External Drive - Works with USB, not eSATA

[THRobinson]

I have a Fantom 2TB external drive (model GF2000EU) which has an eSATA port on the back. I am also using an ASUS P5Q-e motherboard which has an eSATA port on it.

Been using it now 2yrs on USB, but decided to give the eSATA a try and bought a cable. I assumed (incorrectly) that it was the same as USB. Plug it it, turn the drive on and it pops up on screen, but, when I turned it on, I didn't get anything, not even that 'ding' noise Windows7 makes when I plug in a USB drive.

I read something about needing AHCI needing to be enabled in the BIOS, so, went into the BIOS and took a look. My SATA is setup as IDE (option was, if I recall, IDE, RAID and AHCI) so I switched to AHCI, save/restart, and won't start windows... so obviously needs a few other settings changed.

My system has 3 internal SATA drives and a SATA DVD Burner, there is a main SATA drive (250GB) with Win7 on it, the other 2 SATA drives are 3TB each with media on them so, didn't want to start messing around and wipe anything out. I set it back to IDE and computers works again.

So... anyone know what I need to do? Not sure if this is a post for storage, or motherboards...

 

[Ubrales]

Check the eSATA port on the computer and make sure that it is functional. Then plug-in a different eSATA device in that port and check. It is possible that the eSATA port (or controller) on the Fantom is not working.

Also, check and ensure that the eSATA port is turned ON in the BIOS.

 

[Paperdoc]

1. You should NOT need to change the SATA Port Mode in BIOS Setup to AHCI. If you had it on IDE Emulation before, return it to that setting.

2. eSATA is certainly faster than USB2 for data transfer. However, you appear to have missed an important note. USB2 can provide some power (limited) to an external device like a drive. BUT eSATA does NOT (unless you have the non-standard variety). So be SURE you have connected the power supply module that came with the external drive unit to it and plugged it into the wall.

3. As Ubrales said, ensure the eSATA port is Enabled in BIOS Setup.

4. Often (don't know about your machine) the mobo chip that runs eSATA is different from the main SATA port chip. To get it to work, you may need to find (on the CD that came with your mobo / system) the device driver for the eSATA port and install it under Windows.

 

[THRobinson]

Couldn't see anything specific to the eSATA port in the BIOS when I was looking last night (not at the computer now). That's what I was thinking initially... when I go into the BIOS it lists the 6 internal SATA ports and I can see what's plugged into each. Was expecting something somewhere to show up for the eSATA but, no luck.

I did read something about manually enabling AHCI in Win7, shut down, go into the BIOS then enabling AHCI in the BIOS. Maybe that's what it needs?

I went to the ASUS site and downloaded the AHCI driver for my board but wouldn't install... said something about not meeting the requirements and quit.

I'll have to wait until home to play with it some more. I came across a post on ASUS' forum saying "...you need to have the Marvell controller enabled in the BIOS. It refers to it as the Marvell IDE controller but the same setting enables or disables the back panel eSATA port as well..."

They also mentioned that the eSATA has issues with cables over 1 foot in length? I have a 3 foot eSATA cable, which hoping isn't an issue because who designs an external plug to only work properly with a 1 foot or shorter cable? Power won't be an issue though, the FANTOM uses an external AC adapter.

Test wise... can't. I have 1 eSata port on the computer, and the 1 external drive with eSata, and just bought the 1 eSata cable...

 

[Paperdoc]

OK, I've examined the manual for your mobo and can help find the details. Your mobo has three separate chips that control HDD's.

The main southbridge chip controls 6 SATA 3 Gb/s ports. See the mobo diagram on p. 2-2, item key 8. Configuring them is covered in Section 3.3, beginning on p. 3-10. On p. 3-12, Section 3.3.6 Storage Configuration, you should have them all set to AHCI, which is how they were originally if I read your posts correctly. I suspect this is where you tried to change to IDE, but should not have. This setting has NOTHING to do with the eSATA port.

There is a second pair of SATA ports controlled by a Silicon Image chip. On p.2-2 these are item key 10. Their use is covered in Section 4.3.11 on pages 4-39 to 4-49.

The third chip is the one you are trying to use. It is the Marvel 6121 controller that manages a internal IDE port (see diagram p.2.2, item key 9) and the back panel eSATA port (see Section 2.8 on p. 2-26, item key 15). Configuration settings for this chip are found in Section 3.5.4 on p. 3-27, headed "Marvel IDE (Enabled)". This should be set to the default, Enabled. (This is what that post on the ASUS forum was talking about.) But then you still need to install in Windows the device driver for this chip and its ports. See Section 4.2 on p. 4-1 for how to start using the support DVD you got. p. 4-2, 3rd item from the bottom, shows that the driver installation menu has a choice to install the Marvel 61xx driver (rather than ALL drivers on the DVD). Doing that should allow you to begin using the eSATA port on the back panel.

There is no option to set a Port Mode for this eSATA port - it will be in AHCI mode.

You should not have problems with cable lengths. All true eSATA ports (which this is) are designed to work with cables up to 3 feet long, unlike internal plain SATA ports. (They do this with a combination of higher signal voltages and different signal thresholds used in the controller chips.) Some people have had problems with "sort of" eSATA adaptions. You can buy a simple adapter plate that plugs into an internal SATA port and mounts on the back panel giving you a eSATA port connector. Under good circumstances, this can suffice as an eSATA port because some mobo SATA chip makers have used part of the eSATA specs for their internal ports. However, not all parts. So in some cases the boosted signals are not there in such adaptations and they fail. This is NOT a problem with genuine eSATA ports.

 

[THRobinson]

Yup, that did it... my system is set to IDE, has been for years so, may switch that next time I wipe the system out (which I do 2x a year just to clean things up and force me to backup files).

I disabled that Marvell IDE because never had a use for it and during startup there was always an extra screen that popped up while it looked for devices... added a few seconds to the boot time so disabled it 3+ yrs ago. But, I enabled it again, started Win7, and downloaded the latest Marvel 6121 SATA drivers from the ASUS site and soon as it finished installing, the external drive popped up. Gave it a test and instantly noticed a jump in speed when transferring a handful of video files.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Paperdoc]

Glad you got it going. Thanks for Best Solution.

 

[THRobinson]

Sadly, switching back to USB.

Seems if I turn on the drive THEN the computer, I have zero issues.

If I turn on the drive after Windows has loaded, it's a total mess. Mouse cuts in and out, and the screen blanks out then comes back saying that the video driver has crashed and restarted itself. Then keeps doing that on a loop.

Downloaded the most current drivers from ASUS and had the issue, so ran Win7 updates which found a newer version, gave that a try and same thing.

I don't want to have to reboot the computer everytime I need the external drive turned on so, just easier to switch back to USB. :S

 

[Paperdoc]

Very disappointing for you. Seems there is a problem with the driver, but I donlt know for sure. Maybe ASUS Tech Support can help.

I'm running an older ASUS mobo and Win XP Pro, and I use my external HDD on the mobo's eSATA port (Silicon Image controller chip) and it works perfectly. With Windows running, if I turn on the ext. drive it will suddenly show up in My Computer and I can use it. If I then turn it off, it quickly disappears.

 

[THRobinson]

No idea... like I said, even when I used Win7 update and it found a newer driver, it didn't make a difference. So back to USB.

I'd contact ASUS support but, they're useless. Great products... horrible horrible support.