Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
Win7: Anyone else getting excited?
Carol Haynes:
To me the really bizarre thing is HP putting a bay in the tower case so you can slide a USB 2.0 drive in. I mean, the thing has to connect to the motherboard somehow anyway and the internal drives are Sata. So why not just have a snap in with a Sata connection? Makes no sense at all. They could have had a coup with a built-in docking station that people would actually use. Just slide an internal Sata drive in the bay!!
-MilesAhead (October 10, 2009, 10:12 PM)
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It does make some sense because many HP models are supplied with a USB drive in a caddy and if your doesn't you can buy a drive (at an extortionate price). The stated intention is so that you can use it as a portable drive to carry data with you on the move. Whilst an eSATA dock would be very nice the majority of people would find a portable USB drive far more useful as every computer can use USB drives whereas relatively few computers have eSATA interfaces - and those that do (like one of my desktops) aren't brilliant at hot swapping drives.
Innuendo:
Whilst an eSATA dock would be very nice the majority of people would find a portable USB drive far more useful as every computer can use USB drives whereas relatively few computers have eSATA interfaces - and those that do (like one of my desktops) aren't brilliant at hot swapping drives.-Carol Haynes (October 11, 2009, 04:24 AM)
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No, they are not 'brilliant' by any stretch of the word. Your SATA drivers have to be aware of eSATA's hot-swap capability (a lot of driver versions aren't), your SATA controllers must be in AHCI mode (which most computers and motherboards ship with that setting disabled), if you run Windows your OS must have been installed with the option turned on or be prepared for much registry hijinx, and finally not all versions of available operating systems out there support it.
Contrast that with the USB way of just plug and go no matter how your hardware & software is set up and you'll see why most vendors stick with USB interfaces.
Carol Haynes:
Isn't that pretty much what I said?
MilesAhead:
You have USB ports. You can plug anything in. The bay thing is just a gimmick to sell you a USB drive that will fit in the hole. Jeez PS/2 machines you could hold down a spring loaded tab and pull the drives out with no tools!! Like it's rocket science! All that's needed is some mechanical engineering.
Looks like HP has gone to a tech job security program. Like the hindrances are designed to discourage the owner of the box from opening it.
Innuendo:
Isn't that pretty much what I said?-Carol Haynes (October 11, 2009, 11:35 AM)
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With all due respect, Carol, but no, it isn't. :)
You described the situation as things stand now. I just merely expounded upon your words and gave the reason why the situation is the way it is.
Sorry if I gave the impression of stepping on your toes. That wasn't my intent. I'm asked all the time about eSATA ports and why they don't work the way they were designed to work and I thought I'd explain that reason here in case anyone was curious.
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