Install esata port to usb2 port

[Ed Johnson]

I have an external hard drive connected currently with a USB2 cable. However, the computer is no longer recognizing the drive through the USB2 cable. The external drive enclosure has an eSATA port but my Lenovo desktop computer only has USB2 ports and no eSATA port. Is there an adapter that will plug into either the USB2 port on the computer that will allow an eSATA cable to be plugged in or vice versa?

 

[price_th]

You should be able to remove the hdd from the enclosesure and connect directly to the internal hdd controler in the PC.

 

[Ed Johnson]

You should be able to remove the hdd from the enclosesure and connect directly to the internal hdd controler in the PC.

Unfortunately, I'm not knowledgeable to know how to do this. I was hoping there was some sort of an adaptor that would plug into either port to use either an eSATA cable or an USB2 cable. My son is a CS professor and I've asked him the same question but he's busy with his day job to respond to a similar question I posed to him.

 

[inzone]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226047

This is probably what you are looking for.

 

[inzone]

However if the computer is no longer recognizing the external drive then you may have a problem with the drive , that's why before you start buying things it wiyld be a good idea to remove the hard drive from the external enclosure and plug it into the internal sata port to see if it is working. If you can't or don't know how to do that then take the cover off of the side of the computer and plug the e-sata cable directly into the motherboard , most motherboards have an e-sata port and in case you didn't know it's the one that the inside of the port looks like an L.

 

[Ed Johnson]

That looks like what I'm looking for. At the very least it's an inespensive way to trouble shoot to see if it's the USB2 port on the external drive that has gotten defective. Will order from Newegg which is where I bought a relacement hard drive when I assumed the drive was what had gone bad.

 

[inzone]

If it is less than 30 days then you can return the drive that you bought if you don't need it , Newegg is very good about returns. But if not and you want to keep it then you will have two extra drives.

 

[Ed Johnson]

Depending What my son says when he's free to reply to this same problem, I may just do that. According to him this new WD2002FAEX 2TB drive is superior to the 1 TB Seagate drive I currently have installed.

 

[Ed Johnson]

However if the computer is no longer recognizing the external drive then you may have a problem with the drive , that's why before you start buying things it wiyld be a good idea to remove the hard drive from the external enclosure and plug it into the internal sata port to see if it is working. If you can't or don't know how to do that then take the cover off of the side of the computer and plug the e-sata cable directly into the motherboard , most motherboards have an e-sata port and in case you didn't know it's the one that the inside of the port looks like an L.

I think I'm "smart" enough to do that! There's only 2 screws that hold the cover on and that should expose the insides.

What is weird at least to me is that in devices and printers under control panel, it recognizes an external device with all of its ports when the unit is powered off but not if it is powered on. Also it won't populate the volume when asked to do.

 

[inzone]

Well for starters it's a lot bigger and you would be better off with the Western Digital drive and with it being sata3 I would try to install that inside the computer to take advantage of the sata3 connection if you have that on your motherboard.

 

[Ed Johnson]

While this is somewhat getting off subject of my current problem, I've talked previously with my son (CS Prof) about installing a 2nd drive in the computer itself and have him configure it in a RAID configuration which he says he has at least one of his computers configured as. That way if I understand it, I'd be able to easily swap the 2nd drive for the first. Then I wouldn't need an external drive for my backups.

 

[inzone]

When you set up a raid of two drives you don't swap out drives you make two drive as though they were one drive. What is the drive that has the OS on it?
Having a 2tb drive is a pretty big drive and unless you are storing a ton of music and videos you will never use that much space. So I would keep the OS where it is and install the WD drive and use it for starage and backup.

 

[Ed Johnson]

Shows how little I know! Thanks. The existing C drive is 500 GB so even the 1 TB external drive was overkill. Have thought of partitioning the new drive and put the output of an imaging program in one partition and normal Windows backup on the other.

 

[inzone]

Sounds like a plan.

 

[unksol]

If you can't or don't know how to do that then take the cover off of the side of the computer and plug the e-sata cable directly into the motherboard , most motherboards have an e-sata port and in case you didn't know it's the one that the inside of the port looks like an L.

Exactly zero motherboards have an esata port you would access from inside the case. it would be on the back I/O panel. You cannot plug an esata cable into a SATA port. You CAN get a SATA to Esata cable but its pointless since you don't know if the drive works

 

[Ed Johnson]

Looking at the diagram included in the Lenovo Replace Hardware book, there are 4 SATA but 0 eSATA connectors on the Motherboard. No way to connect w/o that converter cable mentioned. Last night I ordered the adapter to go between an eSATA cable and an USB2 cable as someone suggested on here.
Finally reached our son late last evening and he's going to help troubleshoot the problems I'm having Saturday. What stumped him last night on the phone is that under devices and printers in the Control Panel, when the external drive is powered off, it recognizes there is such an external drive but can't populate the volume to show me what is on it and, when powered on, it can't recognize it.

Want to thank all for the fast feedback I've gotten regarding this problem. I've learned a lot. As I mentioned, our son is a CS Professor and he frequently uses this forum to get information on how a piece of hardware is reviewed here. I found this forum by Googling for my problem and the top place it referred me to is here!
Ed