PC won't see external ESATA drives after sleep

[tgfyhre]

When I wake my PC from sleep, it doesn't recognize my external ESATA drive enclosures when I turn them back on, until I reboot my PC, then everything is fine again. It sees external USB drives enclosures fine - it's just the ESATA enclosures it doesn't see. Is this a setting in the bios perhaps or is there some setting I can check in Windows to see what's causing this?

 

[GokAy]

Can you mount/unmount E-SATA drives, for example, after restarting (using safely remove hardware and later reattaching the HDD)?

You may need to adjust SATA Operation Mode for E-SATA ports to AHCI in BIOS.
Also install the drivers from ASUS support site for your motherboard's E-SATA controller.

 

[tgfyhre]

Well, once I reboot, I can mount and unmount ESATA drives without issue. It's only after sleep that I can't mount ESATA drives. Once I reboot everything works fine until next time I put it into sleep.

I am using an ESATA card with drivers supplied by the card manufacturer. I was told to use those particular drivers so I could use the Highpoint RAID management software to eject my drives from my enclosure. I don't actually use my external drives for RAID though- just JBOD.

I'm pretty sure my BIOS is already set to AHCI but I'll double-check. Is there anything else in my BIOS I should be looking for that could affect this?

 

[Berton]

To avoid a similar issue with USB Drives I turn off Sleep and Hibernation and the power-saving settings for all external ports. Maybe changing the power settings for the eSATA and USB ports will help, keep them active.

 

[GokAy]

If it is a card of course no need to mess with BIOS E-SATA settings, those would be for motherboard ports.

Berton has a good idea, but I would check PCI-e related settings. For example, within your active power plan (Control Panel - Power Options), check http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/292971-pcie-link-state-power-management-turn-off-windows.html

 

[tgfyhre]

If it is a card of course no need to mess with BIOS E-SATA settings, those would be for motherboard ports.

Berton has a good idea, but I would check PCI-e related settings. For example, within your active power plan (Control Panel - Power Options), check http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/292971-pcie-link-state-power-management-turn-off-windows.html

I just checked that setting and it is already set to off.

 

[tgfyhre]

To avoid a similar issue with USB Drives I turn off Sleep and Hibernation and the power-saving settings for all external ports. Maybe changing the power settings for the eSATA and USB ports will help, keep them active.

Well that's the whole point though - I want to be able to use sleep manually when I desire to avoid having to turn off my PC entirely at times - like when I want to watch a movie and I want my living room to be quiet. Turning on my PC takes forever these days so it's nice to just put it into sleep so I can wake it instantly.

 

[GokAy]

You need an SSD my friend It will improve your PC experience greatly.

Can you get them recognized if you scan for hardware changes in Device Manager (devmgmt.msc)?
Also did this previously work or trying to make it work for the first time?

 

[tgfyhre]

You need an SSD my friend It will improve your PC experience greatly.

Can you get them recognized if you scan for hardware changes in Device Manager (devmgmt.msc)?
Also did this previously work or trying to make it work for the first time?

I'm sure an SSD would help a lot with my frustrations these days.

I haven't tried using device manager to recognize them but next time I wake from sleep I'll give it a try. This is nothing new - my PC has never recognized ESATA from sleep.

 

[strollin]

Next time it happens, instead of rebooting, try going into Device Manager, right-click on the computer name at the top of the list and select "Scan for hardware changes" to see if the system will detect the external drive then.

If that works at least you won't have to reboot.

Doh! I see GokAy already made that suggestion!

 

[GokAy]

What I wonder is whether the externals get powered down? Maybe if you power cycled them instead of the PC? My E-SATA experience is with on-board controllers and mine has to be powered externally with a DC adapter. Also, I don't sleep my PC.

Hmm, did you check power management tab of the controller in device manager? See Step 6 - Power Options and Sleep Mode Problems. This may cause sleep problem so experiment and uncheck if sleep gets disrupted.

 

[Layback Bear]

How long does it take to boot the computer?

Does your motherboard have two eSata ports. Some have one that is powered and one that needs external power.

Your motherboard manual should have this information.

 

[tgfyhre]

How long does it take to boot the computer?

Does your motherboard have two eSata ports. Some have one that is powered and one that needs external power.

Your motherboard manual should have this information.

It takes a looong time for my PC to boot. Around 80% of the time, at some point after my desktop appears and all my icons star loading at the bottom in my tray, my PC freezes solid - I can't do anything, and the clock even freezes - and it stays frozen for 10-11 minutes, then suddenly it unfreezes and the hard drive fininshes loading up the icons, software, etc. and then the PC is useable like normal. I have no idea why this happens and it's been happening for almost a year. I plan to buy a new PC soon anyways but I'd love to solve this issue.

For the ESATA ports, I have 1 ESATA card installed and 1 USB3 card installed. The USB3 card works fine with no issues. The ESTA card and the USB3 card are both powered and they are both receiving power.

 

[GokAy]

I would try uninstalling security software and a clean startup - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

 

[tgfyhre]

I haven't tried a clean startup but I did switch from Avira to Avast a couple months ago and the startup issues happened with both Avira and Avast.