I like the GoFlex system and looked forward to increasing the transfer speed when connected to my home desktop by using this eSATA cable rather than USB 2.0. No such luck with my machine. You have to have a powered "eSATAp" port on your machine. Many eSATA ports are not powered, even on fancy expensive motherboards. Since the portable GoFlex (2.5") drives do not use AC adapters like the desktop ones, thus depending on the cable for power, you must have an eSATAp port. These are also referred to as eSATA/USB Combo ports. Time to buy an USB 3.0 card for my computer. Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable Powered eSATA - STAE103
This is a good product provided you and your equipment can get by the gotchas.
1. The cable is NOT eSATA. It is eSATAp. eSATAp is a combo USB/eSATA port found on newer portables. Regular eSATA ports found on desktops are NOT powered. I use mine between my tower and notebook.
2. The cable is short.
3. You can buy a PCIe card with eSATAp port(s) but the cable will likely be too short.
4. You could opt for the USB 3.0 version if you have USB 3.0 ports. You can add a PCIe card with USB 3. port(s) but the cable may be too short. I went this route with WD Passports but the USB cable was too short and proprietary. If the USB 3.0 cable is standard and removable, you may be able to add a longer regular USB cable.
5. I have found and ordered after much searching an adapter cable that plugs into the both a vacant USB and eSATA and port and then combines the two into what I hope is a female eSATAp port. If it works, it will solve both the power and cable length issues. This puppy is called a BYTECC USB + eSATA to USB/eSATA Cable. Hope it works.
EDIT: 12/09/2010 - My BYTECC 18" USB + eSATA to USB/eSATA Cable Model USATA-118UE arrived today and it works. And it works well for me as my notebook has an eSATAp port so I have a one cable solution. I think this is the way to go other than adding a USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card..
I bought mine at opentip.com. An Amazon supplier, Zagall has it right here: USATA-118UE 18" USB + eSATA to USB/eSATA Cable NewEgg has it too.
This interface option is well worth the price. I wanted a fast portable external drive and the eSATA plug for the GoFlex drive is an excellent solution. On Windows 7, using USB 2.0 (I don't have USB 3.0 but do have built in eSATA) I was getting about 26MB/second. With the eSATA plug I am getting 78MB/second for a group of files, almost 3 times as fast. While I realize that SATA has a much higher maximum throughput, 3Gb/second, 2.5" drives do not. The applications that heavily access the drive seem to run as fast as they do on the internal drive.
Pros: Speed, convenience, price
Cons: I would like the cord to be a little longer or to be replaceable.
Our Dell Latitude E6410 laptop has a combo USB/eSATA port. We bought the Seagate GoFlex hard drive from Costco, and bought the eSATA connector online. This is worth the additional $20. We rely on transfer speed, and the difference between USB and eSATA is night and day.
I've read about compatibility issues with various laptops. Yes, this eSATA connector is a one plug unit. Meaning the only way it's connected and powered is through the eSATA cable. You need to check your system whether the eSATA port is capable of powering a system. I cannot confirm this, but if your port is a dual eSATA/USB port then you should be safe. This unit does work with a Dell Latitude E6410. I would also say that it works with the Latitude E6400/6500 series as well. I cannot confirm if it works with desktop eSATA plugs.
I can't rate this product (but I am required to select a rating in order to enter a comment) because I never got it to work on my Dell XPS 420 desktop computer. I just bought three GoFlex drives that I use with the supplied USB 2.0 cable for external data backup. I wanted to get more performance out of one by using the eSATA connection on my Dell 420. I ordered this product, but when it did not work, I Googled the issue and it turns out some people had to reinstall their operating system with a certain parameter set to make this work on the Dell 420. No way was I going to do that! So I reluctantly returned the upgrade cable.
Bought this to go with the 500 GB GoFLex pro Hard drive for my Windows based computer with Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit version. I have a Sony Vaio model # VPCF115FM and it was plug and play. Works better then expected after reading other reviews. I would recommend this to anyone that is looking for an eSATA portable hard drive and wants really fast hook up.
I purchased this cable to help me quickly backup my data. However, while backing up large numbers of files the connection dies and the computer no longer 'sees' the drive. After contacting Seagate they confirm that it is a common issue with the cable and a replacement would probably still have the same problem. I was very disappointed given how expensive the cable is. - Freeagent - Seagate - External Hard Drive - External Storage'
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