picture except the prime connector was eSATA with the USB power hanging off it.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Martin Iturbide on March 26, 2021, 12:19:59 am

Quote
2] eSATA support was dropped at some point, I do not know when.

Not true. All that was dropped is the built in eSATA connectors. You can still use eSATA devices connected to normal SATA ports (see above).

Hi

I think that what Pete means is that newer versions of the Icy Box dropped the eSATA support and replaced it for USB3. Did I get it right?

Regards
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Pete on March 26, 2021, 12:25:13 am
Hi Doug

We are discussing an external drive case that used to have eSATA and USB3 sockets but which now only has USB3 socket - so there is no longer an option to use it as eSATA drive, it is now USB only.


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Doug Bissett on March 26, 2021, 01:56:21 am
Quote
We are discussing an external drive case that used to have eSATA and USB3 sockets but which now only has USB3 socket - so there is no longer an option to use it as eSATA drive, it is now USB only.

I assume you mean an updated version of a drive enclosure, not one that magically removed it's existing eSATA connector  ???. You can still get eSATA enclosures (also with USB 3), but you need to watch what you order. Most vendors list the version with only USB first, because the eSATA costs more, and not many people even know what eSATA is.

eSATA has definitely NOT gone away, although USB 3 is giving it a good run for the money. If they ever get the quality of USB devices under control (apparently not even considered, in most cases), USB may end up replacing eSATA. Currently, I see no evidence that the companies who care about quality, are abandoning eSATA.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Martin Iturbide on March 26, 2021, 04:25:21 pm
I assume you mean an updated version of a drive enclosure, not one that magically removed it's existing eSATA connector  ???.

Hi Doug.
Let's remember that we have people from all around the world on this forum, and sometime how we express the ideas may not  clear, and sometimes even for a native english speaker some mistakes may occur in text communication. I try my best with my written english here.

About eSATA, as a external device port, my opinion is that is loosing on the market (or maybe already lost). For what I see newer ICY BOX enclosures now has USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt. And when you ask the common people, they possible know what the USB port is, but not about eSATA.  But as part of the OS/2 community, eSATA may be working better than USB 3, today. So, I understand why we should defend that kind of port until the USB 3 driver evolve and provide better functionality for external disk drives. But the good thing seems to be that SATA is not going away yet, and eSATA is just the external port implementation.  (Maybe tomorrow NVMe will kick me in the face)

Quote
Currently, I see no evidence that the companies who care about quality, are abandoning eSATA.
Maybe for SATA enclosures you don't see that. But what about the newer things with the M.2 ports? I see a mix of products between that only support USB 3, while some other came with USB 3 and eSATA. Maybe at the end the market will prefer USB 3 and manufacturer will found the eSATA port (for this enclosures) irrelevant.

Regards
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Doug Bissett on March 27, 2021, 04:07:35 am
eSATA has never been completely supported by any OS. that I know about. Even windows will usually refuse to eject it, until the system is shut down. For those who understand it, eSATA is a far better technology than USB, but lack of proper support makes it difficult to use.

NVME is a storage technology, related to SATA  (or eSATA, which is really just SATA with a different connector), or IDE. M2 and NVME are just other interfaces to storage technology. Which one will win the race, is yet to be seen.

In years past, there was the "winprinter' controversy. Today, "winprinter" is all that is available, because people didn't understand the difference (other than price). Pay double for a computer powerful enough to do the job, and save a little on the printer. This is really no different.

Manufacturers are going to choose the cheapest alternative, and they usually don't care if that alternative even works properly (and many of the new technologies don't work all that well). The only thing that will stop that nonsense is if users refuse to buy inferior technology. Most users have no idea what technology their computers use, so it isn't going to happen.

Quote
About eSATA, as a external device port, my opinion is that is loosing on the market (or maybe already lost).

No, it is not, yet, lost. You just need to watch for the option when you buy something that can use it. You do not need a specific eSATA port, it will connect to normal SATA ports, if you have an adapter (just a cable), or even just a cable with the appropriate ends on it. The killer, as mentioned above, is lack of support for mount/dismount, and that is not unique to OS/2 (and the cost, of course).

USB 3 is definitely going to take a chunk out of the market, because speed is no longer a serious difference. If they ever get USB quality under control, it may be the end of eSATA. I don't see that happening any time soon, but if the market goes away, so will the devices.

Quote
But as part of the OS/2 community, eSATA may be working better than USB 3, today.

Not from what I see. I have two eSATA devices. One has a USB 2 connector, which is definitely slower than eSATA. The other has USB 3. Running the exact same job runs so close to the same speed, that I can't tell which is faster. USB is somewhat easier to use, because of the mount/dismount requirements for eSATA. Which is better depends on exactly what you are doing with the device.

Having said all of that, yes USB does have some problems, that are being addressed. The biggest problem is that USB is often very poor quality devices, and that makes it very difficult to make every one of them work well, with any OS.

The race is still on. It is up to the consumer to determine which technology wins. Meanwhile, we need more drivers to make some of the new things work with OS/2. I know that NVME is almost ready. Nobody is working on making eSATA mount/dismount work, although there is a half way solution, if you want to mess around with it (not worth the effort, from what I see).
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Greg Pringle on March 27, 2021, 12:45:42 pm
M.2 is NMVE and so is U.2 I have been installing U.2 servers and I can say that SATA does not hold a candle to it. A 1 gig U.2 is around $350 but comes in enterprise class and is hot swapable. The one issue is how to raid these devices. Not really possible at the moment. But is it needed? I have some enterprise SATA drives online for over 14 years that are used heavily for small files 7 days a week without a single failure. The other downside is the only way to use the U.2 at present is with a rack server which has the correct backplane. I currently use linux (suse 15) for this. I have a number of instances of a java based database I wrote running on various platforms. (Win, OS/2, LInux, AS/400) I had reached a bottleneck with SATA drives with very heavy use. Now with U.2 the applications look like there is no load on them. I am eager to see NVME on OS/2.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Andi B. on March 27, 2021, 05:15:30 pm
Quote
eSATA has never been completely supported by any OS. that I know about. Even windows will usually refuse to eject it, until the system is shut down. For those who understand it, eSATA is a far better technology than USB, but lack of proper support makes it difficult to use.
That's not true. I told you this in another thread before. Maybe on YOUR Win system you can not eject. Or maybe YOUR antivirus program do not allow to eject. Or any other thing on YOUR system inhibits eject. But this is not a Win problem per see. The Win system I tested can eject eSATA drives without problems (not from the popup menu of the drive but from the icon in the lower right corner).

I don't know if different *nix systems have problems with eSATA like our platform have. I'm pretty sure they don't. Maybe some *nix user can comment on this.

Repeating false myths about other OSes doesn't help us. It's our OS which have problems with attach and eject eSATA drives during operation. Not a common problem with other OSes and not a general problem with eSATA.

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The other has USB 3. Running the exact same job runs so close to the same speed, that I can't tell which is faster.
For the system I tested this is only true when I boot Win7. Running the same system with OS/2/ArcaOS the difference between USB3 (Intel and Renesas chips) and (e)SATA harddisks is significant. Maybe with 'slow' disks our slow USB(3) throughput (OS/2/ArcaOS) does not show up. But with my disks and both tested, internal Intel USB3 chip set and PCIe card with Renesas chip, the difference is huge.
Title: Re: eSata
Post by: Dave Yeo on March 27, 2021, 06:01:29 pm
Judging by how easy it is to unmount a file system on Linux, I can't imagine a problem unmounting a eSATA drive.