eSATA brackets -> SATA and External HD's - need answers

S

snukky

Weaksauce
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Mar 2, 2003
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So for the past 3 years or so i've been using one 2TB and one 1TB external HD. I'm currently using a 150GB internal, main HD which Windows is installed on. Initially i connect my Externals to the computer VIA usb - soon after i realized that directly connecting eSATA plugs from my externals and SATA ends directly into my motherboard gave incrased transfer rates, so thats what i did.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822207017

Just recently i needed to purchase another 2TB external since i'm running out of space. The SATA wires would run through the rubber plugs/openings on the back of my case which are meant for plastic water cooling tubing - but seeing how i don't water cool, i've used them in this manner.

While browsing newegg for another external, i noticed eSATA brackets which allowed two ports, since i have three externals, i bought two brackets.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812816068

and 3 wires to accompany,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812816035

My plan was to, instead of feeding the wires through the water cooling holes, i would just install these brackets and simply plug each external feed into each of the brackets ports (for each HD), while the brackets wires would connect into the SATA 02, 03, 04 etc.. ports.

Well, i hooked everything up correctly, and my OS is having trouble "seeing" the externals. When i plugged the HD's directly to the motherboard, (eSATA to SATA) the OS had no problem noticing them. But now that i'm running from the HD's, to the brackets, to the motherboard, windows is having trouble picking them up.

(i could go back to the old way, but this seems more 'clean' or efficient, rather than feeding the wires through those holes and unhooking the wire from the back of the actual external HD's whenever i go to clean my case etc..)

Any reason for this? If so, can you give an explanation? Appreciate the help.
 
Interestingly enough, after restarting the computer and opening "my computer" folder, windows is seeing two of the 3 hard drives. The two are plugged into the same bracket, while the one that it doesn't see is on the second bracket. Hmm
 
Since the brackets are simply holding the cables, I would suggest that the cable end connections are causing the problems.
 
Well believe it or not, after restarting for a 3rd time i am able to see all of the HD's lol, jeez, well if you ever run into the same problem, now you know :p ...

Thanks all for reading i suppose.
 
How long is your total cable run (bracket cable + drive cable)? Are any of your motherboard ports eSATA, or are they all standard SATA?

Standard SATA only supports 1 meter. eSATA uses slighty different specs on the signal voltage and is good to 2 meters.

So, if any of your motherboard ports are standard SATA (very likely), and the sum of the length of your cables exceeds 1 meter, then you are operating outside of spec, and the connection could be flakey.
 
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all cords are easily less than a foot... Now after multiple restarts due to windows updates, the external drive that is alone on a bracket doesn't seem to be showing up, however the two on the same bracket are consistently showing up after restarting... Very aggravating.
 
I have had a problem with some eSATA devices having "funky" SATA ports. They don't stick out of the device far enough to allow the SATA cord to fully seat. Trimming the plastic on the cables allow this. Just a thought. I now have 2 docks with this same issue (one a BlacX, one a no-name device that actually works better and shows 2 drives at once).
 
Kil4Thril said:
I have had a problem with some eSATA devices having "funky" SATA ports. They don't stick out of the device far enough to allow the SATA cord to fully seat. Trimming the plastic on the cables allow this. Just a thought. I now have 2 docks with this same issue (one a BlacX, one a no-name device that actually works better and shows 2 drives at once).
Click to expand...

Yes, many eSATA brackets and cables are poorly designed. The brackets often have punchouts that don't allow enough space around the eSATA female socket (which is already recessed behind the bracket. To make matters worse, many eSATA cables either have too much molding around the connector, or the metal part of the connector is just too short to make it all the way into the socket.

Personally I think the SATA/eSATA specs have always had some deficiencies surrounding cable retention and shape of connectors. It's better now, but in the early days it was not at all uncommon for me to have to, for example, tape internal data/power cables in place so they wouldn't fall out.
 
I've been doing this for years, since I got a Gigabyte P35-DS3P that had an eSATA bracket in the box (with two eSATA ports and a molex port, and molex=>sata power and eSATA=>SATA cable). Since then I bought 4 more (dealextreme) and put one on every computer in the house, even those that already had an eSATA port. However, I don't use eSATA enclosures, that add a controller to the mix. The drives are naked or in a silicone enclosure, and powered with the internal PSU via the bracket with molex => SATA power => SATA power cables that I custom made from a broken PSU.

Drives are picked up every time, if the controller is in AHCI of course, and the cables are more than one meter long, SATA all the way (the eSATA=>SATA cables are quite thick however, I don't know if they're shielded or something).
 
I've had the same problem with a cheap bracket I bought off of eBay (the one I got with my motherboard works perfectly). I think it is just crappy construction - as others have said, try fiddling with the connections.
 
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