Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable Powered eSATA - STAE103

by Seagate

• Part of the GoFlex Storage System: works with all GoFlex and GoFlex Pro ultra-portable drives
• Delivers 6x faster performance than USB 2.0
• Powered by eSATA/USB combo port, no external power required. This only works with a notebook Combo port not a desktop eSATA port.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.7 x 6.5 inches ; 1.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B003IT6PH2
• Item model number: STAE103
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 3, 2010

Product Description

As part of the GoFlex Storage System, the GoFlex upgrade cable – eSATA enables you to upgrade the interface on your GoFlex or GoFlex Pro ultra-portable drive to eSATA connectivity. This cable is powered by an eSATA/USB combo port and requires no additional power. The GoFlex eSATA cable simply clicks in place, making it easy to switch between other GoFlex cables and devices. The GoFlex eSATA cable features LED lights to show drive activity and offers 6x faster performance compared to USB 2.0.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars But Beware. Need a POWERED eSATA Port. December 7, 2010

By R. Schneider

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a good product provided you and your equipment can get by the gotchas.

1. The cable is NOT eSATA. It is eSATAp. eSATAp is a combo USB/eSATA port found on newer portables. Regular eSATA ports found on desktops are NOT powered. I use mine between my tower and notebook.

2. The cable is short.

3. You can buy a PCIe card with eSATAp port(s) but the cable will likely be too short.

4. You could opt for the USB 3.0 version if you have USB 3.0 ports. You can add a PCIe card with USB 3. port(s) but the cable may be too short. I went this route with WD Passports but the USB cable was too short and proprietary. If the USB 3.0 cable is standard and removable, you may be able to add a longer regular USB cable.

5. I have found and ordered after much searching an adapter cable that plugs into the both a vacant USB and eSATA and port and then combines the two into what I hope is a female eSATAp port. If it works, it will solve both the power and cable length issues. This puppy is called a BYTECC USB + eSATA to USB/eSATA Cable. Hope it works.

EDIT: 12/09/2010 - My BYTECC 18" USB + eSATA to USB/eSATA Cable Model USATA-118UE arrived today and it works. And it works well for me as my notebook has an eSATAp port so I have a one cable solution. I think this is the way to go other than adding a USB 3.0 PCIe expansion card..

I bought mine at opentip.com. An Amazon supplier, Zagall has it right here: USATA-118UE 18" USB + eSATA to USB/eSATA Cable NewEgg has it too.

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Be Certain You Have eSATAp Before You Buy! August 13, 2010

By Too Cold in Madison VINE™ VOICE

Amazon Verified Purchase

I like the GoFlex system and looked forward to increasing the transfer speed when connected to my home desktop by using this eSATA cable rather than USB 2.0. No such luck with my machine. You have to have a powered "eSATAp" port on your machine. Many eSATA ports are not powered, even on fancy expensive motherboards. Since the portable GoFlex (2.5") drives do not use AC adapters like the desktop ones, thus depending on the cable for power, you must have an eSATAp port. These are also referred to as eSATA/USB Combo ports. Time to buy an USB 3.0 card for my computer.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really fast July 20, 2010

By Wylie J. Hilliard

Amazon Verified Purchase

This interface option is well worth the price. I wanted a fast portable external drive and the eSATA plug for the GoFlex drive is an excellent solution. On Windows 7, using USB 2.0 (I don't have USB 3.0 but do have built in eSATA) I was getting about 26MB/second. With the eSATA plug I am getting 78MB/second for a group of files, almost 3 times as fast. While I realize that SATA has a much higher maximum throughput, 3Gb/second, 2.5" drives do not. The applications that heavily access the drive seem to run as fast as they do on the internal drive.

Pros: Speed, convenience, price

Cons: I would like the cord to be a little longer or to be replaceable.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars NOT for GoFlex DESK! September 29, 2011

By Bahri M Gungor

Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this cable because the GoFlex Desk 2Tb I bought said it could be expanded to use other cables and the Seagate site had this listed under GoFlex Accessories. As it turns out, Seagate has a line of GoFlex drives that don't have the large, powered base that the GoFlex Desk has, and this connector does NOT fit the base of the drive.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent product! Works with ANY 2.5 SATA bare drive!! July 19, 2011

By ANTON

Amazon Verified Purchase

The greatest benifit for me is that this cable has a pure SATA connector, which you can plug directly to a bare 2.5 SATA drive. You don't need a Segate GoFlex drive, you can use any 2.5 SATA drive.

The speed is great - I get over 90 MBytes/s transfer speed when connecting to my Dell's Powered eSATA port.

Just remember that this is not a eSATA cable, it's a Powered eSATA (aka USB + eSATA) cable, so you need a special port on your computer.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Compatibility problems January 17, 2011

By Peter Shkabara

Amazon Verified Purchase

I got this cable together with a 1TB GoFlex drive. Since my computer did not have USB 3 but did have a powered eSATA port. Unfortunately, there is something in the cable that causes compatibility problems with some computers. On my computer, the drive would drop out after about 8 minutes of use. Online forums showed that other have had similar problems. The drive/cable did work fine on my neighbor's computer so it will work on some.

This cable has some sort of electronics in it because it gets identified as a Seagate item even if you plug it into another SATA drive (you can do this with a bare drive). Seagate tech support was of no help and I ended up returning the item.

Conclusion: be prepared for compatibility problems.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Works great except not all the time October 27, 2010

By Charles Carmichael

I originally bought this with the Seagate Goflex pro 750 gb hard drive because I wanted to utilize the eSATAp port on my laptop, as well as experience much faster read/write speeds than USB 2.0 (Where I was only getting about 30 mb/s). When I first used the cable, It produced great results. I was enjoying an average of 78 mb/s and a peak speed of 128 mb/s. I didn't purchase this solely for basic file transfers, I also wanted to improve my backup speeds. Using the included software, it performed just as I had wanted. However, I soon became tired of using the included Seagate software, and resorted to my personal favorite backup tool, Windows Backup. This is where the cable ceased to work properly. About 16 mins into the backup, the drive just disconnected, consequently, failing the backup. I assumed that I had inadvertently unplugged the drive, so I repeated the procedure again, but experienced the same issue of a disconnect after roughly 16 minutes. I attempted this numerous times times but to no avail. This led to to call Seagate customer service. Unfortunately, the provided little support and claimed that eSATA was just an unreliable technology, and there was nothing I could do to fix the issue. To make matters worse, the directed me to a WIKIPEDIA article. They didn't offer any replacement, and now I'm back to using the included USB 2.0 cable for backups.