Vantec eSATA Products Roundup
- Thread starter Rob Williams
- Start date
Vantec eSATA help needed
I have a Vantec NexStar3 external 3.5" enclosure with eSATA and USB interface. The USB interface works perfect but the eSATA does not.
I placed the adapater in the case and plugged the cable in to an available SATA port on the MOBO (brand new MSI KAG9 Neo-2). Then I plugged in the eSATA from the adapter to the external interface, plugged in the power, and turned the drive on. Nothing happened. So, i restarted the computer; looked in the bios (doesn't see it), and let windows start. This time the light goes out on the drive but does not come on at all. I let it sit for a few minutes then shut down the computer to uninstall the drive. What do I need to do in order to get the computer to recognize the external drive via eSATA?
I am using Windows XP hom and only one hard drive (SATA).
Thanks in advance!
I have a Vantec NexStar3 external 3.5" enclosure with eSATA and USB interface. The USB interface works perfect but the eSATA does not.
I placed the adapater in the case and plugged the cable in to an available SATA port on the MOBO (brand new MSI KAG9 Neo-2). Then I plugged in the eSATA from the adapter to the external interface, plugged in the power, and turned the drive on. Nothing happened. So, i restarted the computer; looked in the bios (doesn't see it), and let windows start. This time the light goes out on the drive but does not come on at all. I let it sit for a few minutes then shut down the computer to uninstall the drive. What do I need to do in order to get the computer to recognize the external drive via eSATA?
I am using Windows XP hom and only one hard drive (SATA).
Thanks in advance!
I guess it would be wise to just double-check and make sure the drive itself is receiving power. It could be just the enclosure that's turning on, and not the drive itself.
I mean, is it receiving power while connected via e-SATA? The drive might receive power via USB because it has built in power, but the e-SATA does not (as far as I recall). When hooked up to e-SATA, I'd just make sure that the drive is spinning (by touching it) and if so, then it sounds like it's a Windows problem.
You might want to download the latest storage drivers for that motherboard off their support site also.
You might want to download the latest storage drivers for that motherboard off their support site also.
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The reviewer does not understand eSATA
eSATA is almost the same as SATA, with two differences:
1) The cable is redesigned for external use, with shielding and mods to ensure hot pluggability is reliable.
2) The interface is designed for hot pluggability. To work correctly as a hot-plug interface, the drivers must support AHCI.
The reviewer thought the PCMCIA card should have one eSATA and one SATA connector. I don't know how to put this nicely: that's ridiculous. SATA interface would mean the drive needs to get power from... what? Nothing appropriate. SATA is for internal drives. By definition, a laptop with PCMCIA requires an external, eSATA drive.
If you don't have any eSATA drives, you need to run and get a couple of Seagate FreeAgent Pro drives. Last I checked, you could buy a 750G drive with 5 year warranty and USB/Firewire/eSATA interface for $130 or so (buy.com). Using the eSATA interface you get 100% internal drive speed on an external drive. Nice. We use several of these for backups. (At that price, we use external drives as if they were ultra-fast tapes
)
Hope that helps!
MrPete
eSATA is almost the same as SATA, with two differences:
1) The cable is redesigned for external use, with shielding and mods to ensure hot pluggability is reliable.
2) The interface is designed for hot pluggability. To work correctly as a hot-plug interface, the drivers must support AHCI.
The reviewer thought the PCMCIA card should have one eSATA and one SATA connector. I don't know how to put this nicely: that's ridiculous. SATA interface would mean the drive needs to get power from... what? Nothing appropriate. SATA is for internal drives. By definition, a laptop with PCMCIA requires an external, eSATA drive.
If you don't have any eSATA drives, you need to run and get a couple of Seagate FreeAgent Pro drives. Last I checked, you could buy a 750G drive with 5 year warranty and USB/Firewire/eSATA interface for $130 or so (buy.com). Using the eSATA interface you get 100% internal drive speed on an external drive. Nice. We use several of these for backups. (At that price, we use external drives as if they were ultra-fast tapes
)Hope that helps!
MrPete