Macally G-S350SUAB2 manual Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1, What are SATA, SATA I, SATA II, eSATA any way? How are they related to G-S350SUAB2 enclosure?

A1: SATA stands for Serial ATA, in contrast to old Parallel ATA (IDE, EIDE, ATA and ATAPI) technology. SATA starts with 1.5Gb/s specification, and evolves to 3.0Gb/s specification, which is commonly referred to as SATA II. Hence, original SATA 1.5Gb/s is called SATA I to distinguish with SATA II 3.0Gb/s.

Initially SATA was designed as an internal or inside-the-box interface technology for storage device like HDD. Both SATA I and SATA II hard drives use plug and receptacle interface with “L” shaped key as shown below.

This connectors and cable(flat) with “L” shaped key support both SATA 1.5Gb/s and 3.0Gb/s, however the cable length is limited to 1m(around 3.3 feet) maximum. When this manual was written, majority of SATA ports provided by computers or add-on SATA host adapters are the receptacle with “L” shaped key.

As shown below, it is more and more common to find a new type of SATA receptacle in the system or PCI/ExpressCard host card and plug(without “L” shaped key), called eSATA. eSATA becomes a standard for external SATA peripherals. Our G-S350SUAB2 has eSATA port built in. Depending on the type of SATA port you have in the computer, please get the proper SATA cable to connect them.

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