eSATA to SATA Cable - HDD not detected

I'm trying to connect an internal, powered SATA HDD to the eSATA port on the back of my motherboard.

To do this, I bought an eSATA to SATA cable.

Unfortunately, no matter what I do, the drive is never detected, not even by the BIOS.

So, I bought another cable. Same problem.

Finally, I tried moving the drive and the cable to another computer. The HDD is not detected there either.

So, either I am making the same mistake on both computers, or both cables are faulty..

I really don't know what else to do.

essenbe said:

What are you using to power the hard drive. The esata cable is a data cable, the hard drive needs power too. If you are using a powered esata port, they usually will power a 2.5" hard drive (most of the time) but do not provide enough power for a 3.5" hard drive. A powered enclosure would be best for either.

Also, if that is not the issue, go to disk management (click start, right click computer, select manage, in the left column select disk management) See if you see a drive listed in the bottom portion of the screen with no drive letter. If you do, If it is a new drive, it will have to be initialized, a simple partition created, formatted and a drive letter assigned. If it is a used drive, right click it, select 'change drive letter or path', next screen click add, and assign it a drive letter. CAUTION: If it has data on it and windows wants to initialize it and format it, don't do it, you will lose all data on it.

The drive is an internal SATA drive. As such, it is powered but the regular SATA power cable. Although, it is also 2.5".

I looked in Disk Management, but it is not there.

essenbe said:

Track, the only other suggestion I have is to check your motherboard's web site and make sure you have the current driver that controls the esata port installed, and check the cable connections. Many motherboards have the esata connection on a different controller, and possibly may be disabled in bios. Other than those suggestions, I am not sure what the problem could be unless the drive itself is defective.

Well, that makes two of us. I've checked the BIOS on both computers and there's no mention of eSATA. There's no switch on the motherboard that I can see, either.

Besides, it doesn't show up in the BIOS, so drivers are not the answer.

Dwarf said:

Have you tried disconnecting one of your other drives and then plugging this one in directly to the motherboard? Does it now appear in the BIOS? Some motherboards, although they offer eSATA, only do so as a shared option with one of the internal sockets. If the associated internal socket is in use, the eSATA will not be available.

What motherboard are you using?

The first was a H67MA-D2H.
Second, a P8P67-M Pro.