External Drive Issues

[srock77]

Relatively experienced user but not making any progress with this problem

I recently added a SATA 3 controller to my system to support a new SSD - no problem

The card (SYBA SY-PEX40039 ) also supports port multpliers (asmedia chipset)

I wanted to use an unused 4 drive enclosure that I had (Rosewill rsv-s4-x) which has a port multiplier

Thought that would be a snap

Wrong

When I connect it (esata) and boot- the two drives don't show up in administrative tools - but a drive does list as "Removed (F -but you cant access this phantom drive-

I have tried safely removing and rebooting but no luck it show up again

Stangely

during boot the bios does appear to see the drives, but not windows

Not clear what is going on

Any help appreciated

Steve

 

[ronbo613]

Could be a number of things. The motherboard has the latest BIOS and is set to AHCI? Drivers installed for the controller card(check Device Manager)? Don't use the drivers on the CD or from Windows, get them from the Syba website or IO Crest website; they make the card. When the BIOS recognizes the drive(s), but not Windows, go to Disc Management via the Control Panel to see what's going on. You may need to initialize the drives. Do you have the drives attached when you install the card?

 

[srock77]

Bios is current. set to ACHI

Driver supplied with units is for a silicon image esata 2 card - not installed as I put in Syba esata 3 card for SSD and no further pci-e slots


Will try to install the subsystem software and be certain it is in the JBOD mode although I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that thats what it would default to

I used the windows driver for the syba sata 3 card as it self installed on boot from window

Concerned about using the syba driver (update it)

Always afraid of these kinds of updates- the card works well and it is my windows boot controller

"the absolute enemy of good is better"

 

[ronbo613]

I would not use a driver for a Silicone Image chip card because the PEX40039 does not have a Silicone Image chip. Using the Windows driver is fine if it works. If you have problems, try the manufacturer's driver which can be found on both the SYBA and IO Crest websites; it's the one in the "1061" folder. Be sure you get the right one for your operating system. If the driver doesn't work, you can roll back to the Windows version.

It's a good idea to have your devices connected to the card when you install it. I know it's supposed to be "hot swappable", but these are $15 components, pretty basic, so sometimes things just don't work because they are not exactly compatible with every system configuration.

If you have one SSD, which is your boot drive and you want to attach an external drive(s) to the other internal SATA port, maybe you are trying to stretch the card's capabilities too far. If the card works with only the SSD attached and it works with the external drives without the SSD attached, you might be better off buying another card for $15.