4
I. Introduction
Welcome
Congratulations and thank you for purchasing the miniSwap/ES Trayless, Dual Bay, Hot-Swap,
2.5” External Serial ATA Enclosure. This product is yet another innovative solution from FirmTek.
About This User Manual
The user manual will introduce you to the miniSwap/ES enclosure. Please read it carefully to
familiarize yourself with the proper operation of the miniSwap/ES.
About Serial ATA Technology
An evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA storage interface, Serial ATA (Advanced
Technology Architecture) provides greater speed, simpler upgrades and easier configuration.
Serial ATA is fully compliant with the ATA protocol and offers up to 600MB/sec performance
compared to a maximum of 133MB/sec for Parallel ATA. Serial ATA devices can be hot-swapped
(with most operating systems), something that is not normally possible with Parallel ATA devices.
Serial ATA uses insulated cables that are thinner and longer with smaller 7-pin connectors.
About the miniSwap/ES
The miniSwap/ES is a Trayless, high quality, Aluminum, External, Dual-Bay, Hot-Swap,
Serial ATA (SATA) drive enclosure. It supports 2.5” SATA and Solid State Drives (SSD). The
silver aluminum case is crafted for maximum durability and heat dissipation.
For maximum
performance each hard disk is provided its own “direct connect” eSATA connector.
The
unique Trayless design, allows customers to easily hot-swap bare drives in and out of the
enclosure within seconds. This feature provides virtually unlimited storage possibilities in
an ultra-small form-factor. Built from the ground-up as a true 6G Serial ATA solution, the
miniSwap/ES is designed to provide the ultimate in performance with external SSD and 2.5”
SATA hard disks.
Allowing for true end-to-end Serial ATA capabilities, the miniSwap/ES is compatible with
external PCI/PCI-X and PCIe to Serial ATA host adapters such as the SeriTek/2SE4,
SeriTek/e6G, SeriTek/2ME4-E, SeriTek/2SE2-E, SeriTek/6G and SeriTek/2SM2-E (using
eSATA to eSATA data cables). The miniSwap/ES enclosure is custom designed with
shielded Serial ATA ports meeting regulatory requirements for electrostatic discharge
(ESD), electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions, and susceptibility. This ensures a
good ground path exists between the cables and the connectors to prevent any ESD
discharge during cable insertion or removal.
In contrast to competing solutions, the miniSwap/ES is designed with an innovative internal Serial
ATA direct backplane (no data cable inside the enclosure). This makes the installation and removal
of drives easy and provides maximum data signal strength.
