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I have an external 1 TB hard drive with USB 2.0 and eSATA compatability....i.e., there is a port for each. The drive is plug and play for the USB 2.0 but I haven't gotten it to recognize the eSATA plug in yet (for which it's supposed to be plug and play also). I think I have to run some driver piece of software (probably from Microsoft) first. Has anyone obtained some experience with such lately that would not mind sharing? I simply need to know what I must do to get the external hard drive to be recognized when I plug into the eSATA port. It does so immediately when I plug into the USB 2.0. I have Windows XP Pro on a Dell Latitude ES6500 laptop.

Thanks in advance,
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I can't help, because I no longer have XP. But wasn't the eSATA standard introduced long after XP? I'm guessing that your idea of a needed driver is correct.

Bump - can anyone help him?


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I have read that MANY eSATA cables don't make a proper connection.

Try pushing the cable into the socket physically and see if this works..(very inconvenient, I know)
Some people found joy this way and suggested trimming some of the cable plastic so the jack goes in a little more

Voids warranty of course.. but if just physically assisting the connection makes a difference it may get you on the right path
Good ol' USB has a spring snap to hold it in ..


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You have to email Microsoft for the KB888321 hotfix for XP systems. (You won`t find it online, they send it with a password protection only for your system). It`s a SCSI port driver. It should work then. Well it used to work once on my system and when I reinstalled everything (incl. the hotfix) it did not work anymore. No idea why. Maybe SP3 solves the problem. I`m not using SP3 though, it used to crash some music plugins I have.

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It can depend on your motherboard chipset. While eSATA should be a hot plug service, some manufacturers are a bit slack and use a standard SATA controller without hot plug capability and then just put an eSATA connector on it.

To test this, shut down your system, plug in the eSATA device, and power up the machine. The system should recognise it in the BIOS and then Windoze will find it. If the BIOS doesn't find it there is some other kind of problem happening.


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I've tried each suggestion....neither works for me. I found one source that said Windows 7 would recognize the eSATA on bootup, but in the case of Windows XP Pro, it appears that I've got to go through a bunch of agony yet to get this thingy to finally work. I can index F12 at bootup, go into the BIOS Setup and change the ATA setting to ACHI and I see that it recognizes the external HD at that point, but then when I exit out of that, it won't go ahead and boot on into the initial Windows screen. It just cycles through the Windows boot up screen repeatedly until I stop it.

I'll try any other suggestions in the meantime....I've called the Dell technical helpline, and what a joke that turned out to be. They initially acted like they knew what to do, but then wanted to sell me a longer term support service and also wanted to log into my computer remotely....no thanks!!!

Thanks for previous suggestions....the eSATA port is just sitting there, waiting for me to use it (cough, cough)!!
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Quote:

Dell ... wanted to log into my computer remotely....no thanks!!!
cchallum



Oh, my. I hope I never run into this. Good for you, saying No.


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Quote:

I can index F12 at bootup, go into the BIOS Setup and change the ATA setting to ACHI and I see that it recognizes the external HD at that point, but then when I exit out of that, it won't go ahead and boot on into the initial Windows screen. It just cycles through the Windows boot up screen repeatedly until I stop it.




This is a driver issue. Because Windoze was installed without ACHI support it won't recognise the controller if you subsequently switch to ACHI. Clearly you need ACHI for your rmachine to recognise the eSATA device - catch-22.

A possible way out is to clone your existing drive ( in case of problems ) then enable ACHI and perform a repair install from the Windoze install CD. You will probably need to have drivers from the motherboard CD on a floppy OR you could make a "slipstream" copy of your CD and include the required drivers. nLite is an excellent tool for doing this. At the same time you could add the latest service pack - you SHOULD have at least the same service pack on your repair CD as you are currently running.

By performing the repair install it will find the "new" hardware and update your current install accordingly.


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Although I would probably take an image of computer first, you might want to see if you can find the latest chipset drivers for your laptop that supports Windows XP and see if it has SATA support. It's possible that installing them can provide the SATA support you need. Since your BIOS Setup says you are set for ATA, it's viewing the SATA drive as an ATA drive, not an AHCI drive (as you have already found out). There are some posts out on the web for people who have successfully flipped from ATA to AHCI post installation, but it's not pretty and doesn't always work. Best bet is to (as Lawrie said) slipstream the SATA drivers onto your XP disk and install. Of course this doesn't help if you have an OEM version that just has a system restore disk. The old way was to have the drivers on a floppy when you install, but that doesn't help since no one has floppy drives anymore. It will probably require a reinstallation of XP.

XP did not come with SATA drivers. Vista and beyond does, but you still need to install the appropriate chipset drivers after installing Vista.

I've used nLite successfully to slipstream the drivers (in order to get a computer from ATA to ACHI), but I also had an XP disk to use. Google it and you'll find lots of information about it.

Again, I would try installing the chipset drivers that contain the SATA drivers and see if that works first. Either do a backup image first, or at least set a restore point before doing so, just in case.


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I have an eSATA controller in a Win XP Pro box, and it works just fine. However, it is a separate controller card with drivers.

I have eSATA built into my Vista machine and I've had problems with the connector, where often it will not physically see the drive.

Other than that, I don't know what to offer you. Upgrade to Win 7.

Gary


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Lawrie, John, and Gary,

Based on your help, it appears I have some directions to head that will get me up and running eventually with the eSATA external HD. I greatly appreciate your insight regarding this puppy. Once again, it's because of folks like you that make this the greatest forum in existence.

Thanks a million....I've got a way out now,
cchallum

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