E-SATA Autodetection Question.

J

Justintoxicated

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 10, 2002
Messages
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HI PC is in Sig, DFI Expert MB.

When I power up my E-Sata Drive it is not detected by windows like my USB 2.0 external drive.

I need the drive to be autodetected in order for my backup sotware to run once a week.

Please let me know my options?

Will a bios update solve this issue?

Will using the secondary SATA controller solve this problem (8 SATA ports on board 4 per controller)

or Do I need a special card to do this?

or am I just doomed to use USB 2.0?
 
The hot swap feature isn't enabled on your SATA controllers. I would try;

1. BIOS update
2. Installing the latest chipset drivers or the remix from here.
3. Installing this little program. This worked on my last nForce4 chipset, but it will show all your SATA drives as removeable.
4. If you're running XP, you can do a repair install and load the ACHI drivers at the driver install prompt.

I doubt if #1 will help, #2 with the remix drivers might, #3 worked for me on my last Asus MB, #4 will definately do it.

Good Luck!


I forgot to add, if you're willing to add a little money, one of these cards will definately work.
 
What? I have to re-install windows xp?

Thats not going to happen...

Where can I learn more about ACHI drivers? how are these going to solve the problem? The drive does seem to detect and work fine on re-boot it is just not auto detected when it is powered up after I have already started. The way my backups work is that the drives only turn on 15-20 minutes before the backup starts. This means rebooting to detect the drive is NOT acceptable.

Google search is pulling way TMI none of it is relevant except for this post (Shows up in google search hah).

This is the only card that even looks decent I could find (More that one ESATA Plug)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815711006
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Holy Crap.

Looks like I will have to go back to USB2.0 and wait like 10 hours per backup. Lame!
 
go to the link in my signature and look at wni2k3 install notes, it has a link on how to enable ahci w/o having to re-install windows.

AHCI enables hot-swap support along w/ NCQ...which you will need to enable for the plug/play you want w/ your esata drive.

Also, have you tried, after you plug in your dive, go to your device manager, click on Action -> scan for hardware changes.

edit: also, what controller is your esata port on? what mobo? On my mobo, the esata port is on the jmicron controller, which u should be able to enable w/o worrying about reinstalling windows or any other method...so you can leave the ICH controller to IDE and enable ahci on your jmicron controller...go look at ur bios options.
 
I have not tried the find hardware changes but I can once I get back home tonight.

Four Serial ATA ports supported by the nForce4 SLI chip
- SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and JBOD
- NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA
Four Serial ATA ports supported by the Silicon Image Sil 3114 chip
- SATA speed up to 1.5Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5

Are my 2 SATA controllers. I am using the NVidia one ( the top set of 4 and not the lower set next to the silicon image Sil 3114 chip). I have been told (A long time ago) that the board will not clock as high if the other (lower Silicon Image controller) SATA plugs are used.
 
Old Hippie said:
I said Repair Install. Quite a difference.


How many eSATA ports do ya need? Here's some with two ports.
Click to expand...

Yes but repair install always screws up my machine to the point where I need to re-install anyways...

2 would work for now but I'd rather have room to expand in the future. I think it's kind of silly though, considering I have 4 unused SATA connectors on the MB.
 
Yes but repair install always screws up my machine to the point where I need to re-install anyways...
Click to expand...
I know what ya mean. ;)


2 would work for now but I'd rather have room to expand in the future.
Click to expand...
Understandable. I used to think about that stuff untill I found that I didn't keep the same configurations for more than 2 years. Kinda made it a moot point.....at least for me. The newer boards already have eSATA ports enabled without all the rigamaroll needed for yours.

Go the easy route. Use that little program I linked. It puts a little connect/disconnect icon in the Taskbar just like a USB connected device. It should let you hot swap, and that's what you need/want.
 
Ok ill give that a shot tonight...Just what I wanted...ANOTHER Icon in the task bar. I already have like 20 of those, I'm suprised my PC even has the motivation to start up lol.
 
Thanks for the pre-emptive thread/solution. I'm about to go eSATA for backup and I have a P5B -DX and the eSATA is on the jmicron controller.

Thanks, fish.
 
Those unified drivers solved my problem thanks!

I always like to try drivers before bios if I have not had any bios problems.
 
Well I ended up uninstalling those unified sata drivers and now I'm back to the e-sata drive not auto detecting. The computer also has to be restarted after I shut the drive off because it becomes un-usable.

The Nvidia Sata drivers would cause my PC to randomly re-start every few days which I finaly discovered using windows verifier.

The hotswap program works, but I have to click on it and go to scan for hardware changes before the dirve will show up. This is not goign to be of much use since I'm trying to use this for backups in the middle of the night. I need the drive to be detected when it turns on, just as my USB drive is detected.
 
The Nvidia Sata drivers would cause my PC to randomly re-start every few days which I finaly discovered using windows verifier.
Click to expand...
Bummer!

I see a cheapo PCI card in your future.......:)
 
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