How do I get my eSATA drive working in Windows 7 x64?

2

When I connect my eSATA drive I can see it in the BIOS.
But my Windows 7 x64 seems to not detect the eSATA drive, it's not even listed in the Device Manager..

When I just connect the drive using USB 2.0 it does show it.

None of the related questions help me, I'm using a Clevo W870CU laptop.

What can I try to get my eSATA drive to show up in Windows 7 x64 too?

Tamara Wijsman

Posted 2010-08-22T14:37:07.687

Reputation: 54 163

Some bios have an enable/disable option in the bios for secondary drives. Posting your Make and specific model of laptop may help others help you. – Moab – 2010-08-23T15:06:58.290

I did post that... No such option exists. – Tamara Wijsman – 2010-08-23T19:53:38.937

Answers

1

It is incompatible for an odd reason that's not worth troubleshooting...

I've used USB as an alternative for a while. But, it now seems Windows 8 natively supports my eSATA!

Tamara Wijsman

Posted 2010-08-22T14:37:07.687

Reputation: 54 163

1

As a question - this external SATA drive - does it have a separate AC power supply? You mention it working with USB so it is obvious the drive works only when you hookup via eSATA it doesn't. Does this drive attempt to obtain both power and data off the port? They require a special powered eSATA port and your eSATA port may not be powered.

For example, the Seagate GoFlex eSATA requires such a port.

Blackbeagle

Posted 2010-08-22T14:37:07.687

Reputation: 6 424

It uses a separate AC power supply. – Tamara Wijsman – 2010-09-18T08:42:06.700

0

try and find "native sata" option in bios and turn it off

edit: you could also try and prepare the partitions with some live cd that supports partitioning and see what happens then... you could do it with some kind of linux flavor that comes with a preinsalled partitioning manager (ubuntu for example)...

pootzko

Posted 2010-08-22T14:37:07.687

Reputation: 613

I'm using a laptop, such option doesn't exist. And even if it would exist it would disable my internal drives. – Tamara Wijsman – 2010-08-22T14:44:52.227

actually it's a common problem with laptops and sata drives - try and google "native sata problem" and see what comes up – pootzko – 2010-08-22T14:50:22.550

I'll try to look for it... A Live CD won't help either. There are partitions as I already have used the drive before on USB 2.0, but I want to use eSATA from now on for speed reasons... – Tamara Wijsman – 2010-08-22T14:54:10.057

Do you use a Linux Live CD? If the disk doesn't show up there either, the eSATA feature is most likely disabled in the BIOS or even broken... on some desktop systems the eSATA is not available anymore if you circumvent the RAID feature - but I dn't think that apllies to your laptop. – Andreas – 2010-08-22T17:00:08.210

BIOS is set to AHCI, so that should be fine. Don't have a Linux Live CD with a GUI at the moment... But I guess I'll have to wait till my planned reinstall after the exams and hope that the issue resolves itself. – Tamara Wijsman – 2010-08-23T19:55:13.393