Search Results
6/26/2025, 2:37:21 PM
>>105708534
When it comes to external drives, it's not usually the drive giving up - it's either the cable, or the USB<->SATA bridge inside it. When you finally get pissed off at it enough to shuck the drive, you find it works perfectly connected directly to a SATA interface (assuming no manufacturer shenanigans).
This is why I don't buy external drives off the shelf: I just buy Asmedia 2115-based USB<->SATA bridges/drive cases off eGay (to avoid shenanigans), and plug real SATA drives into them.
This isn't recommended to the /g/eneral populace as you lot are poor, and this is a more expensive way of doing it, but it means you can just swap your drive to another bridge/case if they goes tits up.
>define "shenanigans" plz anon
Some external drive manufacturers have started putting the USB<->SATA bridge DIRECTLY on the logic board of the drive: these are annoyingly common on 2.5" external drives, as they can run directly from the 5 volts provided by the USB cord - avoid such drives like an angry Terminator when your surname is Connor (though there's often a way to break out a real SATA interface if you are REALLY good with a soldering iron).
There are also retarded bridge chips that only support up to 2^32 LBAs, and as such (would normally) only support up to 2TB drives. However, to be "clever", many of these can fake 4KB sectors, to allow connecting drives up to 16TB in capacity. This completely scrambles your data if the drive is then plugged into an ordinary SATA interface where it's "true" sector size (almost always "logically" 512 bytes) is exposed - again, avoid interfaces like this, and get an AS2115 instead, which supports 48-bit LBAs, and as such can support drives of up to 2^48 512 byte (logical) sectors - or 128 petabytes.
When it comes to external drives, it's not usually the drive giving up - it's either the cable, or the USB<->SATA bridge inside it. When you finally get pissed off at it enough to shuck the drive, you find it works perfectly connected directly to a SATA interface (assuming no manufacturer shenanigans).
This is why I don't buy external drives off the shelf: I just buy Asmedia 2115-based USB<->SATA bridges/drive cases off eGay (to avoid shenanigans), and plug real SATA drives into them.
This isn't recommended to the /g/eneral populace as you lot are poor, and this is a more expensive way of doing it, but it means you can just swap your drive to another bridge/case if they goes tits up.
>define "shenanigans" plz anon
Some external drive manufacturers have started putting the USB<->SATA bridge DIRECTLY on the logic board of the drive: these are annoyingly common on 2.5" external drives, as they can run directly from the 5 volts provided by the USB cord - avoid such drives like an angry Terminator when your surname is Connor (though there's often a way to break out a real SATA interface if you are REALLY good with a soldering iron).
There are also retarded bridge chips that only support up to 2^32 LBAs, and as such (would normally) only support up to 2TB drives. However, to be "clever", many of these can fake 4KB sectors, to allow connecting drives up to 16TB in capacity. This completely scrambles your data if the drive is then plugged into an ordinary SATA interface where it's "true" sector size (almost always "logically" 512 bytes) is exposed - again, avoid interfaces like this, and get an AS2115 instead, which supports 48-bit LBAs, and as such can support drives of up to 2^48 512 byte (logical) sectors - or 128 petabytes.
Page 1