What is the correct setting in BIOS for eSATA?

An eSATA bracket came with my GA-EP45-UD3P Gigabyte motherboard. It has a molex to SATA power, 2 eSATA ports and an eSATA to normal SATA cable so I can run internal hard drives externally. It is really nice.

My board has 2 (two) SATA controllers. The ICH10-R controls 6 ports and a Gigabyte (or JMicron chip) controller if for 2 others. I have tried this bracket connected to the Gigabyte controller in AHCI and it works fine. I also tried it in IDE mode and it works a little different. In both cases I have "safely remove hardware" option.

I have not used eSATA much until now. What is correct setting in the BIOS for eSATA? What if I only had one SATA controller like a lot of boards? What would you have the BIOS set to in that case? (IDE or AHCI)

Thanks

I'm using sata as IDE, and having no problems - i asked seagate about enabling AHCI and there reply was it is unnecessary, as its built into the sata hard drives now, and not necessary. I also have the intel ich9 sata controller plus the j-micron, so I turn the j-micron off in the bios and use just use the intel controller.
Just added a couple of hours later:
I have one external esata hard drive -160gb seagate hard drive - forgot to mention although I implied, as such, but personally i like to see things myself before believing. Two internal a 250gb and 500gb seagate :)

Thank you for the info. I have tried it both ways just as a test but I forgot to try ejecting the eSATA drive in IDE mode. I know the "safely remove hardware" works in AHCI mode don't know if it works in IDE. I guess you could always cut power to the eSATA drive and "yank" it.

Do you have the option to "safely remove hardware" in IDE?
I hear it will not work unless you're in AHCI mode.

Thanks for the information.

You can only safely remove the external drive if you connect to a USB port. If its connected to a esata port - to remove it the safest way is to turn the PC off, and to reconnect - switch it on before powering up the PC. It has to be connected this way otherwise it wont be recognised by the bios.

I will try and bing it to see if its safe and post back.

Cannot get a clear answer - I would pose the question to the manufacturer of the enclosure, or the hard drive for a positive result -
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?showtopic=1503

Thanks for the link Antman

nate42nd said:

Thank you for the info. I have tried it both ways just as a test but I forgot to try ejecting the eSATA drive in IDE mode. I know the "safely remove hardware" works in AHCI mode don't know if it works in IDE. I guess you could always cut power to the eSATA drive and "yank" it.

Do you have the option to "safely remove hardware" in IDE?
I hear it will not work unless you're in AHCI mode.

Thanks for the information.

whest said:

You can only safely remove the external drive if you connect to a USB port. If its connected to a esata port - to remove it the safest way is to turn the PC off, and to reconnect - switch it on before powering up the PC. It has to be connected this way otherwise it wont be recognised by the bios.

I will try and bing it to see if its safe and post back.

Cannot get a clear answer - I would pose the question to the manufacturer of the enclosure, or the hard drive for a positive result -
Safely Remove eSATA Drive - We Got Served Forums

Antman said:

SATA hot swapping is a function supported by AHCI.

If you are experiencing difficulty, check this: HotSwap!

In order to hot swap or plug and play an eSATA external hard drive you need to be in AHCI or RAID mode, this will enable the SATA hot swap function. IDE will not allow you to safely plug and play, you can always 'yank' them but it's not recommended, and will not be recognized when plugged into a running OS.

If your MOBO or controller doesn't provide the 'Safely remove hardware' option, the HotSwap program mentioned above will clear the cache and ensure all files/programs are closed. It works and looks like the Windows 'Safely remove hardware' program.

When I first used an eSATA external HD, it would not hot swap, only recognized if powered up prior to starting the OS. The SATA mode was set to IDE in the BIOS. Changed it to AHCI (you can do this without re-installing your OS), then it would plug-in and play. My MOBO/controller limitations wouldn't allow 'Safely remove hardware' from Windows OS. After installing the HotSwap program I can plug in and 'safely remove hardware'.

It depends on your MOBO, controllers and a SATA hard drive.