Using laptop disk bay with extension cables?

Avoriaz

I have an Acer 8935g laptop. It has two x 2.5 inch disk bays. One bay is empty.

The bays are designed for 9.5 mm thick disks. Anything thicker will not physically fit. The second bay does work with a 500gb 9.5 mm disk so I know that the data and power sockets are live.

I have a few 1.5tb 13 mm thick 2.5 inch disks. I am currently limited to using them via USB2 and eSATA caddies. The laptop only has one eSATA socket so, when copying between two external disks, one disk is limited to USB2 speeds.

If I bought short male to female data and power cables, connected these to the sockets in the bay and connected them to a disk placed just beside the laptop, would the disk work properly or would the extra length of cable cause data problems? Also, might it overload the power supply?

If it works, then I can hopefully copy between external disks at faster speeds by connecting one via the bay and the other via an eSATA caddy.

I am assuming that the internal disk bay supports equal or higher speeds than eSATA. It will certainly be faster than USB2.

I am also assuming that the internal bay supports 1.5tb and can provide sufficient power for the 13mm disk. I do know that it won’t power a 3.5 inch disk.

I have nearly 1.5tb of data so speed is important. That currently takes over 18 hours via USB and eSATA external caddies. I can’t do it in stages as I am copying Sky+ programmes using ExPVR and the copy process must be uninterrupted.

Clearly answering all the above requires the appropriate technical knowledge and I would appreciate well informed answers.

Thanks.

S0litaire

Technically it should work with extension cables.
The extra few inches should not pose THAT big a problem to the laptop.

Try something like these:
Standard width SATA
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&safe=off&q=sata+power+cable+extension&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bpcl=35277026&biw=1841&bih=947&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=4637189177385349039&sa=X&ei=1op5UIq7MOS40QX-u4GYDQ&ved=0CGUQ8wIwAg

Slimline SATA connections : http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&safe=off&q=sata+power+cable+extension&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bpcl=35277026&biw=1841&bih=947&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=10502252276148447581&sa=X&ei=1op5UIq7MOS40QX-u4GYDQ&ved=0CHkQ8wIwBw

If you are worried about power, you can power the drives independently of the laptop (though that cuts down on the "portable" aspect!).
If your current external caddies have their own power block you can use the power from them instead of pulling it from the laptop! It's not nice and neat! (looks a mess with the cables and plugs everywhere!) but it's a solution ^_^

Avoriaz

Thanks for that. :beer:

Portability isn't a problem as my laptop never leaves the house.

I will try to find out the power requirements of the 13mm disks compared to a standard 9.5 mm disk.

My caddies don't have seperate power blocks but I do have a mains USB transformer that I should be able to get a power supply from if the laptop can't power it.

I'll get some cables and see if I can get it to work. I haven't lost much if it doesn't work.

Thanks again.

Avoriaz

I bought a 30cm combined data and power cable on Ebay for £3.50, connected it to the spare bay, attached a 13mm disk and powered up.

No problems. The laptop is happy with it.

It doubles the speed of my Sky backups. What used to take 18 hours with USB2 to eSATA now takes about 9 hours with eSATA to laptop second bay.

ExPVR Sky+ disk copying used to show between 13 and 16mbps. It now shows between 26 and 30mbps.

Thanks again for your advice. :beer:

S0litaire

No worries!

Glad everything is OK

closed

Why not leave it running overnight/while you are out or doing something else?