[SOLVED] Back up hard drive over SATA vs USB

[Rodion15]

I usually try to back up hard drives by plugging them to SATA rather than USB, as I heard that the SATA-to-USB conversion may affect the transfer.

Is this really true? I find USB more convenient so I’d like to know if it’s worth the hassle.

Any advice much appreciated

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I heard that the SATA-to-USB conversion may affect the transfer.

have had USB external drive docks for years with SATA disks sitting in them and never an issue with connectivity.
have done very many large file transfers and system backup\restore many times with zero problem.

also have a couple enclosed USB disks that also work great with no loss in connectivity during large file transfers.

one thing you may want to look into regarding the situation is your OS power options.
just make sure your USB power options are all maximized for performance vs power saving.

I find USB more convenient so I’d like to know if it’s worth the hassle.

unless you have SATA data & power cables that you can run outside of the system for quick plug-n-play,
i'd say the USB options are much better than direct SATA connect.

 

[USAFRet]

I usually try to back up hard drives by plugging them to SATA rather than USB, as I heard that the SATA-to-USB conversion may affect the transfer.

Only if you have faulty equipment.

USB is just fine, if a bit slower than SATA.

 

[Rodion15]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll try to use USB for a while and yes, it makes sense to make sure USB power settings are set as you say.

I used to work at a PC repair shop and we had to do backups on a Windows desktop with the lid removed by plugging the drive to a free SATA port with a SATA power and data cable. We were told it’s better than USB to avoid transfer issues.

John Bonham, greatest drummer ever! Led Zeppelin has been my favourite group so many years.

 

[hotaru.hino]

We were told it’s better than USB to avoid transfer issues.

The only thing I can think of that would be a problem is if you yank the drive before it had a chance to actually write the data. But this can be avoided by using the Eject Removable Drive command in Windows or wait a few minutes after you're done before unplugging it.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

We were told it’s better than USB to avoid transfer issues

The only thing I can think of that would be a problem is...

there were quite a bit more issues with USB 1-2.0 devices years ago.
driver issues, their much slower speeds, and a lot of lower quality cables\connectors being used made internal or eSATA drives a better option for quite some time.

now with USB 3.* most of those issues have been resolved and have made it a much better experience.