External enclosure will not work with esata

[memory]

I have a Rocketfish external hard drive enclosure that I have a hard drive installed for backups. This is the the one I have: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Rocketfi...fish&cp=1&lp=3

When hooking it up to the computer using a usb cord, everything works fine. When I try to hook it up via an esata cable, it will not work. The computer does not recognize it. I have tried the esata port on the front of the case and well as the motherboard esata port, neither work.

Do I need to do anything special to get esata working? I looked on Gigabyte's website and could not find any downloads for esata. The only thing I could think is wrong is the cable is bad but I don't have another cable to try out. I don't have any other esata devices either so that is out.

 

[Serradifalco]

What OS do you have? Do you have AHCI enabled in the bios?

 

[memory]

Sorry forgot to mention that, I am running Windows 7 64bit.

I literally just got done enabling AHCI moments ago. Although I am a little confused about AHCI. There are 3 different settings in the bios to enable AHCI so I enabled AHCI on all 3 of them.

It still does not detect it via esata cable.

 

[BoomerD]

You don't say whether you have rev.1 or rev.2 for your motherboard, but here's the rev.1 manual:
http://download.gigabyte.ru/manual/mb_manual_ga-x58a-ud3r_e.pdf

Try searching for esata. Lots of info in there.

 

[Athadeus]

Maybe that enclosure doesn't support power through the esata cable, and you're connecting the enclosure without it's power supply? Maybe the ports are disabled in the bios? Other than that, something (probably the enclosure) is defunct.

 

[memory]

You don't say whether you have rev.1 or rev.2 for your motherboard, but here's the rev.1 manual:
http://download.gigabyte.ru/manual/mb_manual_ga-x58a-ud3r_e.pdf

Try searching for esata. Lots of info in there.

I have revision 1.0. I have already searched through the manual.

Maybe that enclosure doesn't support power through the esata cable, and you're connecting the enclosure without it's power supply? Maybe the ports are disabled in the bios? Other than that, something (probably the enclosure) is defunct.

I am using the power supply along with the esata cable. I checked the bios and anything esata related is enabled. I guess I need to get another cable to rule that out.

 

[Rifter]

Maybe that enclosure doesn't support power through the esata cable, and you're connecting the enclosure without it's power supply? Maybe the ports are disabled in the bios? Other than that, something (probably the enclosure) is defunct.

this is it ill bet, no power.

 

[memory]

this is it ill bet, no power.

I am using the power cord if that is what you mean.

 

[Rifter]

I am using the power cord if that is what you mean.

hmmm, is AHCI enabled?

 

[Serradifalco]

Did you go into disk management to see if the drive shows up? Did you format the drive or did it come formatted? I have an external dual drive enclosure plugged in via esata running in raid 1. I had to do some work initially to get it running properly. That was mainly due to the software controlled raid feature.

Here is what I did initially:

1. Pulled both drives from the enclosure.
2. Shut down the computer.
3. Plugged each of them directly into esata port.
4. Turned on the computer.
5. Went into disk management in Windows.
6. Formatted each drive using the NTFS file system.
7. Put each drive back in the enclosure.
8. Made sure the enclosure was powered off.
9. Plugged the enclosure into the esata port, turned it on, and voila! It worked!
10. Once that worked I installed my raid software. It sounds like you wouldn't have to do this. It looks like you have a single drive enclosure.

Earlier I asked if AHCI was enabled because that will support the plug and play feature of your drive. You don't have to restart Windows every time you turn your drive off and want to turn it back on. If that feature wasn't enabled, Windows wouldn't recognize your drive unless it was plugged in and you re-booted the computer.

 

[memory]

Yes, AHCI is enabled. The drive does not show up under disk management.

This is not an external hard drive, it is a external enclosure with a standard 3.5" WD drive that I put in my self. It has already been formatted and I have been using it for storing data with the usb cord.

 

[Paperdoc]

Is the driver for the eSATA port controller loaded in your Win7 OS?

Does the BIOS Setup screen for the eSATA port show anything connected to it? If not, you have a hardware problem and cannot "fix it" in Windows.

On the other hand, if the enclosure at least (and maybe even a HDD) is shown in BIOS Setup, we're back to checking Windows things. You say, "The drive does not show up under disk management." Exactly where in that did you look? The only place in Disk Management where you can "see" a piece of hardware that Windows does not yet understand is in the LOWER RIGHT pane. And don't forget that pane SCROLLS so you can see all it contains. If no device shows up there from eSATA, then you probably do have a hardware problem.

 

[Vincent]

Try rebooting with the hard drive attached.

 

[Serradifalco]

Yes, AHCI is enabled. The drive does not show up under disk management.

This is not an external hard drive, it is a external enclosure with a standard 3.5" WD drive that I put in my self. It has already been formatted and I have been using it for storing data with the usb cord.

Did you format with the using NTFS or FAT32?

 

[bruceb]

Some good info is here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/74404-windows-7-esata-will-not-work.html

Basically it is saying your AHCI drives are not installed.

Look at this search link (many folks with same problem)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...t+work+in+windows+7+64+bit&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

 

[memory]

I don't know what is going on. I just now turned it on and it showed up and I can see all my files on the drive. I turned it off and back on, does not come up. So that means the esata cable is not bad. But what does this mean?

The drive is formatted with NTFS.

I have already rebooted with it connected but not turned on. I will try to reboot again with it turned on.

Bruce, I will search through those links and see what I find.

EDIT: After turning it off and on a few times in a row, it showed up again.

 

[bruceb]

Windows can be finicky at times. Once it learns new hardware is present, you should be fine. I installed an external USB Hard Drive (Western Digital) on XP Pro computer. Windows did it's "found new hardware" for a minute or so, then said "new hardware ready for use" ... all ok.

 

[C1]

Whenever something like this happens, I take the enclosure w/drive to a place like Fry's and test it on one of their floor computers - say a nice big Toshiba Qosmio with an eSATA port.

 

[memory]

When I restart the machine with the external drive turned on, there is a screen that lists the drive and says press any key to continue, couldn't read the whole screen, it was to fast. I am not sure I should press a key.

On the screen where it lists the external drive, it only shows that drive. It does not list any other drives that are hooked up internal. Why is it only listing the external drive?

I will try to get a pic of it and post it here. I am a little confused with this AHCI stuff. Since I have enabled AHCI in the bios, during startup I get a screen that says drive not detected. This is the screen just before the screen that lists the external drive. I will post a couple of pics and maybe some bios pics to check if I have everything set right.

 

[BoomerD]

When I restart the machine with the external drive turned on, there is a screen that lists the drive and says press any key to continue, couldn't read the whole screen, it was to fast. I am not sure I should press a key.

On the screen where it lists the external drive, it only shows that drive. It does not list any other drives that are hooked up internal. Why is it only listing the external drive?

I will try to get a pic of it and post it here. I am a little confused with this AHCI stuff. Since I have enabled AHCI in the bios, during startup I get a screen that says drive not detected. This is the screen just before the screen that lists the external drive. I will post a couple of pics and maybe some bios pics to check if I have everything set right.

Sounds like you need to go into your BIOS and change the boot priority. Your machine is asking if you want to boot into your removable drive...(or at least, that's the way I read the above)

 

[memory]

I think I have it working now. Once I installed the Marvell Console driver and the NEC USB 3.0 driver from Gigabyte's website, it seems to detect it every time now. Although it seems to take several seconds to recognize it and several seconds to disappear once it is turned off. It takes around 10 seconds for it to disappear once it is turned off. It also works on the esata port on the case too.

I still have a problem with it though. The memory card reader and usb ports on the external enclosure do not work. They work fine with the usb cord.

Well I was going to post some pics of the bios and start up screens but it seems Photobucket is having problems. I can not copy any of the links for the pics.

 

[memory]

Photobucket seems to be working now. Here are the pics:

Is there any setting that does not look right that needs to be changed?

 

[mfenn]

Looks fine. The reason that you're not seeing it on one screen is that your motherboard actually has several different SATA controllers and each one has their own AHCI bios.

Regarding the card reader and USB ports on the enclosure, I honestly would not expect them to work when connected via eSATA. They are all native USB devices and the controller most likely simply has a USB hub inside it. Come to think of it, I don't even know how a USB device could even work when plugged into a SATA connection.

 

[memory]

The esata port on the motherboard I am using is an usb/esata combo port. So I figured they would still work. Idk, maybe not. So maybe there is nothing wrong after all.

There is still a delay when turning it on and turning it off. With usb, it is instant.

 

[mfenn]

The esata port on the motherboard I am using is an usb/esata combo port. So I figured they would still work. Idk, maybe not. So maybe there is nothing wrong after all.

There is still a delay when turning it on and turning it off. With usb, it is instant.

That combo port is just a physical convenience. The USB and eSATA port are in no way linked. eSATA can be slow to recognize sometimes, I wouldn't worry about it.