Trying to set up an eSATA drive

**Dragonbite** · December 8th, 2011

I have a Dell 17R laptop which has eSATA ports and I have a SATA laptop drive I am currently not using and I am hoping to install Ubuntu and have it run from this drive instead of the installed hard drive.

So I need to get an eSATA cable and either use a USB cable to power the drive, or get an eSATAp (powered) cable to power it, am I right?

If you do something similar, how do you have it set up and what exactly did you get? If you could provide a link to it on Amazon or NewEgg, that would be very helpful.

**wolfen69** · December 8th, 2011

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153071

**Dragonbite** · December 8th, 2011

That's an interesting design. The hard drive just slides into the slot like an old-school game cartridge!

Can it get its power from USB as an option, or does it have to use the built-in power plug?

**sandyd** · December 8th, 2011

Originally Posted by Dragonbite

That's an interesting design. The hard drive just slides into the slot like an old-school game cartridge!

Can it get its power from USB as an option, or does it have to use the built-in power plug?

Plug the ESATA cable in first, then the USB.

The funny thing about the one that you need to plug an adaptor into is that the adaptors never have the right voltage. If you use a voltmeter on them, their always ~1-2 V off...