10
III. Connecting External Enclosure(s)
Introduction
This section describes how to connect external SSD and HDD enclosures and provides
instructions for formatting the Serial ATA hard drive(s) using Apple’s
Disk Utility
.
Connecting the SeriTek/6G2+2 to an External Enclosure
1. The SeriTek/6G2+2 is compatible with a wide range of external enclosures. However,
the enclosure must meet the following basic requirements:
•
Adequate power to support the hard drives (dedicated power supply)
•
7-pin shielded receptacles compatible with FirmTek’s shielded Serial ATA cable
•
Support for Serial ATA Version 3.0 and Serial ATA Version 2.0
•
Enclosure must be able to support and mount the Serial ATA drives
2. Install SSD or HDD(s) into the external enclosure according to the instructions included
with the enclosure.
3. Attach one end of the eSATA cable to the SeriTek/6G2+2 and connect the other end(s)
to the external enclosure. (eSATA cables are not included with SeriTek/6G2+2)
Note: FirmTek Serial ATA cables are specially designed to work with both PC and Macintosh
computers. Please use FirmTek external shielded Serial ATA cables with the SeriTek/6G2+2.
•
The original Serial ATA connectors have an L-shaped opening, see Figure 2A.
•
The newer eSATA connectors have a rectangular I-shaped opening, see Figure 2B
The SeriTek/6G2+2 uses the newer eSATA connectors, also known as I-shaped connectors.
Some hard disk enclosures require SATA cables that utilize an L-shaped connector. For
these types of enclosures, the cable required will have a rectangular I-shaped eSATA
connector on one end, and an L-shaped SATA connector on the other end.
Fig: 5A Fig: 5B
Figure 2: Serial ATA Connector Types: Original L-shaped and newer eSATA I-shaped
Note: If the SeriTek/6G2+2 is being used with a hard disk enclosure that uses eSATA
connectors, eSATA cables with have rectangular I-shaped eSATA connectors on each end
will be required, like the two connectors shown below in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3: Using SeriTek/6G2+2 with a drive enclosure that has I-shaped eSATA connectors; both cable
connectors will be identical.
Figure 2A: Original
L-shaped SATA
connector
Figure 2B: Newer
rectangular eSATA
I-shaped connector
