ESATA drive and Carbonite 1

[seaport]

I am using Carbonite to backup my laptop. However, Carbonite does not backup my usb drive because Carbonite recognizes it as an external drive.

I am thinking about buying an eSATA drive. I have two questions.
1. Generally, does Windows consider eSATA drive as an external drive?
2. Specifically, does Carnonite consider eSATA drive as an external drive?

Thanks in advance.

Seaport

 

[goombawaho]

I've never seen Windows label a drive as external vs. internal or treat it any differently. It just knows that something is attached to it and is a storage device. It might be "removable" but that's not an issue either for how it functions once recognized by Windows.

 

[cdogg]

I'm not familiar with Carbonite, but you should call their tech support to double-check. It seems that they are not backing up drives that show up as "removable", which would include USB flash drives, external USB/Firewire hard drives, etc. I would imagine you could change a setting to get them to.

eSATA may or may not show up as removable. It is more efficient than USB or Firewire, since there is no "bridge" or translation required for the drive to communicate with the OS. Therefore, it may appear as an internal drive instead of removable. However, I can't say for sure that's the case.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[seaport]

Thanks for the reply.

I contacted Carbonite and got the following reply.

********************
At present, Carbonite only backs up local internal hard drives. It will not back up network drives, external drives, and NAS (network accessed storage) drives. If there are files on a remote drive that you wish to include in your Carbonite backup, you should copy the files to a folder on your local hard drive. If the files are on a shared network drive, you could install Carbonite on the computer on which the network shared drive physically exists, and back the files up directly from that computer. We may add support for remote drives in a future version of Carbonite.
********************

So I think ESATA drive is not a local drive so it will not be backed up by Carbonite.

Seaport

 

[cdogg]

Well, is there a way for you to check the individual files and folders within one of the backups? There's no better way than to see for youself! Does it allow you to search that way or does it only allow a full restore?

eSATA uses the SATA interface directly, so I'm not sure how Windows would identify it as an external drive unless the eSATA controller purposely describes itself that way to the OS.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[BadBigBen]

depending on the mobo, some eSATA ports are regular SATA ports, that get passed through to the outside of the case...

I've only seen one manufacturer (HP) that had two seperate eSATA sockets and these where configurable as either external or internal...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[seaport]

I should have been more specific. I am using a Lenovo T60. There is no ESATA port and I need to buy an Express Card or a PC Card for the ESATA interface.

Will this factor change anything?

Seaport

 

[cdogg]

I don't believe that will change anything. For example, drives attached to a regular PCI SATA card would show up as internal. I wouldn't think that an eSATA card is any different.

Maybe someone who has messed with one before can weigh in...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[seaport]

Thanks cdogg.

I think the only thing left for me is to try it out.

Seaport

 

[Grenage]

The drive (from what little experience I have had on this subject) should show up as a normal internal drive.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[seaport]

FYI, I just put a 8G Lexar Express Card solid state drive, which must be flash memory, into my T60. Windows XP recognized it as Removable Media, and Carbonite would not back it up.

Considering that, will an ESATA drive connected using Express/PC Card still be recognized as a Basic (internal) Drive?

Seaport

 

[cdogg]

Again, flash memory whether it be a USB key or a memory card like the Lexar, is always going to be seen by Windows as "removable".

However, a PCI Express eSATA controller should be seen differently by Windows. There's no guarantees about eSATA (that I've heard yet anyway), but I know from experience that regular PCI SATA cards were recognized as internal controllers. Therefore the drives would show up as regular internal drives.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[seaport]

As a follow-up to this thread, right now my laptop is using an ESATA external drive and Carbonite recognizes the drive as internal and is backing it up.

Thanks for all your help.

Seaport