ESATA External drive not working :(

Soldato
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Ok,
I have just bought a new 2.5 ESATA external drive and plugged it into my motherboard and it popped up saying installing drivers. So i went to 'My Computer' and the drive is not there.

So i do a hardware rescan in Device Manager and still the drive does not show.

So i take out ESATA and put in Micro-USB and it works perfectly.

Anyone got any ideas as to how i can get ESATA with my motherboard?

Motherboard is: Asus M3A78-EM.

There is quite a few drivers on the Asus Website but i have no idea which one i need.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M3A78EM/#download

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.
 
Hi there,

Is the drive formatted? If not go to control panel > system and security > administrative tools > computer management. Then go to the disk management tab and see if your disk is there but unformatted. If it is, then right click and format as NTFS.

If this isn't the issue - are the drivers for the eSATA controller installed?
 
It doesn't show in Disk Management.

The hdd inside has come from my usb enclosure and has all my data etc on it already.

cmndr-
I dont know if they are. How do i find out/find them to install.
 
Have you tried rebooting with drive connected, as I needed to do this on my Asus 880g chipset board.

Only way I can get the drive to connect during windows is running in ACHI mode.
 
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First thing - are the chipset drivers installed?
I am not sure?
I didnt do it manually. Would Win 7 have done it?
Have you tried rebooting with drive connected, as I needed to do this on my Asus 880g chipset board.

Only way I can get the drive to connect during windows is running in ACHI mode.
I do that but Windows 7 hangs on the glowing windows logo and doesnt go any further.
 
Have you enabled the hardware in the bios? Mine needs the Jmicron controller to be enabled for the Esata port to work. Also, it has to be plugged in and switched on before i switch the pc on or it does'nt get picked up.
 
Have you enabled the hardware in the bios? Mine needs the Jmicron controller to be enabled for the Esata port to work. Also, it has to be plugged in and switched on before i switch the pc on or it does'nt get picked up.

I have just read about the JMicron on the Asus Forum.

How do i enable it mate?

and yeh it is plugged in when i boot but like i say it goes through to the glowing windows logo and then just hangs there.
 
If you are changing the boot drive from IDE too AHCI (some motherboards will let you change it per port but others it is all or nothing) then you need to use the advice in this MS article to get windows to boot.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

It isn't too clear to me from your post if you have changed this or not but your description matches the behaviour as if you had. eSata is only plug 'n' play if port it is connected to is in AHCI mode. IDE needs a reboot to refresh.
 
When you've got the enclosure connected using eSATA is the eSATA cable the only connection to the enclosure?

If it is then it won't work. eSATA does not carry any power hence you'll need some way of powering the drive, normally for 2.5" enclosures this will be a USB cable.
 
No,
There is a usb cable---pin for power and then the ESATA cable.
It works fine when i take out ESATA and put in micro usb so no power issues.
 
Did you change the registry first before going to AHCI in bios?

Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

You have to do this first or it will give you the black screen.
 
I have just changed the sata thingy from "SATA" to "AHCI".

But when it loads i get a black screen and it just says

BOOTMGR is missing

You missed it guys. You'll have to go into the bios , advanced settings, and change the boot order so your system drive is first in the list. As long as you've already done what Crowort suggested first (change IDE to AHCI on the JMicron Controller) everything should be sweet.
To explain: When a new drive is added to the system the bios always puts it first in the boot order (this also goes when a contoller is changed from one system to another). I don't know about older bioses but this definitely happens with the newer ones. By experience
 
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Did you change the registry first before going to AHCI in bios?

Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

You have to do this first or it will give you the black screen.
Hi,
Thanks for that, i will try that out now.
Do i change both ACHI and Istarov or just one?
 
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Hi there, I had ESata problems a week back, and only 2 things were needed to make it work:

1. In BIOS make sure your SATA setting is AHCI (the option in my BIOS was 'AHCI/IDE' I think). In my BIOS my internal and external SATA settings are separate - and I would expect it to be the same for you.
2. MAKE SURE you download and install the latest drivers from (in my case) JMicron, because these support hotswapping and should pick up your drive immediately from Windows (does not have to be from boot).
 
Hi there, I had ESata problems a week back, and only 2 things were needed to make it work:

1. In BIOS make sure your SATA setting is AHCI (the option in my BIOS was 'AHCI/IDE' I think). In my BIOS my internal and external SATA settings are separate - and I would expect it to be the same for you.
2. MAKE SURE you download and install the latest drivers from (in my case) JMicron, because these support hotswapping and should pick up your drive immediately from Windows (does not have to be from boot).
i tried to download the latest drivers from JMICRON but when i ran them it said that a JMICRON controller could not be found?
 
OK,
Edited the registry, Achieving setting to 0.
I then rebooted and changed sata configuration to ACHIEVE and made my main hdd boot priority.
Restarted with the esata plugged in and I recieved black screen with BOOTMGR is missing. I Restarted and recieved the same with it unplugged.
Any other ideas.
 
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