eSATA drive shows up empty and as four removable disk drives

I have an eSATA drive that has stopped functioning properly. I was trying unsuccessfully to install some completely unrelated software when I noticed that my eSATA drive was presenting differently. Under My Computer it now said that the drive was empty and there were four drives that appeared that said "Removable Disk (G)", "Removable Disk (H)", "Removable Disk (I)", and "Removable Disk (J)". When I select my eSATA drive, it says 'folder empty'. When I select one of the removable disk drives it says "Please insert a disk into removable disk (?). Whenever I reboot the computer with the eSATA drive disconnected, all five disk drives go away.

I don't remember changing any settings or anything like that. Thanks. One thing is odd that in device manager, the eSATA drive comes up as a SCSI drive. The device manager shows it as "WDC WD10EADS-65M2B1 SCSI Disk Device", but it is actually a "WDC WD500F032".

Thanks for the help. Device manager report follows:

[System Summary]
Item Value
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name HOME
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Pavilion P6000 Series
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 635 Processor, 2900 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 6.03, 4/12/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
Time Zone Central Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 5.74 GB
Available Physical Memory 3.53 GB
Total Virtual Memory 11.5 GB
Available Virtual Memory 8.86 GB
Page File Space 5.74 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys



[Drives]
Item Value
Drive C:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed No
File System NTFS
Size 919.75 GB (987,568,795,648 bytes)
Free Space 686.45 GB (737,065,095,168 bytes)
Volume Name OS
Volume Serial Number 9E4D696E

Drive D:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed No
File System NTFS
Size 11.48 GB (12,323,909,632 bytes)
Free Space 1.40 GB (1,502,552,064 bytes)
Volume Name HP_RECOVERY
Volume Serial Number 9610AEB2

Drive E:
Description CD-ROM Disc

Drive F:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed No
File System NTFS
Size 465.72 GB (500,064,088,064 bytes)
Free Space 465.11 GB (499,409,276,928 bytes)
Volume Name eSATA Drive
Volume Serial Number 40B70EB9

Drive G:
Description Removable Disk

Drive H:
Description Removable Disk

Drive I:
Description Removable Disk

Drive J:
Description Removable Disk


[Disks]
Item Value
Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model WDC WD10EADS-65M2B1 SCSI Disk Device
Bytes/Sector 512
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Fixed hard disk
Partitions 3
SCSI Bus 0
SCSI Logical Unit 0
SCSI Port 0
SCSI Target ID 0
Sectors/Track 63
Size 931.51 GB (1,000,202,273,280 bytes)
Total Cylinders 121,601
Total Sectors 1,953,520,065
Total Tracks 31,008,255
Tracks/Cylinder 255
Partition Disk #0, Partition #0
Partition Size 100.00 MB (104,857,600 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 1,048,576 bytes
Partition Disk #0, Partition #1
Partition Size 919.75 GB (987,568,799,744 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 105,906,176 bytes
Partition Disk #0, Partition #2
Partition Size 11.48 GB (12,323,913,728 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 987,674,705,920 bytes

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model WDC WD5000AVJS-63TRA SCSI Disk Device
Bytes/Sector 512
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Fixed hard disk
Partitions 1
SCSI Bus 0
SCSI Logical Unit 0
SCSI Port 0
SCSI Target ID 2
Sectors/Track 63
Size 465.76 GB (500,105,249,280 bytes)
Total Cylinders 60,801
Total Sectors 976,768,065
Total Tracks 15,504,255
Tracks/Cylinder 255
Partition Disk #1, Partition #0
Partition Size 465.72 GB (500,064,090,624 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 32,256 bytes

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model Generic- Compact Flash USB Device
Bytes/Sector Not Available
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Not Available
Partitions 0
SCSI Bus Not Available
SCSI Logical Unit Not Available
SCSI Port Not Available
SCSI Target ID Not Available
Sectors/Track Not Available
Size Not Available
Total Cylinders Not Available
Total Sectors Not Available
Total Tracks Not Available
Tracks/Cylinder Not Available

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model Generic- MS/MS-Pro USB Device
Bytes/Sector Not Available
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Not Available
Partitions 0
SCSI Bus Not Available
SCSI Logical Unit Not Available
SCSI Port Not Available
SCSI Target ID Not Available
Sectors/Track Not Available
Size Not Available
Total Cylinders Not Available
Total Sectors Not Available
Total Tracks Not Available
Tracks/Cylinder Not Available

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model Generic- SD/MMC USB Device
Bytes/Sector Not Available
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Not Available
Partitions 0
SCSI Bus Not Available
SCSI Logical Unit Not Available
SCSI Port Not Available
SCSI Target ID Not Available
Sectors/Track Not Available
Size Not Available
Total Cylinders Not Available
Total Sectors Not Available
Total Tracks Not Available
Tracks/Cylinder Not Available

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device
Bytes/Sector Not Available
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Not Available
Partitions 0
SCSI Bus Not Available
SCSI Logical Unit Not Available
SCSI Port Not Available
SCSI Target ID Not Available
Sectors/Track Not Available
Size Not Available
Total Cylinders Not Available
Total Sectors Not Available
Total Tracks Not Available
Tracks/Cylinder Not Available
[SCSI]
Item Value
Name AMD RAID Console
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Status OK
PNP Device ID SCSI\PROCESSOR&VEN_AMD&PROD_RAID_CONSOLE\4&C79A373&0&000A00

Name AMD AHCI Compatible RAID Controller
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4392&SUBSYS_2A92103C&REV_00\3&267A616A&0&88
I/O Port 0x0000B000-0x0000B007
I/O Port 0x0000A000-0x0000A003
I/O Port 0x00009000-0x00009007
I/O Port 0x00008000-0x00008003
I/O Port 0x00007000-0x0000700F
Memory Address 0xFE6FFC00-0xFE6FFFFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 22
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\amdsbs.sys (3.6.1540.127, 189.58 KB (194,128 bytes), 6/10/2009 3:37 PM)
Yes

How many eSATA ports does your motherboard have? Will that external enclosure actually hold 4 drives? If it required drivers to be installed to work, I would re-install them. If it's still under warranty you may want to return it. If it's not under warranty can you open it without breaking it to have a look inside?

I don't know exactly what you're asking, there's a PCI card with two SATA ports. I've tried the drive on both ports and the same thing happens. THere's nothing in the drive enclosure for expandable drives or anything like that. It is a My DVR Expander drive, so I can't find any drivers or anything like that for it.

I just can't undertand why it would just start recognizing it as a SCSI drive? Makes no sense to me.

I was trying to figure out why it was showing 4 removable drives. If you motherboard had an add-in card with 4 eSATA ports I might suspect that the card had a problem. If the enclosure had internal connections for 4 drives then I would be looking more at the enclosure as the problem. The PCI card with the eSATA ports likely required drivers, if you didn't install them Windows did. I might look for newer ones, either on the CD that came with it or on the manufacturers web site. My best guess though is that the drive inside the enclosure or the electronics in the enclosure have failed. If you can I'd try plugging it into a different PC to see what happens.

Actually, I've done more digging. The PC doesn't actually have a PCI card, it is just a plate that holds two inputs that tie directly to sata slots on the motherboard. Interestingly, the internal hard drive is also a SATA drive as is the DVD drive. Which makes me wonder why my internal hard drive is also showing as "WD10EADS-65M2B1 SCSI Disk Device" which is the right model number, but it isn't a SCSI drive?!? I'm pretty confused.

Also, I went in and uninstalled the four removable disk drives from Device Manager. As soon as I restart the computer, windows automatically starts installing drivers for them again. They show up as "Compact Flash USB Device", "MS/MS-Pro USB Device", "Generic- SD/MMC USB Device" and "Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device". But I have nothing connected to any of the USB ports except a keyboard and a mouse.

Do you have a card reader inbuilt into the case?

EDIT: I wouldn't be concerned that it shows as a SCSI Disk. My e-SATA shows the same and works fine. I think this just the way the MB or enclosure controller reports it.

The device manager shows it as "WDC WD10EADS-65M2B1 SCSI Disk Device", but it is actually a "WDC WD500F032"

Click to expand...

WDC WD10EADS-65M2B1, this is the model of your internal drive, right?
From the Device Manager list in your first post the first two Disks listed are
1. Model WDC WD10EADS-65M2B1
2. Model WDC WD5000AVJS-63TRA

So 1 would be your internal and 2 would be the e-SATA. Is your e-SATA a 500GB drive?

Have you connected this to a DVR or TiVO since it last worked?
What was the software you were trying to install?

Correct, the WD10...is an internal hard drive and the other is a 500g eSATA drive. I haven't connected it to a DVR or TiVo since it last worked. I was trying to instal Pro Tools. It turns out it was a corrupted disk and I have since re-installed it successfully.

They show up as "Compact Flash USB Device", "MS/MS-Pro USB Device", "Generic- SD/MMC USB Device" and "Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device".

Click to expand...

These drives can generally show up if you have a card reader connected. Have you ever seen these listed before?

Are you plugging it in while the computer is on?
Have you tried booting with it already connected and switched on?
Are you plugging it in while the e-SATA drive is on?

Can you try the e-SATA drive in a different computer, a friends maybe? If it does not work my guess would be a corrupted disk, partition table or a quick format has been preformed. Although it doesn't explain the other four drives and why they dissappear when the e-SATA is removed.