<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>To answer the other two questions…</div><div><br></div>As far as SATA/eSATA goes you’d need something like a Highpoint or Silicon Image PCI card Sil3112 and 3114 controllers were popular in the early P4 era before SATA was part of the man chipset. The Sil3112 was also used fir the HDD bus in PowerMac G5s.<div><br></div><div>I think Dell also did a “CERC 6” PCI-64 card (basically was 3 Silicon Image controllers on one card with a 64-bit PCI switch) for a short time that was 6-channel SATA card that they threw in their SCSI servers to reduce the price of <div><div><div><br></div><div>There are older external drive boxes around that support eSATA but I don’t know how feasible/possible JBOD is over an eSATA cable as opposed to say a 4-channel SAS cable. </div><div><br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On 5 Aug 2024, at 08:34, md.benson@gmail.com wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Hi,</div><div><br></div><div>On 90s and early 2000s era of motherboards some manufacturers implemented a short-lived standard called the “Communications and Network Riser” or CNR.</div><div><br></div><div><div style="display: block;" class=""><div style="-webkit-user-select: all; -webkit-user-drag: element; display: inline-block;" class="apple-rich-link" draggable="true" role="link" data-url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_and_networking_riser"><a style="border-radius:10px;font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;display:block;-webkit-user-select:none;width:300px;user-select:none;-webkit-user-modify:read-only;user-modify:read-only;overflow:hidden;text-decoration:none;" class="lp-rich-link" rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_and_networking_riser" dir="ltr" role="button" draggable="false" width="300"><table style="table-layout:fixed;border-collapse:collapse;width:300px;background-color:#E9E9EB;font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" class="lp-rich-link-emailBaseTable" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="300"><tbody><tr><td vertical-align="center"><table bgcolor="#E9E9EB" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;table-layout:fixed;background-color:rgba(233, 233, 235, 1);" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar"><tbody><tr><td style="padding:8px 0px 8px 0px;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStackItem"><div style="max-width:100%;margin:0px 16px 0px 16px;overflow:hidden;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;font-weight:500;font-size:12px;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;text-align:left;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack-topCaption-leading"><a rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_and_networking_riser" style="text-decoration: none" draggable="false"><font color="#000000" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);">Communications and networking riser</font></a></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word;font-weight:400;font-size:11px;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;text-align:left;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack-bottomCaption-leading"><a rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_and_networking_riser" style="text-decoration: none" draggable="false"><font color="#A2A2A9" style="color: rgba(60, 60, 67, 0.6);">en.wikipedia.org</font></a></div></div></td><td style="padding:6px 12px 6px 0px;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-rightIconItem" width="36"><a rel="nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_and_networking_riser" draggable="false"><div><Cnr.jpg></div></a></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></a></div></div><br></div><div>Might be that?</div><div><br></div><div>— </div><div><br></div><div>Mark</div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><blockquote type="cite">On 5 Aug 2024, at 07:40, Mouse via geeks <geeks@sunhelp.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span>I have some questions for the assembled wisdom, if anyone might happen</span><br><span>to have answers and be willing to provide them. They're all related to</span><br><span>the same situation, so I'll give a minimal description.</span><br><span></span><br><span>My backup scheme involves swapping out backup disks once a month.</span><br><span>Historically, I've been doing this by turning the relevant machine off.</span><br><span>But that machine appears to have finally failed.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The failed machine was doing two things: it was my main house router</span><br><span>and it was my offsite-backup-disk host. I've found another machine and</span><br><span>loaded it up with enough Ethernets for it to take on the router</span><br><span>functionality. This leads to question 1: that machine has a mystery</span><br><span>slot. I thought it was PCIe at first, but it's about 1cm too close to</span><br><span>the back panel for a PCIe card I have to fit mechanically. Anyone have</span><br><span>any guesses what it might be? (The machine is old enough to have an</span><br><span>ISA slot; I was surprised to see what appeared to be PCIe on the same</span><br><span>board as ISA, but it seems it isn't actually PCIe.)</span><br><span></span><br><span>That machine also has no SATA. (Not too surprising for a machine with</span><br><span>ISA.) But the backup disks I have are all SATA. So this leaves me</span><br><span>wanting a PCI SATA card. I did a little searching but haven't found</span><br><span>anything but PCIe SATA, which as the previous paragraph implies won't</span><br><span>help. But my Web skillz are rather poor.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Another option might be eSATA, but I also have been unable to find PCI</span><br><span>eSATA. I also have found conflicting information about what eSATA</span><br><span>actually is; I thought it was just SATA run outside the case, with a</span><br><span>little electronics to support hot-plug. Some things I've found seem to</span><br><span>agree, but some disagree.</span><br><span></span><br><span>So, anyone know of anyone who makes a PCI SATA card, or a PCI eSATA</span><br><span>card?</span><br><span></span><br><span>Also, can anyone explain what eSATA actually is?</span><br><span></span><br><span>/~\ The ASCII Mouse</span><br><span>\ / Ribbon Campaign</span><br><span> X Against HTML mouse@rodents-montreal.org</span><br><span>/ \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B</span><br><span></span><br><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>GEEKS: http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks_sunhelp.org</span><br></div></blockquote></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></body></html>