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I have an HP Proliant N54L system that has an eSata port. I also have a spare USB3.0 3TB spinning disk external harddrive that I want to hook up to my proliant.
Is it possible to connect the drive to the port?
For the down voter .. cables like this exist to provide adaption in the opposite direction I require. Thus it seems technically possible.
Note that I know there are USB ports on the proliant that I can use, but I am running FreeNAS on the system and booting off a USB flash drive connected to an internal port. You can't control the USB boot order on the system and HP prioritized the external USB ports over the internal ones. So if I connect my external drive to a USB port then the damn machine can't re-boot. And under FreeNAS you just can't pull it out and then reconnect it - you have to do a bit of fiddling around. I am trying to avoid doing this.
Just curious, why do you prefer a SATA connection over USB3? USB3 is nearly as fast as SATA 6GB. And you said performance isn't an issue. And USB3 adapter cards for computer/laptop are no more expensive than the cable you're looking for would be. – Cliff Armstrong – 2017-07-17T22:31:00.693
@CliffArmstrong My hardware choices are USB2.0 or eSATA on the N54L. And if I choose USB the system won't automatically reboot as there is nothing to boot from on my USB based drive! I bought a USB3.0 drive to start future proofing things (knowing that it may one day be shifted onto another computer) – Peter M – 2017-07-17T22:36:28.653
The N54L has two expansion slots which I assume are filled already so no USB3 expansion card. And that cuts off the eSATAp option cause you'd need an expansion card for that as well. BTW, you can't configure your system to not to try to boot from USB or to put that USB device last in the boot order? There would be BIOS options for that on a consumer PC.. seems like an odd thing to leave out in a server.
– Cliff Armstrong – 2017-07-17T23:13:21.663When you say USB 3.0 hard drive, do you actually mean a hard drive within an enclosure with a USB 3.0 controller, or are you referring to a flash/thumb drive? – Norr – 2017-07-18T02:29:37.737
@CliffArmstrong I am trying to get away from USB. I currently can't control the USB boot order in the BIOS so I am hesitant to add a USB3.0 expansion card (BTW the slots are free). By going to eSata I was hoping to get away from that mess. – Peter M – 2017-07-18T11:00:00.933
@Norr I have a 3TB USB3.0 spinning disk external hard drive – Peter M – 2017-07-18T11:00:25.170
@Peter M Then as previously stated in the discussion, your best option in this situation is to remove the hard drive from the enclosure and use an eSATA to SATA adapter – Norr – 2017-07-19T11:28:19.200