Windows 7 Arriving Today! So I joined. LOL

Just by luck I found this site. I have Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit coming today! So I joined up quick!

I custom build all my own PCs, but this will be the first 64 bit system on Windows 7 OS.

I have 6 hard drives, but only 4 SATA and 2 eSATA ports on my MB. Can you hook SATA drives into eSata ports?

I'm sure I will have plenty of questions, so thanks for all those who have gone before me.

Hey, welcome!

Offhand I can't tell you for a fact, but I'm sure there might be some form of adapter to use the eSata ports with SATA drives.
Or there's always add-on PCI controllers that can add storage ports.

So what are the specs of the new machine you'll be putting 64 bit on? Cool.

Quick search on Google found this:

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...rking-_-322170

So ya, there are adapters.

Yes you can, there are cables that are the L-shaped SATA connector on one end and the eSATA I-shaped connector on the other.

eBay is a good place to buy them as they are quite inexpensive there and in various lengths too.

SilverFox, welcome to the forum! Oh how I wished I had those extra eSATA ports on my MB! There may be the possibility that you can buy a hard drive case with an eSATA fitting built in. My Seagate backup drive case has such a fitting, do some checking around on Newegg, or eBay, you may find one. That way, all you'll need is the cable to plug from your MB to the drive case.

Nibiru is really good at finding these parts, he suggested one for me, but since I don't have an eSATA port to plug into, I use USB. That's OK for storage, backup, and running Linux, but no good for running Windows. I believe that if you can find the drive cases that you'll need, plus cables, you'll be in business. There is also an extender that you can plug in as many as five eSATA devices, C_C showed it to me.

I hope that this gives you some idea of what to look for, there will probably be other answers, as this thread goes forward. And that you'll find this forum to be a good place to learn, I've learned a lot since being here.

Best of Luck,
Cat

Welcome to the forums SilverFox ! You're going to enjoy W7 x64

Cat,
I think you confused the e-sata port with the sata port. I have never seen an e-sata port on the MB itself. The MB has sata ports only. The adaption takes place on the other end of the cable. The e-sata connector is a larger, more tight fitting connection to help keep the cable from pulling out as easy as a sata connection can come apart.

External drive adapters come with the device that lets you connect the e-sata adapter to the case where your pci cards are mounted. Some new cases come with built-in e-sata connectors on the front (like usb) or back of the case.

Silverfox, Welcome to the forum!

A hint while installing W7. Many of us have had better results when we have only the drive that will hold OS in the computer when you install. For some reason, W7 installs better when it only sees one drive. Good luck.

Another good tip is that there are PCI-E card with anywhere from 1 to 4 eSATA ports on the back of them. For people with lots to external storage hard drives this is another way to tackle the port problem.

I have heard this card work better at recognizing the external drives than the on-board motherboard SATA ports do. Better at the "hot plug n play".

The cards run anywhere from roughly $19.99 to $69.99, depending on the number of ports, whether they're RAID capable, etc.

From what I understand, the cards that have the Silicon Image Sil3132 chipset work the best. However I may be mistaken on that.

I have a PCI card that adds 4-port SATA-II support and a WD Caviar Black 1 TB running off of it. The card uses Silicon Images SI3124 chipset. The hilarious thing is with the company that made the card - when booting, it shows the screen for it with many words misspelled. lol

If you check my specs, it's worth noting that the Caviar Black is by far the fastest hdd on my system. (The other two drives are SATA-I attached to motherboard.)

esata is an external sata connection (I-shaped connection instead of L-shaped) and would typically be available via the back of the case, most likely in a PCI slotted card. See Here

Could it be you meant the IDE connections? If so you would need something like THIS and two would not likely fit next to each other.

A better option is likely a PCI card that would actually have esata external and sata internal like THIS. (Please note this is just an example; I am not sure this particular card supports the latest SATA speeds - you need to check that it will provide your HDs with the best/fastest connections.)