Thinkpads Forum

Can someone tell me why some or most of the external e-SATA HDD housings say they have a 500GB limit? Where does the limitation come in?

Could you provide an example?

The only thing I have been able to find on the topic is this. It appears to come down to the chip used to connect the drive to all of the external connections. It seems it might only affect enclosures with both USB and e-SATA.

Other than that I don't have much of an idea of why.

A few months ago I bought Macally HD enclosure with USB 2.0 and eSata as a birthday present for a friend of mine. So far it works flawlessly with 1TB HDs.

Here is an example of a 500GB limit:
http://cgi.ebay.com/3-5-SATA-to-e-SATA- ... 27afd30c2d

I have seen 800 GB limits and one that said 1TB. I cannot imagine why the housing would have a limit.

I'd say the "Supports up to 500GB" notice was put on the carton box/packing when hard disks were still only available in small(er) sizes (like 160GB was the norm, 320GB excessive, and 500GB almost unheard of).
Sounded very 'forward' or 'advanced' when they first came out with those enclosures...
They probably printed thousands of those cartons, and want to use them up before they print new ones.
Have you got an enclosure which effectively limits you to 500GB?

I don't have one, but I sent an email to the company and asked about the limit and they confirmed that 500GB was the limit.