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Strengths: SATA speed and external convenience
Weaknesses: comes with an eSATA I connector to I connector cable, so it requires an eSATA I connector on the PC or a conversion cable (internal SATA L to eSATA I).
Summary: I am extremely pleased with the performance. Simple installation (requires a SATA drive to be installed in the enclosure, and a SATA port on your computer).
I installed a new Maxtor 200 GB drive, formatted it NTFS, and have it about 3/4 full of data. Drive connection to my Windows 2000 system is through a PCI SATA card with an eSATA I connector. No data corruption noted to date (30 days intermittent use). Much faster transfer speed than USB or Firewire enclusures. I've not tried the USB connectivity of this enclosure but assume it is as good as my other Adaptec USB only and USB/Firewire enclosures.
I have tested it (after the drive had been initialized on the Win2000 system) connected to a Win XP system via a Motherboard connection using an eSata I x internal SATA L cable. Drive connected to the XP system immediately with no problem. Well, almost immediately (it takes about 15 seconds after a hot connection for Windows Explorer to release the drive for use - AND the computer pretty much locks up from 100% system use during that 15 second "spin up"). You must purchase a SATA I x L cable separately for that configuration (connection to a motherboard or other SATA L connector).
I suspect that so long as the drive is already partitioned and formatted, it will connect instantly upon hookup. For a brand new (out of the box) SATA drive, you must go to the computer management applet in the control panel to first recognize the drive and then to partition and format it before it is available for use.
This enclosure should work with any SATA drive up to the maximum drive size permitted by your SATA controller. Supposedly works with both SATA 150 and SATA 300 drives. Note that most SATA PCI cards are SATA 150 speed, while most SATA PCIE cards will support both SATA 150/300 transfer speeds. Motherboards with SATA ports will support SATA 150 and leading edge Motherboards may support SATA 150/300 transfer speeds.
I've not tried it on Win 9x installations as I have no SATA ports on those older computers.
Note the Internal SATA L connector has an L shaped notch on one edge of the connector, while the eSATA I connector is wider and is straight (it does not have that L notch). You cannot plug an eSATA I connector into a SATA L port or vice versa. The original SATA L connector is a bit fragile (it's easy to wiggle it too aggressively and break off the L shaped end of the plug), while the eSATA I connector is more robust.
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