StarTech.com Thunderbolt 3 to eSATA Adapter with USB 3.1 (10Gbps) - USB C to USB Adapter - Thunderbolt 3 to USB 3.0 Hub (TB3ESATU31)

Although this adapter claims to convert eSATA III to T-3 or USB 3.1 Gen 2 for 10 Gbps speed in real world tests I found it was no faster than a USB 3.0 connection. My OWC Mercury Elite enclosure has a eSATA IIII port that operates at 6 Bps or the same speed as an internal SATA III hard drive. I thought it would be 5-10% faster than a USB 3.0 port but that wasn't the case. It's still useful in some cases since it a USB 3.1 connector as well as a eSATA port so you don't lose a USB port when using eSATA. The $30 price is a good deal because it retails for $80 and is no longer made. I tested it on a 2019 iMac 27 with 10 Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 through the T-3 port.

I once made an order on another site that got kicked around and left me with a free item. It's an orico product, and several years old; an external 4 port sata enumerator that uses an esata connector for interface and a usb plug for powering it's internal enumerator. I've never been able to use it... ...Until now.I was discouraged originally, because, even after all the windows auto installs I've done, this one only showed up as a "BASE DEVICE". After a bit of pondering, and installing the provided driver from their site, it still didn't appear to be recognized, so I went back to the pondering. I took a mouse strolling around my system and I realized that this device is thunderbolt 3 if you have that (usually with usb 3.1 as a secondary interface), and usb if you have that only (No thunderbolt capability). I have both. Thunderbolt 3 has access to a few more amenities than it's usb counterpart, even if their speeds are close, but, on Windows systems, it requires you to activate the thunderbolt connection (at least in every single Windows system I've seen it on) in its own dedicated interface, much like a RAID controller with a graphical interface for your running system. Most manufacturers provide an interface of their own for this when it's built onto the board, many addon card manufacturers do as well, and windows, of course, has a basic one they are given to build on when they have some specific alterations for maximum useability and safety. Many of them choose, however, to simply use the windows provided module, and add their own text to the operations and buttons. My system has such an interface (I've seen it common, but a few others do exist, and some searching has taught me this; IF it is some error, then good for you for figuring this out for yourself, now drop the anger and move on).Once I realized that this device was actually recognized by my system, just not activated at the thunderbolt interface (My system detected thunderbolt and wouldn't switch over to usb-c; there is no control for that), I went to my device manager, and then I opened the system devices. I then opened Devices and printers and found the base device there. I right clicked the base device, then opened it's properties. From there I looked around to find it's driver and its connection to the system. I went to that system device in the manager, right clicked on it, properties, then "Update Driver". After just a few minutes, the interface for thunderbolt was turned on, and a dialog opened, asking me what to do with the startech device. I told it to connect. Boom. All working.The bonus? My orico requires a usb power source for DC to allow the enumerator interface to turn on, as well as power the hub. Because this device offers that in a usb port, I can use my old 4port hub to access several sata drives at once. I'm still working on making connections for drive recovery, having stricter access to the sata interface over pci lanes instead of usb (more relieable and compatible), however, that's a little slower, as my brain is not a computer... ...it just acts like one from time to time... ...Beep Boop...Only four stars so far, since I haven't tested my main ops. I have tested several different drives, all of which appear, and grant access directly to their system through several utilities, but I have not yet found a utility for the recovery I wish to pursue.

I've only just tested this product briefly. I bought it because the other product would not work with a Silicon Image port multiplier. I'm delighted to say that this product DOES work. As seen by the screen capture, I have 5 4TB drives in a tower connected by this StarTech product. I am running a new M1 Max MacBook Pro with macOS 12.3NOTE!! I was running on battery power and the laptop went to sleep and the drives were put to sleep too. When I woke up the laptop, problems started and eventually the laptop crashed. Since no driver is installed, this would appear to be an Apple issue. The sad fact is, I doubt anyone will ever fix it because very few users are using that particular code path. I'm assuming if I keep it on AC power and check off the option to put the drives to sleep, I will avoid the issue.

It’s not much faster than USB 3.0, and is kind of bulky. Beware who you buy it from, because even well within the return window, this seller doesn’t pay for return shipping labels, even for Prime members. Additionally, they require all original packaging. This seller also put it on sale for 10% off within two weeks of purchasing it, and would not give an adjustment.

Worked perfect without any problems. Been using it with an older OWC drive cabinet containing 4 different kinds of drives, The Mac sees all of them fine and I haven't had any issues with mounting and using the drives in JBOD mode.

Neat, compact little dongle, external drive showed up instantly, good read-write speeds to the RAID box via esata (Mobius 5 bay), however kernel panics began very shortly thereafter, so tried another port on the CalDigit hub, then directly to the iMac (2020), all with same result. May have different results with different hardware, or OS, but with my rig it is completely unusable, returned the unit.

well built, easy to install drivers, great technical support from vendor. However, I was unable to get my particular unit to "see" my Dell external hard drive (Hitachi Travelstar 7k/320 eSATA in Dell enclosure). StarTech support concluded it must be a defective unit. I returned it and purchased an external SSD flash drive instead (which proved to be much faster/smaller/lighter than the Dell external drive).

This extended the life of my eSATA external drive and provided a companion for my existing USB3 external drive on my new Laptop. The only problem I have is that the Thunderbolt 3 connector doesn't seem to provide a tight enough fit to the new Laptop; I'm afraid it might pull loose. Other than that, great.

Fantastic

I already do have the similar device for TB-2, which served me well.Accordingly I expected an even better performance with TB-3My Tests showed: (iMac macOS 10.12 with PCIe SSD 2500MB/s) <-> StarTech Adapter -> SAMSUNG 840 EVO SSDConnection with eSATA: write: 265MB/s read: 286MB/sConnection with (good) SATA-USB 3.0 Adapter to iMac's internal USB-connector:Write: 365MB/s read:475 MB/sTherefore it seems the connection via USB-3.0 Adapter ist faster and no use for an eSATA adapter - Too bad, I decided to return device.

Look at the picture I uploaded. Why would you bother to make a product like this and then package it in a way that damages it? Would you even plug this in? I don't want to trusty my data to a cable that is already bent and bulging like this. And I don't think it it's fair to accept this product even if it is working, only because it's life span (and the integrity of the data it's hosting) are both questionable... always buy adapters that come with separate cables that can be changed. And hey Startech... stop making adapters with cables that aren't interchangeable! Thanks.

Used to connect iMac Thunderbolt 3 to WD drive ESATA port . Came in reasonable time, works with no problem. Added an ESATA cable to get distance from iMac to the drive.

didn't work with mac as esata. Only usb.