Safely Remove esata? (+ Imaging Software Advice)

ChrissyT88 · 19 Mar 2009 at 21:34

Hi guys,

Upon the recommendations of a few people in this section a few months ago i bought an Icybox and a WD Scorpio hard drive to use for documents and music backups. I BSOD yesterday gave me a swift reminder that i hadnt backed up my files for a while, and so have done so immediately. I do have a quick question about removing the HDD from the PC...

If i use the USB interface, transfers are slow and awful, but i get the option to 'Safely remove' the drive just as i would any normal pen drive etc. If i use the esata port on the caddy, transfer speeds are great, but there is no option to safely remove or unmount the drive in the system tray or in the options in 'My Computer'. Previously i have just removed the esata and power cable to turn the drive off, or have waited until the computer is shutdown, but is there a 'proper' way to remove the esata device from the system?

I have an Asus P5Q Deluxe mobo, so it should have the ICH10R Southbridge as far as i know. I think i am also running the latest motherboard drivers from the Asus webpage, although i cannot get onto their donwload site this evening... The PC is runnign vista x64.

On another note, i am also looking for some drive imaging software. I know there are a few out there and Acronis seems to get mentioned a lot on these forums. Is this the one to go for? I have downloaded the trial and am installing as we speak...

Cheers, any advice is appreciated.

rpstewart · 20 Mar 2009 at 08:56

Have you got the SATA controller in AHCI or RAID mode so that it supports hotswapping? Be aware that if it's in IDE mode then you'll need to do some monkeying to let the system boot after you change it - google should throw up a guide.

ChrissyT88 · 20 Mar 2009 at 09:08

As far as i know it is set to AHCI (it was set to IDE to overcome a strange Linux boot issue, but i changed the registry settings and it seems fine in AHCI mode). I'll double check later on today, cheers.

rpstewart · 20 Mar 2009 at 10:46

Are you using the built in eSATA port or a SATA to eSATA adapter?

The built in port isn't on the ICH10R, rather it's on a Marvell controller. I've got an older Marvell controller on my board and using that with a SATA to eSATA adapter wasn't particularly successful, even though it had a specific port which was meant to support an eSATA adapter.

It might be worth investigating a program called HotSwap!, it's an additional system tray app which gives a sort of safely remove hardware functionality for drives which don't show in the normal one.

bledd · 20 Mar 2009 at 10:58

ChrissyT88 · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:02

I am using the motherboards esata port on its backplate - i was unaware that it was on a different controller, but i guess that would explain the issue! I'll certainly look into that program in the mean time. Cheers guys.

ChrissyT88 · 20 Mar 2009 at 14:56

Checked in the BIOS and AHCI mode is definately enabled. I may have to hook up the esata port on my case to one on the motherboard ICH10 controller - i think in the long run this would be easier. Seems a bit silly that the backplate esata would not properly support hot-swapping...

Just a quick question about drive imaging software, do people recommend acronis over ghost/others?

theukmoog · 27 Mar 2009 at 14:58

ChrissyT88 said:
Checked in the BIOS and AHCI mode is definately enabled. I may have to hook up the esata port on my case to one on the motherboard ICH10 controller - i think in the long run this would be easier. Seems a bit silly that the backplate esata would not properly support hot-swapping...

Just a quick question about drive imaging software, do people recommend acronis over ghost/others?

Over the years I've used and dumped Ghost and Acronis - both products worked for a period of time and then just stopped working, with no acceptable response from their respective technical support people

So, for the last year or so, I've been using DriveClone by Farstone, which I use to completely image/clone my HD onto a removable drive. Very happy with it, so far.

They do a trial/demo version, so give it a go.