Esata help

voyager2x8 · 14 Aug 2008 at 22:42

I have just brought a seagate freeAgent pro 1TB external hard drive from play.com and connected it to my pc by the onboard esata socket on my mainboard but it won't pic up. It connects by usb no problem but not by esata. My mainboard is a J&W p3-series p35d and has a white sata socket on the inside of the pc just behind the esata socket on the back of the mainboard. My mainboard has 6 more sata sockets but they are nowhere near the one behind the esata socket. Am i supposed to connect a sata cable from the white sata socket by the esata socket to one on the other side of the mainboard.

Greenlizard0 · 14 Aug 2008 at 22:48

Hi,

I'll let somebody else claim you if he/she wishes.

What you described is what I have to do. I have 4 SATA ports near the hard drive end of the motherboard, and one eSATA port on the back plate with one normal SATA* (same controller) inside near the rear of the case. I couldn't get the eSATA port to pick up my external hard drive as well, so am running a longer SATA cable from an internal port*, through a water cooling pipe hole to my caddie.

I have also updated my drivers. Have you done this? There is the possibility that we both have faulty eSATA ports. Have you tried with another external drive?

(By the way, I think your sig is too large, you need to get rid of the competitor reference too).

voyager2x8 · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:08

What i mean is i have 1 internal sata socket right behind the external esata one. Is that Is my external one not connected if there is not a cable going across the board.

Look at the pic of my mainboard below

helmutcheese · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:21

1st make sure you have that ESATA device turned on in Bios and have drivers installed for it in the Device Manager.

If you do and it still wont work I think I know why.

Greenlizard0 · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:24

Case of the connectors not touching?

helmutcheese · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:31

Greenlizard0 said:
Case of the connectors not touching?

Yes always at the HDD end.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17810501&highlight=trim+username_helmutcheese

Post #14, cut as in Photo.

Greenlizard0 · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:33

Fair, (OP) let us know if this works btw.

voyager2x8 · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:42

I cannot find anything in the bios about esata.

helmutcheese · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:46

voyager2x8 said:
I cannot find anything in the bios about esata.

Should be in section that contains sub Menu for Onboard devices, or possibly in Storage section.

Just look in the Device Manager and see if its there or does it have a Yellow ! or ? next to it.

lopkinfop · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:56

the reason for the internal sata being just next to the esata is that you cant use both at the same time, its either or. should be an option in the bios or a jumper near the port

Greenlizard0 · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:57

You may have to enable them (in the bios) as well (as Helmutcheese has indicated). Then try booting into Windows (device manager...), to see if it wants drivers. If you don't find a tick it might be worth downloading and installing them anyway.

Greenlizard0 · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:58

lopkinfop said:
the reason for the internal sata being just next to the esata is that you cant use both at the same time, its either or. should be an option in the bios or a jumper near the port

Hmm....don't wanna de-rail this thread too much, but is that right? I can only use the internal one, and not the external one. Is the internal one switched on by default (and vice versa)? If so - how do you switch one off/the other on?

voyager2x8 · 14 Aug 2008 at 23:59

In my bios i have sata port speed sttings, on-chip serial ata, pata ide mode,sata port and AHCI. There is nothing in my device manager with yellow ! or ?.

this is my main board

http://www.jwele.com/motherboard_detail.php?91#_bios

Greenlizard0 · 15 Aug 2008 at 00:02

It might not be in the usual section where you find info on other SATA ports. Mine is seperate (I'm not on my main rig so couldn't tell you where exactly), though I think it's under onboard devices. Your manual should tell you where exactly in its walkthrough section.

voyager2x8 · 15 Aug 2008 at 00:04

Its doing my head in, my dvdrw is sata and my internal hard drive so i can't understand why this drive won't pick up.

voyager2x8 · 15 Aug 2008 at 11:07

Sorted it now, I flashed my motherboard bios from v1.2 to 1.5 and it seemed to do the trick.

martian_aphid · 15 Aug 2008 at 11:22

I hope you have more luck with the freeagent than i and many others have :S

voyager2x8 · 15 Aug 2008 at 21:44

I spoke to soon m8, My free agent 1tb drive keeps locking up and going awol when moving large files to it on the esata port. But usb seems ok i just cant understand this drive its stupid. I went for this drive as in a lot of the online reviews it was rated highly.

helmutcheese · 15 Aug 2008 at 23:11

WD My BOOK series F-T-W

martian_aphid · 17 Aug 2008 at 09:45

voyager2x8 said:
I spoke to soon m8, My free agent 1tb drive keeps locking up and going awol when moving large files to it on the esata port. But usb seems ok i just cant understand this drive its stupid. I went for this drive as in a lot of the online reviews it was rated highly.

This drive is poorly designed mate, its a bugger after a bit of use. You are not the only one going through this - I had loads of problems with mine and came across others with the same problems. Check this thread it has loads of discussion about it:

http://arewold.wordpress.com/2007/0...seagate-freeagent-500-gb-external-disk-drive/

EDIT: If you've just got it I recommend you take the files you have off and send it back as soon as possible. Because I banged a tonne on mine I ended up ripping the drive out of their crap caddie and sticking it in an icybox