Esata HD problem

[Ejohnu]

Hello everyone,

I'm having a specific issue and could not resolve it searching this or any other forum. I have a toshiba external HDD that i absolutely need to set up using the esata connection. I have set it up using USB successfully. I am using an HP pavilion laptop.

When I try to plug in the HDD using the esata, then power up, the system hangs up during boot. I can access the bios though i don't know how to find what I need in there. The only way I can get the laptop to boot is by turning off the HDD. Windows loads great when the drive is turned off or unplugged. When I power up the drive while the system is on the computer recognizes that there is something plugged in butnot what it is. I get a notice that says something about a port multiplier. The drive does show up in the device manager. When I scan for hardware changes it hangs up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you need a Sandra report or anything let me know

thanks

 

[Ejohnu]

Have I left out any information? Why hasn't anyone responded?

Please help!

 

[Pauly]

Hello ejohnu, welcome to SF

There are a number of reasons it may not work, could be hardware or software problem
Is esata plugged into MB correctly, what is the current drive setup sata/ide/raid, boot with it plugged in enter bios and see if the ext drive shows up in there
Also some programs (eg Acronis) can sometimes have issues with ext usb/esata connections and can cause crashes or blue screens

Need more facts
Please fill in your system specs to help us help you

Post back and someone will help you

 

[whest]

With esata it needs to be connected and turned on before you start a pc since you have a laptop you might need to disconnect the battery as well as disconnect the power - power up your external hard drive assuming it has its own power - plug in the battery, then power up the pc. I havent had much experience with laptops and hope this might work - if this sounds plausible try it.

 

[pankoo]

I HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM!!!!!!

there is nothing like usb!!!

i thought that eSATA would be easy like usb. Plug n' play!
eSATA sucks!

i have an APACER AC601 external HDD and Acer Aspire 5739g laptop.

i made contact with APACER service and they told me to set up my BIOS in AHCI and try my external HDD to another PC (thanks for nothing...).

please help.

 

[FZ21Z]

please help.

Have you tried any of the suggestions above? And it helps if you fill in THIS.

 

[raf051888]

What exactly is the error about a port multiplier?

 

[pankoo]

ok. i tried everything and as i suspected my system got ****ed up...
windows went into recovery mode...

i don't want to start experiments. i want the solution. it seems there is a serious problem with eSATA HDDs. not even the manufacturer has the solution.

if there isn't a solution, just tell me and i will get rid of the eSATA/eSATA cable.

sorry about the attitude but this thing with the eSATA really gets on my nerves. i am very disappointed...

if you need more details just ask me.

 

[topcat1]

With esata it needs to be connected and turned on before you start a pc ...

Not in my experience. Plug it in, turn it on and it picks right up.

 

[zap]

What is the model number of the toshiba external HDD?

 

[Magic7]

Hi all,
I am new here and I have the same problem as the OP. Windows recognized my ext. HDD (Seagate FreeAgentPro 500 MB) when I first plugged it into the eSATA port on my laptop, but then it disappeared. Upon restart my laptop locked up and continues to lock up unless I unplug the HDD. Since it locks up I can't access the BIOS with the HDD plugged in. I now have the HDD connected to USB as I did before and everything is fine. I have AHCI enabled in the BIOS.
I would appreciate any help into solving this since I would like to take advantage of the higher eSATA speed.
Thanks

 

[ArtoN]

This solved my problem with Windows 7 (64) and eSATA

Having problem with Windows 7 and (external) eSATA disk. Hangs during boot. When booting eSATA cable disconnected and then plugging the cable does not recognize the eSATA disk. However, when using USB connection everything worked fine (except in some cases of inactivity).



In my case the following solved the problem; Goto Power Options-> Change Power Plan Settings -> Change Advanced Power Settings -->

• Hard Disk --> Turn Off Hard Disk after -> on battery and plugged in: <-- NEVER.
• USB: Selective Suspend Setting-> on battery and plugged in: <-- NEVER

After these changes the eSATA connection plays fine. Hopefully this helps in your problem as well...



Ps. If you are using XP the key is to search after blogs/MS docs using keywords like: USB selective suspend.

 

[Magic7]

ArtoN,
I followed your recommendation and changed the settings in Win7 and voila the eSATA disk is recognized and Windows does not crash on reboot anymore. I had a service call in with Dell, but as you can probably imagine they don't know what the problem is.
Thank you so much for the info with this problem.
Seems like Microsoft still has some bugs to work out with their latest OS. I am just glad that this solved the problem.