III. Connecting External Enclosures
Introduction
This section describes how to connect external hard drive enclosures.
Connecting the SeriTek/2SE2-E to an External Enclosure
1. The SeriTek/2SE2-E host adapter is compatible with a wide range of external enclosures.
Enclosures must meet basic requirements which include:
Adequate power and cooling to support the hard drives (dedicated power supply).
7-pin shielded receptacles compatible with FirmTek’s shielded cables (original I-
shaped or newer eSATA cables); see below.
Support for Serial ATA Version 1.0 or Serial ATA Version 2.0
Serial ATA hard drives, or Parallel ATA hard drives with compatible Serial ATA to
Parallel ATA converter
2. Install hard drives into the external enclosure according to the instructions included with
the enclosure.
3. Attach one end of FirmTek’s shielded Serial ATA cable(s) to the Serial ATA receptacle(s)
on the SeriTek/2SE2-E and connect the other end(s) to the external enclosure.
4. The external enclosure’s may be powered on or off at this time. If it is off, power it on.
Note: FirmTek Serial ATA cables were specially designed to be compatible with PC and
Macintosh computers. Please use only FirmTek external shielded Serial ATA cables with the
SeriTek/2SE2-E.
The original Serial ATA connectors have an L-shaped opening, see Figure 2A.
The newer eSATA connectors have a rectangular I-shaped opening, see Figure 2B
The SeriTek/2SE2-E uses the newer eSATA connectors, also known as I-shaped connectors,
yet some drive enclosures require cables that utilize an L-shaped connector. For these types
of enclosures, the cable required will have a rectangular I-shaped eSATA connector on one
end, and an L-shaped SATA connector on the other end as shown below in Figure 2. This
cable is available to purchase on FirmTek’s website.
Fig: 5A Fig: 5B
Figure 2: Serial ATA Connector Types: Original L-shaped and newer eSATA I-shaped
Note: If you are using your SeriTek/2SE2-E host adapter with a drive enclosure that uses
eSATA connectors then you will require SATA cables that have two rectangular I-shaped
eSATA connectors, just like the two connectors shown below in Figure 3.
Figure 2A: Original
L-shaped SATA
connector
Figure 2B: Newer
rectangular eSATA
I-shaped connector
