Maximum PC

when I plug an HDD into my rear eSATA port using an eSATA to SATA cable nothing happens. Nothing at all. (I am powering the drive with the PC PSU and I can feel it spinning).

I took this HDD out of my PC not too long ago and it was functioning well then so it would be horrible timing if it was just a failed HDD.

At first I thought the cable was dead so I got another and same issue. Nothing shows up under storage manager nor device manager (though I'm not to sure what it is exactly that I would be looking for there)

I can try and hook up one of my other HDDs but is there anything else I need to be checking?

I've got an ASUS P8z68 -V PRO board and I have installed the latest JMB drivers.

Did you make sure the eSATA port in BIOS was set to ACHI? They usually default it to IDE, which doesn't support hot plugging.

I think you mean "AHCI", not "ACHI", LatiosXT.

I've having a bit of trouble locating the port in the bios......

and by "a little" I mean there is nothing which says eSATA Port....

I see my 8 SATA ports but that's it. I'll search for a screen shot to show me where to look

Eh, same letters.


It's probably in another section. For my BIOS it's where I configure the peripherals.

I've read through the manual again and I still can find nothing to indicate I have something "off" which should be "on"

Huh. And I take it you installed the appropriate driver too?

yes I've installed the one on the ASUS site as well as this one afterwards
http://www.station-drivers.com/page/jmicron.htm

neither has done anything. Next I will be plugging this drive back into a SATA port to ensure it is still working correctly

Should I see anything at all in the BIOS telling me there is a drive attached through the eSATA port? I'm thinking something similar to being able to see the drive volumes for those attached through SATA ports.....?

I've re-tested the HDD using a regular SATA port and it was there, I did another format in NTFS tried eSATA again and again there was nothing to indicated it was being recognized at all.

1) nothing in Manage -> Disk Managmenet
2) nothing showing in Explorer
3) nothing is obvious in the BIOS

Any ideas at all? I've tried 2 different eSATA cables, as well as 2 different JMicron JMB36x drivers. No change at all that I've been able to tell

So this drive is not in an enclosure right, just a bare drive, powered off a separate psu? It could be that the psu you are using is not loaded enough, you might need to load down the 5V rail a little to make it work properly. If you are powering from the psu on your computer, you could have a defective external molex adapter. Also if the drive is a standard drive and you are using it externally, are you using a eSATA to SATA cable?

Yes it is a bare bones drive but I've opened the side panel of my case plugged into the same PSU powering the PC. The eSATA cable is long enough to stretch from the side around to the rear to plug in (yes it is an eSATA to SATA cable)

Does anyone know if the internally mechanisms in an HDD differ between an IDE drive and a true eSATA one??

some one mentioned that would be a possible cause I've never heard anything like that before in my life.

eSATA is just SATA but the cabling is such that it's better protected against EMI. There's nothing really different about eSATA or SATA beyond that.

Is EFI the only bios option you have to work with?

I guess to clarify one thing, IIRC, AHCI only provides hot swap or hot plugging the drive, so if it's not set you would need to reboot (and hope you didn't damage your drive in the process).

...and I kind of wonder if that ghetto rigging you have going on with the power supply is helping you any or not.

Just go to BIOS (your case is UEFI Advanced Mode) and setup to hot plug SATA HDD.

Your eSATA port is "shared" with and internal port on the JMB controller. If you happen to be running a device on the interal shared port, it will ignore the device connected to the eSATA port. Don't know if this is how you are set up, but it might help you troubleshoot.

so if I already have a couple internal HDD attached to those MARVEL ports then that renders the eSATA ports useless?

Most likely yes. The only way to test for sure is to disconnect all drives from that controller and plug in your eSATA drive. If this is the case it should recognize it.