On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 06:36:41 -0400, Paul wrote:

You can dangle cables out of the case, and connect a drive.
I have a home-made drive bay, and keep SATA drives outside the computer case.
So I don't need ESATA, at least for temporary usage. The drives
are disconnected when not in use, and can continue to sit in my home-made
drive bay.

That's the way to do it, although I've always had a thing about
keeping plenty of free space on a desktop for placement of my big
feet. ...Well, until I got into my first 32" LCD "monitor."
Seriously, it would take another build (and a mess of controllers) to
hold all my drives.

One problem with adding a USB3 card to a PCI Express slot, is the
BIOS won't boot from there. So my USB3 key offers no advantages
at all to me, because most all of my USB keys are used for booting.
If I plug the USB3 key into a USB2 motherboard slot, I can boot
from that.

I see. Wasn't aware that was an issue. With the best cards, I'm
finding...(was last nite - lemme see if I can pull one pronto)...
http://www.ianker.com/USB-3.0-PCI-E-...ategory-c13-s1
Literally thousands of positive reviews. I'm surprised, say, after
getting one with a 12-pin headerblock to the front case USB slots,
that it wouldn't boot. Major impediment, although USB3 is, after all,
relatively new technology.

The USB3 key you bought, has a metal USB3 connector on it, and
that should help make it last a while. The USB3 flash key I bought,
the plastic connector broke on it. You got a USB3 key for $15, and you also
got a proper connector on it.

Oh, I don't care about that. I've never yet managed to break one
(broken plenty other stuff, though, to where I do know where the
stress part goes into a definition for computers).

I keep basically a backup USB flashdrive for syncronizing regularly
critical program portions of my HD. In the opposite sense, though I
do like a USB boot (friggin fascinating how far advancements among
alternatives to a USB boot have progressed), a bulk residual of my
HDDs is plainjane, cover-your-butt, grinding backups.

USB2 is gruesomely slow. Effectively, given 3 USB2 docking stations
(got one for a HDD purchase toss-in - rest "give away" sales). I can
come out with extension cables and get some pretty bulky work done, so
far as categorization listings. Usually two stations are sufficient
for that.

Hot swapping, (with the ability to shut down and come actively back
again - I don't go, no way care for the idea of jerking out live
drives), can be tantamont to figuring from that angle. Doing work
over stages and having to reboot between is not.

It'll have to be a sort of hybrid thing for me. ESata on large
transfers, USB docking stations variously to estabesh from and
intially intiate a large transfer. Sitting around with a fan on a USB
docking station for 10 or 20 times longer than a dangling SATA cable,
hoping it doesn't randomly go green or freeze up - a gruesome mess of
cables for a nasty chore.

Someday, though, I'll have a newer MB and all these extra goodies. Fer
sure. Hey, that's the name of the game;- I just play it a tad bit
slower, these days, than some.

-
"Goodbye all you punks, stay young and stay high -
Just hand me my checkbook and I'll crawl off to die."
-The Who