Drive Dock not working

[magicant]

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[FONT=&quot]My full specs are below. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. My motherboard has 2 spare sata ports (Intel ICH10R 3Gb/s). My two 6Gb/s are already taken.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]If I plug a hard drive into one of those ports (I have a spare SAMSUNG 850 PRO 256GB SSD) and connect Sata power, the drive is recognized in windows. So I know the drive works, that port works, and the sata cable works.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I've been using an external eSata docking station but decided I wanted an internal one, that would fit into a drive bay in my case and connect directly to a sata port.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]First I bought this one:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]- Kingwin KKF-255-BK Internal Tray-less hot swap rack[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Amazon.com: Kingwin Single Bay Mobile Rack for 2.5-3.5 Inches SSD and HDD (KF-255-BK): Computers & Accessories[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The first one I got wouldn't power on so I figured it was defected. Got it replaced. This one powered on but when inserting a drive (I would insert with power off, then turn power on) it was not recognized in windows and would not show up in disk manager. Nothing happened at all.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]So I figured this company was no good. I returned it and just got this one instead:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]- ICY DOCK DuoSwap MB971SP-B Hot Swap Drive Caddy for 2.5 & 3.5 inch Sata Drives[/FONT]
Amazon.com: ICY DOCK DuoSwap MB971SP-B 5.25 Inch Hot Swap Drive Caddy / Docking for 2.5 Inch & 3.5 Inch SATA Hard Drive/SSD: Computers & Accessories [FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Same thing. It will power on but an inserted drive will simply not show up. Nothing pops up and disk manager does not show it at all.
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[FONT=&quot]Am I do something wrong? Why would the drive show up directly connected to the Sata port but not show up through a drive dock (which seems to me to just be like an extension of a sata cable)?[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Thank you.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]System specs:

--OS: - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) SP1 with latest updates.
--Monitor: - Dell UltraSharp U3011 30-inch Widescreen
--Case: - COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 ATX Full Tower
--Motherboard: MSI Big Bang-XPower LGA 1366 Intel X58 with latest Bios v1.7
--CPU: - Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition Gulftown 3.33GHz
--CPU Cooler: - CoolIT Systems VAN-R120 Vantage A.L.C. Liquid Coole
--Power Supply: - CORSAIR Professional Series AX1200 1200W
--Sound Card: - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty
--Video Card: - EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti SC+
--Memory: - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 24GB (6 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM
--Memory Cooler: - G.SKILL FTB-3500C5-D Fans
--1st Hard Drive: - SAMSUNG 850 PRO 256GB SSD
--2nd Hard Drive - SAMSUNG 850 PRO 256GB SSD
--3rd Hard Drive: - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1000DHTZ
--4th Hard Drive: -Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache
--1st Optical Drive: - LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner
--2nd Optical Drive: - LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner
--Keyboard/Mouse: - Logitech MX 5500 Revolution Bluetooth Cordless Desktop
--Card Reader: Nippon Labs Delux 3.5" Internal Card Reader/Writer
--Speakers: - Altec Lansing ADA995 5.1 surround speakers[/FONT]

 

[Mellon Head]

Do you have the SATA port that the dock is connected to set as an eSATA port? Judging from the reviews on Newegg, that is something that you have to do (a couple of people said that was necessary, anyway. YMMV). As well as enabling Hot Swap in BIOS, if it is there.

Try those things and post back the results, please.

 

[magicant]

Maybe I have to look harder but I don't see either of those options in the BIOS. The motherboard manual says that the sata ports are hot swappable.

A while ago I took a picture of every BIOS screen. It's a little old so it has the old bios version, etc. but you can still see all the settings. I'm going to try and attach a PDF file here that has all those pictures. Maybe you will see something I am missing.

Thanks

 

[magicant]

I tried shutting down, putting in the drive, turning on the dock power and restarting, then the drive shows up.

I also tried again, this time plugging in the drive with windows running, which did nothing as usual. Then I went to device manager to scan for new hardware, and that made it show up.

Also once it shows up, I do not have an option to safely remove it so I'm afraid to shut the dock power off without shutting down the computer.

It seems the sata ports are not acting as hot swappable.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[magicant]

Well I didn't find how to fix this but I found a workaround. I downloaded a program called Hotswap!
HotSwap!

It does what I need. It puts an icon on your taskbar.

Now I insert a drive in the dock and turn on the dock powre
Right click on the hotswap icon and choose scan for hardware changes.
And the drive shows up, no problem.

When done, I left click on hotswap and choose to safely remove the drive (the docked drive does not show up in the windows safely remove hardware list).
The drive disappears and I can shut power to the dock and remove the drive.

So I guess this will work for me. Does what I need.

Thanks.