Thinkpads Forum

I'm a bit bummed that these interface standards keep changing. My T410s has eSata, available in the T-series, but not the X220. Have I got the right impression that eSata won't really last in the marketplace, but USB 3 and perhaps Thunderbolt will achieve the bigger market penetration?

I currently use eSata to make full system backups onto an external disk. Here the speed pays off vs. USB 2. For me the crux about eSata is that the BIOS makes the disk look like any other Sata disk and thus programs like Ghost will see it.

So my question is, what is USB 3 BIOS support like? Will it make an external disk look like any other (Sata) disk? Often this comes down to whether you can boot from the external disk. Can you boot from an external USB 3 connected disk with the X220?

USB 3 or eSata could presumably be added via ExpressCard, but I think there's no chance that the BIOS would make sense of the ExpressCard in a pre-boot environment, right?

I didn't get USB 3 with my X220, but the USB 2 port on it does boot an external DVD drive I have. Haven't tried to boot an external hard drive, but I don't see why that wouldn't work.

FragrantHead wrote:I'm a bit bummed that these interface standards keep changing. My T410s has eSata, available in the T-series, but not the X220. Have I got the right impression that eSata won't really last in the marketplace, but USB 3 and perhaps Thunderbolt will achieve the bigger market penetration?

Intel has been slow in adopting USB 3.0. Apparently they will support both USB 3 and Thunderbolt for Ivy Bridge, next gen processors after the current gen Sandy Bridge.

FragrantHead wrote: I currently use eSata to make full system backups onto an external disk. Here the speed pays off vs. USB 2. For me the crux about eSata is that the BIOS makes the disk look like any other Sata disk and thus programs like Ghost will see it.

So my question is, what is USB 3 BIOS support like? Will it make an external disk look like any other (Sata) disk? Often this comes down to whether you can boot from the external disk. Can you boot from an external USB 3 connected disk with the X220?

USB 3 is supposed to be backward compatible so much of what you do under USB 2 should be possible.