A housing designed for hard disk drives or solid-state drives residing outside a computer, this device connects through an external Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) interface. It allows users to expand storage capacity or create portable backups without internal computer modifications. A typical example is a compact box containing the drive, interface circuitry, and a power supply, connected via an eSATA cable.
Offering faster data transfer rates than USB or FireWire connections prevalent in earlier years, this technology provides a high-performance alternative for data-intensive applications such as video editing and large file transfers. Its introduction addressed the growing need for external storage solutions that could keep pace with increasing data volumes and performance demands. This technology provided a reliable and efficient method for connecting external storage while maintaining data integrity.