Ao-LAB's eSATA SSD flash drive conveniently includes USB port

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 10th 2008 at 7:29AM

We're still baffled that traditional eSATA flash drives require power from the USB port in order to operate (at least until that Power Over eSATA initiative starts bearing fruit), but it seems that Ao-LAB has found a nice, practical workaround for the time being. The outfit's eSATA / USB Combo Drive arrives in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB flavors and provides dual interfaces along with a convenient way to power it if you're dead-set on using eSATA for transfers. And given that speeds over eSATA absolutely obliterate those over USB 2.0, you're going to want to. Shame there's no pricing / availability information, but we suspect you can get a few hundred of 'em sans issue should you contact the company seeking a bulk contract.

[Via EverythingUSB]

Filed under: Portable Audio

Tags: Ao-LAB, combo drive, ComboDrive, eSATA, flash drive, FlashDrive, ssd, USB, usb flash drive, UsbFlashDrive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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Arran @ Oct 10th 2008 8:05AM

Is there a reason why they can't drop usb3 and just have poweroversata? Seeing as though the transfer rates are much faster, unless i'm talking rubbish and it can't be done.

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PCIV @ Oct 10th 2008 8:09AM

Problem is that USB is data with a lot of overhead, for printers and stuff like that. eSATA is just data for hard drives.

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Nacho PATA @ Oct 10th 2008 1:08PM

They built a eSATA keyboard, but scrapped it after they could not get the Gate A20 to work correctly.

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pball_inuyaha @ Oct 10th 2008 8:07AM

This would be awesome.

I just wonder how you'd work this in to use with internal HDDs since I don't think you want multiple hard drives drawing power from the motherboard. Maybe put a middle device to add power to the sata cable for now and put a separate power adapter on the mother board or make mother boards that can handle the extra power in the future.

But this is great news for external drives. Only problem is all the regular esata ports out there now. Desktops would be easy to fix just have a pci add in with a power and sata hook up inside then a powered esata on the outside.

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thethirdmoose @ Oct 10th 2008 9:45AM

If it's an internal drive, just use an internal SATA power connector...

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pball_inuyaha @ Oct 10th 2008 10:21AM

I guess you have a point there, but if this becomes a standard I'd like to see it for internal hdds too. That would be a few less wires messing up the case and less connections to go wrong.

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pball_inuyaha @ Oct 10th 2008 10:23AM

P.S.

I forgot that this would be for external HDDs which are in a case (thus the drive gets power through the normal power plug). So I wonder now if this becomes a standard will they remove the power plug from sata drives and just use power over sata in the future.

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Absinthe_Nishi @ Oct 10th 2008 8:42AM

I may be missing something pretty major, cos I don't really get why this is so good.

I've got a 32GB corsair USB stick here that is a HECK of a lot smaller than that device, requires only one port, hardly any power etc etc...

Considering the pretty poor transfer speeds of consumer-level SSD's at the moment, I don't see any real advantage of spending what will most probably turn out to be a *hefty* price premium just to be able to use an eSATA port instead of a USB port??

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pball_inuyaha @ Oct 10th 2008 10:19AM

This isn't just for SSD drives, this could be use for any external hard drive that uses esata. Granted it wouldn't work with older external enclosures. That and most SSDs have 80-100 mbps read write speeds now, at least the ones posted around here lately. I looked at an 8 gig usb drive and it's write speed was 30 mbps.

Besides one less cable for external hdds, and no extra power bricks for ones that can't use usb for power. Thus more portability.

(forgive me if my numbers are off, hopefully my point is valid either way)

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