Those are really neat! However, as I had suspected, having the hard drive's data cable disconnected from the back of my computer did indeed prove deleterious to SATA connectivity.

An accurate digital thermometer taped to the outside of the case shows a temperature of 105 degrees. Active@ shows an internal temperature of 120 degrees. A 15 degree difference outside/inside is not unreasonable, and neither temperature is cause for serious alarm. Interestingly, the identical 1 TB drive inside the computer case, being lovingly bathed by two five inch diameter fans, is running more than 35 degrees cooler (at 84 degrees internal temp) so the benefit of airflow around the drive is clear.

Next, I'll see what happens to the temperatures when I start running the drives under load (right now they are just spinning, no read/write activity.) I have about 12 GB of data to back up from the internal drive to the external drive now, so we'll see what happens.

To be continued...

tanstaafl.