eSATA help please

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Asha'man X

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Hi everyone

I have plenty of experience with hardware, but this is my first time using eSATA. I just bought a Vantec eSATA housing and a controller card, to be used for backups of our school's server (running Windows Server 2003).

I installed the controller card and the drivers, went without a hitch. Following the instructions in the manual, I hooked up everything before powering on, Windows recognised the drive and all went well with partitioning and formatting.

When it came time to disconnect the drive, I got a little lost. Windows didn't pick the drive up as removable storage like it would if it was USB based, but rather just as a normal hard drive. To remove the drive, I disabled it under Device Manager and then powered off the caddy. This seems to be my only option.

I have searched the net as best I can but I can't seem to find any relevant information on disconnecting the drive correctly. If anyone can help me to understand how to disconnect the drive safely and correctly, I would appreciate it. I don't want to damage the new hard drive in the caddy.

The specs are as follows: Intel D945GNT motherboard with SATA RAID controller built in, 2 hard drives in RAID0 array.
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with service pack 2
Vantec NexStar 3 eSATA caddy
Vantec UGT-ST400 controller card

Thanks guys
 
Tried connecting the ext hdd while the OS was running (and logged on)? Are the drivers AHCI or ide/sata drivers?
 
Also have the same problem with my coolermaster so gone back to USB. When i have time i'll fiddle around..
 
when i disconnect my esata drive all i do is safely remove it...with my Coolermaster x-craft 350 enclosure it shows up there
 
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Has anybody found a hot-plug-and-play enclosure yet?

Seems bit daft to have to turn off pc everytime you want to remove a drive. I know the technology is designed to be able to work like USB in terms of connecting and disconnecting... At least it is supposed to be able to handle this...
 
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Hey everybody again

Thanks for the replies so far.

@ killadoob
I wish I could switch the pc off everytime I needed to, but since it's the server, I'm supposed to keep it up as long as possible. I previously switched the pc off every Friday afternoon for an hour or so while I Ghosted the drive onto an IDE caddy. I got the eSATA stuff on the promise I would be able to do scheduled backups without taking the system down, with incremantal type backups. The hour and a bit downtime on a Friday was irritating people.

@ repitah

Connected while OS was running, worked like a charm. Not sure what the SATA drivers are running as, but it's not RAID. I can't access any BIOS screen of the controller card to actually change anything. I rebooted the server twice this morning but there was no BIOS screen, apart from the motherboards built in RAID.

@ antowan

Yeah I know that the technology was meant to be like USB. What little I did find on the net was a conflicting batch of "Safely Remove Hardware" and the problem I'm having. I'll take a look in the morning and see if I can't install any driver for the Vantec caddy itself.

I don't want to end up using the USB port, as the transfer rates are well below what eSATA does.

I'll tinker some more tomorrow and let everyone know if I've found something.

Thanks and goodnight everyone
 
Try connecting the drive while the OS is up. Sometimes windows considers devices plugged in at boot as non-removable. A device removal icon should show up (ie: the one used to safely remove USB devices)

ACHI/SATA mode: this should show up in the device manager under the controllers item. otherwise, during POST, there may be a bios screen for the controller card, where you can change settings.

Lastly, get your OS up to date if it has not been updated in the last few months.
 
@ repitah

Thanks for the tips. I tried connecting the drive both with the system up and when I rebooted it this morning after the power cut yesterday. There is no BIOS screen showing for the controller, I think that will only show up if I have an internal SATA drive or if the thing was set to RAID. However I don't think the controller card supports RAID, it only has one internal port and one external for eSATA.

The onboard controller on the motherboard is in RAID0 mode with 2 hard drives, and has a BIOS screen come up whenever I restart the computer.

The driver disk that came with the caddy is only for Windows 98. The manual also doesn't tell me how to disconnect eSATA, just USB based connections.

Under Device Manager, the hard drive shows up as "ST325041 0AS SCSI Disk Device"
Under the "SCSI and RAID controllers" subsection, the new controller shows up as "Silicon Image SiL 3132 SATALink Controller"

I'm going to try to search the net again.

Thanks for the help again guys
 
An update on my situation for anyone who is interested:

I let Windows update run, and it picked up an updated driver for the controller card. After the reset, I still don't have any joy with the drive coming up with the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the system tray.

However, I have discovered that when I disable the device in Device Manager, I can feel and literally hear the drive spinning down. Once it says disabled and I can hear the drive is off, I switch off the caddy.

I tested the thing using USB, and once I eject the drive in Safely Remove Hardware, the drive also powers down.

So although the procedure is a little more long winded for eSATA, it seems to me this is the only way to correctly turn off the device using this particular controller card.

Having searched the net as best I can, I came across someone on NewEgg saying that it's the drivers of the controller card that wasn't written properly to take advantage of Safely Remove Hardware. Everything else I've come across on eSATA is a confusing jumble, it seems the manufacturers have slipped up with supporting this properly in their drivers and hardware.

Luckily this drive will only be used for short periods as a back up drive, so there shouldn't be any open files when disabling and switching off.

Hope this helps someone in the future struggling with eSATA. :)
 
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dude have u tested just unplgging it man

i dont safely eject mine or my usb sticks i just pull em out

never had a problem
 
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