Vista - E Sata with external hard drive

I have a problem I hope may be solvable with some help from others. My PC has
an e sata port on the rear and my external hard drive works fine on USB but
as soon as I connect to the e sata port the PC simply does not recognise its
existence at all. I have tried updating drivers, setting bios for e sata etc
all to no avail. Has anyone got a solution? I am running Vista Home Ultimate
32bit with an MSI mainboard.

"PeterG" <PeterG@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5BF77189-A55F-4B19-9614-BFF9EFB50655@microsoft.com...
>I have a problem I hope may be solvable with some help from others. My PC
>has
> an e sata port on the rear and my external hard drive works fine on USB
> but
> as soon as I connect to the e sata port the PC simply does not recognise
> its
> existence at all. I have tried updating drivers, setting bios for e sata
> etc
> all to no avail. Has anyone got a solution? I am running Vista Home
> Ultimate
> 32bit with an MSI mainboard.


Does it have an external power supply ? USB can power some external drives
but am pretty sure esata needs a separate power supply.

btw: I have an esata drive and it shows as a normal hard not as an external
drive on my Vista Home Ultimate

PeterG wrote:
> I have a problem I hope may be solvable with some help from others. My PC has
> an e sata port on the rear and my external hard drive works fine on USB but
> as soon as I connect to the e sata port the PC simply does not recognise its
> existence at all. I have tried updating drivers, setting bios for e sata etc
> all to no avail. Has anyone got a solution? I am running Vista Home Ultimate
> 32bit with an MSI mainboard.
With the extent of problem description as given, there are a number of
possible causes. Let me ask questions:
1) Does the Device Manager show that the drivers are installed and
indicate the device is working?
2) Is the external SATA HDD powered?

I can think of more questions but please answer the above as a starter.

churin

The external hard drive has its own power supply. Upon connecting via USB the
PC picks it up and shows it as an extra hard drive in MyComputer. When
connecting via e sata the l.e.d on the mainboard lights up indicating a
connection is present but the PC does nothing. I have tried all the usual
tactics to get the PC to recognise the drive but to no avail. I even
installed the driver files supplied intended for 98 and before setups and
still nothing. It has me beat with my reasonable but limited technical
knowledge.
Peter G

"churin" wrote:

> PeterG wrote:
> > I have a problem I hope may be solvable with some help from others. My PC has
> > an e sata port on the rear and my external hard drive works fine on USB but
> > as soon as I connect to the e sata port the PC simply does not recognise its
> > existence at all. I have tried updating drivers, setting bios for e sata etc
> > all to no avail. Has anyone got a solution? I am running Vista Home Ultimate
> > 32bit with an MSI mainboard.
> With the extent of problem description as given, there are a number of
> possible causes. Let me ask questions:
> 1) Does the Device Manager show that the drivers are installed and
> indicate the device is working?
> 2) Is the external SATA HDD powered?
>
> I can think of more questions but please answer the above as a starter.
>
> churin
>

using a sata instead of an e-sata cable perhaps?

PeterG wrote:
> The external hard drive has its own power supply. Upon connecting via USB the
> PC picks it up and shows it as an extra hard drive in MyComputer. When
> connecting via e sata the l.e.d on the mainboard lights up indicating a
> connection is present but the PC does nothing. I have tried all the usual
> tactics to get the PC to recognise the drive but to no avail. I even
> installed the driver files supplied intended for 98 and before setups and
> still nothing. It has me beat with my reasonable but limited technical
> knowledge.
> Peter G
>
> "churin" wrote:
>
>> PeterG wrote:
>>> I have a problem I hope may be solvable with some help from others. My PC has
>>> an e sata port on the rear and my external hard drive works fine on USB but
>>> as soon as I connect to the e sata port the PC simply does not recognise its
>>> existence at all. I have tried updating drivers, setting bios for e sata etc
>>> all to no avail. Has anyone got a solution? I am running Vista Home Ultimate
>>> 32bit with an MSI mainboard.
>> With the extent of problem description as given, there are a number of
>> possible causes. Let me ask questions:
>> 1) Does the Device Manager show that the drivers are installed and
>> indicate the device is working?
>> 2) Is the external SATA HDD powered?
>>
>> I can think of more questions but please answer the above as a starter.
>>
>> churin
>>

Miracle!!!! By doing exactly what the instructions with the hard drive case
say, I plugged the esata cable in with the unit powered up and switched on.
The system picked it up and installed it straight away. I have then tried
turning it on and off and the only way it is picked up is by removing and
re-inserting the e sata cable with the case powered up and switched on. So it
doesnt always pay to do what instruction books say!! PS its a Vantec
NST-360SU with a 500GB Western Digital sata hard drive, thanks for the help
all that responded.

"PeterG" wrote:

> I have a problem I hope may be solvable with some help from others. My PC has
> an e sata port on the rear and my external hard drive works fine on USB but
> as soon as I connect to the e sata port the PC simply does not recognise its
> existence at all. I have tried updating drivers, setting bios for e sata etc
> all to no avail. Has anyone got a solution? I am running Vista Home Ultimate
> 32bit with an MSI mainboard.

I think I may have made an error in my last post. Anyway by powering up the
external HD and then plugging in the esata cable it works fine. The Vantec
instructions say not to do this!! It will only install doing this so I assume
either a typo error in the instructions or I have a weird PC!! Thanks,PeterG

"PeterG" wrote:

> I have a problem I hope may be solvable with some help from others. My PC has
> an e sata port on the rear and my external hard drive works fine on USB but
> as soon as I connect to the e sata port the PC simply does not recognise its
> existence at all. I have tried updating drivers, setting bios for e sata etc
> all to no avail. Has anyone got a solution? I am running Vista Home Ultimate
> 32bit with an MSI mainboard.

On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:00:01 -0700, PeterG
<PeterG@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Miracle!!!! By doing exactly what the instructions with the hard drive case
>say, I plugged the esata cable in with the unit powered up and switched on.
>The system picked it up and installed it straight away. I have then tried
>turning it on and off and the only way it is picked up is by removing and
>re-inserting the e sata cable with the case powered up and switched on. So it
>doesnt always pay to do what instruction books say!! PS its a Vantec
>NST-360SU with a 500GB Western Digital sata hard drive, thanks for the help
>all that responded.

I can beat that... I bought a external hard drive case for my E-SATA
drive, Vista "saw" it, then say please insert disk.