Re: A USB enclosure that supports SCSI-ATA-Passthru (cheap!)

[Mark Lord <liml@rtr.ca>]

Mark Lord wrote:
> I believe this is of possible interest to others here:
> 
> Most newer USB enclosures now support SCSI STOP/START commands.
> 
> But.. the Western Digital 2.5" mobile USB2 enclosures (SATA inside)
> appear to also support the SCSI-ATA-Command-Passthru protocol.
> These are the first ones I have seen here that do this.
> 
> So, things like "hdparm -I /dev/sdb" work without fuss on an
> external USB drive when used with these enclosures.
> As does setting automatic spin-down with "hdparm -S".
..
> Model:  WD-250XMS-00 (with 250GB drive inside, removeable).
> USB info:  1058:0702 Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
> Bridge chip by InitIO:  INIC-1606L
..

Mmm.. I also have two NexStar-3 2.5" USB/eSata enclosures here,
but they are not identical on the inside.

The one with an InitIO INIC-1610L chip does *not* support SAT,
but the second one with an InitIO INIC-1611L chip *does* work with SAT!

Good to see these chips getting out there now,
as it allows external storage to be spun-down much
of the time when only rarely needed -- keeps the drives
from cooking the rest of the time.

Cheers