DS3 and ESATA?

2StepSteve

2StepSteve

2StepSteve

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Joined
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Hi all ive just bought a 500GB WD Mybook with ESATA connection. I have a SATA to ESATA cable but when i plug it in to the DS3 XP does nothing, doesn't prompt to say found new hardware and theres nothing in device manager.

I was under the impression from what ive read that this would work fine with a ESATA to SATA cable :confused:

Thanks for any help!
 
I believe (but stand to be corrected) that you need to have the SATA controller set to AHCI in the BIOS in order for it to support hot swapping.

If you have a rev. 1.0 DS3 then you will need to use the jMicron controller. Either that or there is a hacked BIOS that provides AHCI support for the Intel controller. Not too sure about the DS3 later revisions though.
 
Hi Buffalo2102 I have enabled AHCI in the bios of the DS3 but sadly windows does not register the drive.. even when i turn the drive on first then the PC still nothing.

I have the external drive plugged into the yellow sata port would purple make a difference? Edit nope purple and yellow both give the same result... Agh!!! this is starting to seem like hard work for such a simple thing.. the manual to the mybook is useless, devoting all of 3 lines on the subject of connection via ESATA.

Any other ideas? many thanks
 
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How are you powering the drive and the yellow and purple SATA ports are on the mobo aren't they?

Wasn't even aware that the DS3 came with eSATA certainly my DS3P doesn't have an eSATA port.
 
It doesn't have an e-SATA port - he's using a SATA-eSATA cable.

The yellow Intel ports do not support AHCI (unless you load the hacked BIOS mentioned above).

You will need to use the purple ports, enable them and set them to AHCI in the BIOS and load the jMicron controller AHCI drivers. Once that's done, it might work, but I don't have any experience of e-SATA so I'm just working on theory here.

If you've done all of the above and it still doesn't work then I'll get my coat and make way for someone else to maybe suggest something else (or tell us why it won't work).

Buff
 
Its external drive being powered by its own power supply.

According to the gigabyte website the DS3 does support ESATA.

"..the GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 supports up to six SATA 3.0Gbs devices including support for eSATA, delivering external storage performance of up to 37 times that of traditional USB or 1394." - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/News/Motherboard/News_List.aspx?NewsID=1280

I'll try that Buffalo2102 thanks, i take it the jMicron controller AHCI drivers are all the same no matter what the mobo is?
 
Nah :( still not working.. tried using the purple ports got them enabled, enabled AHCI, and installed jMicron controller AHCI drivers.. still the same.. christ im starting to think ive wasted money paying more to external ESata drive.

Thanks for tryin Buffalo2102, im still all ears on what to do.. surely theres others out there that have tried getting Esata to work with the DS3
 
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