M4500 + docking station + eSATA nuisances

Ok, so I own an M4500 with advanced docking station and an ICYBox external eSATA enclosure since a couple of months. I had this fairly new terabyte disk in my old desktop that I wanted to continue to use. First looked for a USB3 enclosure, then for a USB3/eSATA when it turned out the M4500 wasn't equipped with USB3 yet, then finally settled for an eSATA/USB2 because couldn't get another one fast enough.

I've had a couple of (returning) issues with the eSATA, though. Which does annoy me since I had been looking forward to improved performance compared to external USB2 storage. Some of the nuisances are probably caused by settings, some by not being sure about how to correctly handle the order of powering up devices(?). Would be nice to hear experience by others, and the correct procedures and settings.

- first problems were caused by the eSATA cable that came with the enclosure. It was a real cheapo one, and the connector didn't properly stick into the enclosure. Recognition was a bit hit and miss. I bought another cable with better connectors, with better results, but still I understand why so many people complain about the fragility of the eSATA connector design. It's a total DISGRACE. It is totally incomprehensible that they couldn't come up with something more reliable!! You never feel like it is securely attached.

- even after transition to a better cable, I have had returning problems with recognition of the eSATA disk. I normally leave it permanently attached to the docking station. At times it just refused to show up for unknown reasons. I tried powering up laptop and enclosure in different orders (what's the correct one?) and at different times in the boot process. Also experienced slowdown of the boot process and a couple of times that the laptop just hung and didn't boot into Windows7 (when the eSATA disk was powered up). Just a couple of days ago I went through an episode where I rebooted several times, refit the cable, tried over USB2, tried via the eSATA on the laptop itself, got the disk out of the enclosure and back in... Finally decided the enclosure was broken. Then the next day suddenly it worked perfectly! I've also had inconsistent results with having The Intel Rapid Storage technology software under Windows recognise the disk when powering it up after starting Windows.

- the eSATA transfer rate is indeed what it promises (although slowed down by the slower internal 500GB disk), but often I lose part of that because - contrary to my experience with USB2 - the external disk takes some time to spin up when it has been idle for a while. Is this a setting that can be changed, maybe in the power schemes?


All in all I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't go the USB3/eSATA combo in the end, because I have a feeling that even though USB3 is newer technology and I would need a expansion card for support, I still would have less trouble with it.

 

I wonder if one of the problems is the enclosure hardware / interface chip. I have one of the HDD docking stations with eSATA / USB connectors (bought on ebay) with an eSATA connector which has proved to be very unreliable in connecting via eSATA. I also have several 2.5" HDDs with eSATA which always connect without difficulty. I've swapped cables around so I know that they are not to blame.

The HDD power down time is in the Windows power settings. However, while my current setting is "always on" when on mains power, I'm sure I have had external HDDs power down if not being accessed for a while.

John

 

My experience with an external e-Sata enclosure with my M4400 was just as pain filled for recognizing the drive, working properly, and ultimately ended in a fried new hard drive, I thought it was probably just a faulty enclosure, but haven't been game to try one again... the first impression has lasted I guess.

Have you considered using secondary drives in the optical bay instead?

 

I have one in there already.

Well, it has been stable for a couple of days again now... I wonder if maybe using hibernation or sleepmode while being undocked, and then docking, might screw things up?