eSATA on XP

Ok I have put the slow hd that came with the G1s into a 2.5" external usb/eSATA case. The USB cable it comes with forks into two connectors. 1 allows access to the drive from Windows, the other doesn't and just powers the drive. I can only assume this is so that it has power when being connected via eSATA.

So I connected it this way and rebooted. The boot options changed to allow DVD to boot, despite there being nothing in the drive.

Windows cannot see the hard drive at all.

Have I missed something? Maybe a bios setting, maybe my eSATA drivers aren't working?

I am running XP and everything else is working fine so far.

Cheers

 

Just thought I'd add, in bios, eSATA is UNLOCKED and only the internal SATA drive appears in the boot priority menu.

I installed these just to test too http://www.jmicron.com/Driver.htm
to no avail.

 

Have you tried it without the 'power' USB connected? As far as I know, eSATA has a power pin built in.

 

If LiquidSteel's option doesn't work the other potential issue is the the USB power plug doesn't draw enough from the USB port to spin up the drive and power the eSATA interface -- is there an external power brick for the enclosure that you can try?

 

I used an eSATA enclosure recently, and I used the regular power adapter that came with the enclosure, since it did not draw enough power (or any power) through the port itself.

I would think if you used the eSATA connector AND the USB connector, the computer may not know which connection you are trying to use. If the enclosure came with a power adapter, try using that rather than any of the USB connectors. Just a thought.

 

Thanks for your replies. The usb cable has a Y ending (this seems to be the case on all my mates bus powered external cases too). The main ending works normally, the secondary connector simply powers the drive, but windows doesn't detect it (not sure what it's for).

Anyway, I actually found another cable that is obviously designed purely to supply the drive with power from the USB bus. one end is the USB Y ending and the other is a mini DC style plug, which slid perfectly into an inconspicuous hole on the drive.

The drive powers on, but the eSATA connection fails to find the drive through Windows. It is not detected at all in Disk Management.

Any ideas?

 

AFAIK, eSATA does *NOT* carry power. Just data. It is merely an SATA cable which is spec-ed to work properly/better outside of a computer tower (ie: more ground lines to reduce noise).

Are you using a Nexstar 3 260SU with an SATA laptop drive?

In any case, it's an eSATA with a USB Y-cable like you describe and an eSATA cable. The Y-cable has two USB A-type plugs and a mini-USB on the other end. The mini goes into the unit, the A-type with two wires goes into the PC, and the A-type on the end is used for additional power in systems with weak USB power lines.

I don't have a Santa Rosa system, so I don't have the built-in eSATA connector. Instead, I use a ByteCC eSATA ExpressCard for eSATA (uses a SiliconImage controller). For most of my systems, I'm able to plug in the USB and it talks USB, but the minute I plug in eSATA, the unit switches automatically to the eSATA side (the device disconnects and reconnects on my system). It needs the USB side for power, unless you have one of the newer types of units which have a USB power (USB-A to 5V connector) and a USB power+data cable (USB-A/A to mini-USB).

The best way to check if it is working is to check Device Manager first. If it doesn't see it there, then you might have a defective unit.

Alternatively, you can check your SATA laptop disk in a desktop PC, the SATA data and power are the same.

 

The disk works fine when I connecdt it via USB, so the hard drive is fine.

This particular enclosure comes with a USB Y cable on one end and a mini DC connector on the other. I've tried every possible way to supply the unit with power (and it appears to work), but windows will not see the drive via eSATA no matter what.

So my suspicion is that the problem is G1s XP specific. Anyone who has got eSATA working on XP, please comment. Cheers

 

Did you install the esata controller? My driver disk came with seperate drivers for eSata, At a guess id say this would be the cause.

 

I agree, from the looks of it, the G1S uses the eSATA from a separate JMicron controller. Did you install it?

If not, you can get it from another ASUS laptop that has the JMicron driver for XP or grab it from their site:

http://www.jmicron.com/Driver.htm

 

Yeah guys, as per my second post, I installed those and rebooted to no avail... can anyone confirm those drivers actually work for XP on G1s?

 

I have the V1s and I got eSata working under XP

 

I guess it could either be the enclosure or the cable. I'll test with another enclosure (one day).