ICH9R hot-swapping

[TheGreatOzmodiar]

I just built a new system around a DFI LP DK P35-T2RS. I have a Seagate FreeAgent Pro with eSATA and have a PCI bracket to convert one of the ICH9R SATA ports to eSATA, but upon setting up XP and from what I've been able to find hot-swapping on the ICH9 is only supported in Vista (even if AHCI is enabled). Can anyone confirm if that is true or of there is a work-around? This DFI P35 doesn't have a secondary SATA controller to provide eSATA like some others so that's not an option. I really don't want to be stuck using USB for a hard drive that I bought specifically because it has eSATA

 

[TheGreatOzmodiar]

Anyone?

 

[will889]

You might want to read up at pcper.com there's a really good ICH9 guide there in the forums dealing with ACHI and hot swapping. Not sure about eSATA with ACHI though, but the guide may help.

 

[TheGreatOzmodiar]

Thanks, I'll look into that

 

[AndyHui]

AHCI is a little bit fiddly to get working in Windows XP.

Generally you need to get the Intel Storage Matrix/AHCI drivers installed at the start of your WinXP installation using the driver disk/F6 method. Once you have that done, you simply need to have the Storage Manager drivers installed once the WinXP installation is complete. This will allow you to take advantage of eSATA hot-swapping.

 

[lopri]

What I found weird is that even when I get hot-swapping to work under XP, the 'Safely remove hardware' icon doesn't show up on the System Tray. But it just seemingly works.. (?) Sometimes I don't even hear the sound of hardware plugged-in/out, but when I re-open the window the drive shows up. Doesn't cause system hang or such. Very weird.

 

[TheGreatOzmodiar]

Interesting. I used the F6 drivers (slipstreamed) and got XP working on them fine, and installed the Matrix Storage software but still no hot-plug notification. As far as I can tell, I can hot-plug easily enough; it's the hot-UNplugging that's the bigger problem. My FreeAgent Pro is finicky enough on its own, I'm not sure I'd trust removing it without any software stopping (and I don't want to uninstall it from device manager every time). It just steams me that the otherwise great P35 can't "safely remove" while the disappointing nForce 650i can without a hitch. But I don't need to rant. Thanks for all the input.

 

[lopri]

And I experienced the same thing under Vista as well. And that's when I got it to work. With Vista's in-built RAID/AHCI drivers, hot-swapping usually didn't work. And yes NF chipset works well in this regard - actually works a little too well, always showing the boot partition in the 'Safely remove hardware' dialog.

 

[TheGreatOzmodiar]

Thanks lopri. "Too well" is probably right--don't want to remove your boot drive while it's running, whether it's "safely" or not!

Do you think a PCI/PCI-e SATA card would hot-swap okay in XP?

 

[lopri]

No clue, but as a matter of fact I picked up a SiI 3132 based PCIe x1 card for dirt cheap not too long ago. Will try it out and let you know.

 

[TheGreatOzmodiar]

Wow thanks man. I really appreciate it.

 

[Old Hippie]

If you're wanting the Safely Remove Hardware icons, try HotSwap.

I've used 2 different el-chepo eSATA PCI cards, and they both worked fine with XP Pro. I believe the newer PCIe cards advertise SATA II with hot swap, but even my SATA I PCI cards worked.

With my new IP-35 Pro, I don't need 'um.

More junk for the closet! :laugh:

 

[TheGreatOzmodiar]

Sweet, HotSwap looks like just the ticket. I will have to try it when I get home from work.

 

[lopri]

I've tried SiI 3132 PCIe SATA card (2 internal ports) in Vista 64-bit. After getting everything right (at least I'd like to believe), it works the same way ICH works. I can hot-plug/hot-unplug without an issue. And it even shows 'Autoplay' window, asking what I want to do. But there is not 'Safely remove hardware' icon nor do I hear 'New hardware found' sound. It just works as if there is nothing wrong with it.. :frown:

One thing that everyone tries is to disable write caching on the drives, but it just doesn't work - and that's the worrying part, the possible data loss due to caching. No matter how many time I disable the write caching, it keeps coming back. I think we'll need an OS expert here.

Other than that, as Old Hippie suggest, HotSwap is probably way to go. I didn't try it yet but it looks like it gets the job done. Good luck!

 

[TheGreatOzmodiar]

I am using HotSwap right now and it seems to work as described. Now I don't have any problems with this board

 

[Old Hippie]

I am using HotSwap right now and it seems to work as described. Now I don't have any problems with this board

I was a millwright in a steelmill for 30 yrs., and it still makes me feel good when I fix something.....amazed, but still feels good. :laugh: