Esata port on 8930G

Hi
I have recieved an external hard drive in the post today along with a cable to connect.

I connected the cable, turned hard drive on and nothing is happening. The hard drive connects via usb fine but that will be much slower to backup 500GB worth of data. Does anyone know if I need to do anything special to get it to work with esata or should it work straight away?

Not sure if the cable is esata 1 or 2 but it should work with either shouldnt it?

Anyne who can help would appreciate it, cheers

 

What's your external?
Have you installed any drivers for the external?
Depending on the external HDD, you might need to connect the external to the laptop when laptop is turned off. After you connect the eSata HDD (which is plugged in an electrical outlet), you can turn on the laptop and then should recognise the eSata drive. I don't know if you need to turn on the HDD but some externals will power on automatically when you turn on the laptop.
EDIT: If you want to unplug the HDD, you will need to turn off the laptop first
In eSata connection, some externals don't support hot swapping, so treat it as an internal.

Try that and let me know

 

Hi
It is just one I bought from ebay. No drivers with it apart from a mini cd which has windows 98 drivers. It works fine when connected via usb but not via esata, but never used esata before.

TO connect via usb I have to have the hdd turned off, connect it all up and then power the hdd up, it then reads the drive and loads up. Im moving all my data from old laptop to new laptop but would take ages on usb to do 500gb worth. Is there a different procedure for esata?

 

Cheers sorry didnt see your edit..

Ill try that and see how that works. I just assumed it would be plug and play like usb is.

This is the drive

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230363183134&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

It is just a hard drive put inside an enclosure, I bought one off him a year or so ago which is 500gb and it has the same enclosure, esata doesnt work on that but usb does. Only get 20mb a sec transfer rate (so vista says) so wanted to use esata, maybe I need to plug it all in whilst laptop is off so Ill try that..

Cheers

 

A friend of mine has WD external and he has his laptop off and the HD off, I think. Connects everything by eSata and when he powers up the laptop, after a while the HD is powered on as well automatically by the laptop.
BTW, 20MB/sec from USB is not bad at all.

 

Tried that, not working on both hard drives.

Maybe it is a dodgy esata cable? Or the esata on the 8930g is esata 1 and the hdd is 2? Not sure..

 

Started transferring things and getting between 18 and 22mbs according to vista. I have been using the usb 2 for 18 months fine but this laptop has an esata port so thought I would put it to use, but it aint havin it lol

In device manager, what does an esata port come up as? Cannot see those words in esata? I know the 8930g uses the usb power or something for esata but don't know much else.

My external hard drives all require to be plugged into separate power. They are basically internal hard drives but put in enclosures. I have 2 500GB ones and 1 1GB one. I wanted to move all my items onto the 1TB one, get rid of old stuff I dont want and just basically sort things out. Then I shall sell my 2 500gb ones on fleabay

Just cannot figure out why the esata isnt working. I wish I had another cable but then again the cable is brand new too.

 

What's your cable?
Don't tell me that you have an eSATA L type?
That is not compatible. You need eSATA type I to eSATA type I (it is called eye and not one).

 

The drive is ESATA II & USB2 but also supports USB1 and comes pre-formatted and is ready for immediate use. Just plug in, turn on and you're done - these really are that simple to use!

ESATA II is a new data port with data transfer rates up to 6 times faster than USB2.

Maybe the port on my laptop is esata 1? How would I know? I have two 8930g laptops here and doesnt work on either.

 

Not sure to be honest. The cable is red and it does plug into both laptop and hard drive ok.

How do I know what type of cable it is? It was just sent with the HDD...

 

I was asking the type of the cable and not the ports. I know what kind of ports you have and the differences. I think most likely is the cable you are using. The laptop has eSATA 2 by the way

 

it looks the same as this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350105711723&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

On the actual cable there is printed:

Serial ATA 26AWG 9U AWM STYLE 2725 80 DEGREES C 30V VW-1 E301195 PAK HENG

 

Are both ends exactly the same? Put them next to each other and check. Also you can google to see how the eSATA type I cable/port looks like and see if you have the right cable.

 

I think it looks ok but I don't have one to check
but it is easy to do wrong
For example
This is the wrong type
Type L to Type I
and this is the right
Type I to type I

 

Ill have another look in morning, need sleep

I think I may have the wrong one. On usb the usb logo is facing upwards when plugging in. On my esata cables the "SATA" text is facing downloads at both ends, only goes in one way. Probably got the wrong type. THey dont make it easy for ya!

I went to my local computer shop and asked for an esata cable and the guy had never heard of them and argued with me for ages telling me I was wrong and it is sata! Would have preferred to buy from a store like that so could have tested. Ill buy this other one on ebay and see how I get on, thanks again

 

@nickc24 it looks like you have the correct "I" type cable according to your photos. You would not easily insert the wire if it were wrong.

Check the BIOS setting on the laptop to ensure it is set to detect the drive. If it does not detect it you will get nowhere, no need to boot into the operating system if BIOS cannot determine the drive exists (*see edit*). Are you cold booting instead of warm booting? try cold (power off to start).

Put firm inward pressure on the connector as the PC boots, I'm using rubber gum bands to hold the connector into the back of my eSATA drive. Not the stable connection I hoped for. Some cables have clips and perhaps one will fit my drive.

Edit: sorry, it depends on a lot of things as to whether your drive will be detected by the operating system when the BIOS cannot see it. My computer requires specific drivers to enable hot-plugging. Yours may not.

 

eSata does not seem to supply the power to the drive, just the data.

So attach a/the power supply/adapter for the eSata drive.

--or--

I have eSata drive on the 8930, i use the USB cable to supply the power, just connect the eSata first, then use a USB power only cable (or just block the center two pins, with a bit of paper).

My external disk came with a USB y-cord (two plugs so that it can get more power). I only attach the one with the USB receiver on the other end, that one is only for extra power (or in this case the whole shabang).

Hope this helps ;-)