StarTech 3 feet Shielded External eSATA Cable M/M, Black

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There can be two or four ATA ports on any one motherboard. One cable can connect to two devices at the same time.

FireWire comes in two speeds - FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. FireWire 400 (also known as 1394a) usually gives performance similar to USB 2.0. FireWire 800 (1394b) is significantly faster, giving performance similar to an internal Serial ATA drive, and is almost exclusively available in Mac computers.

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This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( October 2023) On many notebook computers only a limited amount of power at 5V is available, and none at all at 12V. Devices requiring more power than is available via the Expresscard, or an additional 12V supply as required by most 3.5" or 5.25" drives, can be driven if an additional power supply is used. [4] Cables are available to both connect and power a SATA device from an eSATAp port (including 12 V power if available). Stands for "External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment." eSATA is a variation of the SATA interface that supports external storage devices. It was standardized in 2004 and uses the same pins and same protocols as internal SATA. However, it provides a slightly different, more rugged connector. The eSATA standard also supports a cable length of two meters compared to the one meter cable length supported by SATA. eSATAp PCI and PCI-e add-on cards are available for desktop computers. They usually provide two eSATAp ports, with port multiplier functionality, and hot-swap capability.

Identical protocol and logical signaling (link/transport-layer and above), allowing native SATA devices to be deployed in external enclosures with minimal modification

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eSATAp cables are available with wide connectors to plug directly into the power and signal connectors of a bare drive, providing a 12 V supply in the case of a desktop machine. A version of this wide connector is found inside every external SATA hard drive enclosure; when the hard drive is slid inside, it mates with a connector that supplies it with both signal and power. The USB cable has two ends - one to connect into the drive, and one to connect into the computer. See in this image the 'A' connector, which will fit into a corresponding rectangular port on your computer. Sometimes these ports are found both on the front and the rear of your computer. Usually it is OK to connect the drive either to the front or to the rear, though if trouble occurs, it is best to connect it to the port on the rear. Under the Drives branch, press the key to highlight External SATA and press the key.