does esata not work on the 435 mt?

Hey guys, i can't get my xps 435 mt (running vista 64 home premium) to recognise my new seagate back armour 2tb drive via eSATA. The drive works fine with USB connection, but is not recognised via eSATA. In BIOS the drive doesn't appear in the list of drives under eSATA either.

I searched and found a similar post but it was someone with RAID setup and the solution there doesn't work for me. Checking for relevant 435mt updates on the dell site - I can't update intel matrix storage manager r205899, as you need to be set as RAID in the BIOS for it to work. When I install r205900, it installs some files, but nothing happens.

I have looked for driver or firmware updates for my eSATA drive on the seagate site - nothing there either. Can't think of what else to try... Dell support will charge to help me since I'm out of warranty (even though it's highly likely to be an issue with the eSATA since I got my system).

Has anyone else had this problem, or can anyone suggest what to try? Cheers.

 

An external drive works fine on my 435mt via eSATA (Win 7 x64). Unless you have the matrix storage manager installed however, (which, as you note, cannot be installed without a RAID setup) the drive won't be hot-pluggable and windows won't see the drive unless it is already on and plugged in when windows boots.

The same drive is hot-swappable on my XPS 16 laptop via eSATA, with no RAID. The dell community forums have a few threads about eSATA on the 435MT, including someone who had a bad eSATA port and was experiencing the same symptoms you describe.

 

JDR, many thanks for the reply - really helpful. My drive doesn't appear even if I have it plugged in on bootup, so it's probably a bad esata port. I'll buy a couple more cables and try them, in case it's the cable.

I'll report back to help anyone with this problem in the future. If it's a bad port though, there's not much I can do about it now out of warranty. Still worth having the esata functionality for my next desktop... which won't be a dell!

Those XPS 16s look sweet though - I'm very tempted.

 

I'm having the same problem with my Dell Studio XPS 435MT, the eSata port in the bios (latest form Dell vers 1.1.4) says the eSata port is undetected. The drive works fine via USB connection but I'm wondering if this is a hardware or software issue? When I called Dell tech support they said it might be a defective motherboard and that I needed to change it, but from what I've read on the threats some seem to think its a software driver related issue on the intel motherboard, since the eSata port is sodered onto the motherboard or a Windows 7 64-bit issue which doesn't recognize the port somehow. I was wondering for those who have the Studio XPS 435MT, did the port just work for you from the start? or did you have a workaround to make it work? thanks for your help.

 

Try this solution: Plug in the usb cord and also the eSata cord. Power on the computer and then it should recognize the drive. It should also appear in the bios, as long as the eSata port is enabled. The eSata port does not supply power to the drive but the usb cord will supply power to the drive. It will then transfer data via the eSata port and not the USB port.

 

Hi Stan,

I tried that when i first initialized my hard drive to plug both cables in but my external enclosure already has a separate power source. The thing is... I have the latest Bios from Dell but when I'm in the Bios it doesn't recognize the eSata port, it says not detected! The motherboard has an integrated eSata port. The only thing I did was upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit from the default OS that came with the system with was Vista 64-bit. Other than that no other hardware changes.

 

eSATA is simply an "external" SATA connection that has been designed to be more rugged than the standard SATA connector. The same rules that apply to your internal hard drive also apply to a hard drive connected to an eSATA port.

What you are trying to accomplish by plugging your external hard drive into the eSATA port while the computer is booted up is called a "Hot Swap." While SATA and eSATA connections can do this, a few conditions must be met.

Your computer must be set to use "AHCI" mode. This is usually found in your BIOS under "SATA Operation" or something along those lines. It is can be called AHCI, Advanced, Enhanced, or RAID, depending on your BIOS version. All of these contain the "standard" SATA capabilities which allow things like hot swapping.

***WARNING*** ***WARNING**** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING***
If your BIOS entry for "SATA Operation" is set to something other than AHCI, do not change it. Doing so will likely prevent your computer from booting back into windows as it uses two completely different drivers for "SATA" and "AHCI" modes.
***WARNING*** ***WARNING**** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING***

If your computer is not set to AHCI, you have a few options. The first one is to shut your computer off and then connect the eSATA drive. Make sure that you also connect a USB cable or an external AC adapter to provide power as the eSATA connection does not provide power on its own. When you power the computer back on and boot into windows, the eSATA drive should be recognized and you should be able to use it. You will not be able to disconnect or reconnect the eSATA drive while the computer is running.

You can also go into your BIOS and enable AHCI and then re-install windows which would then let you use the eSATA connection as a hotswap drive.


Clear as mud in Alaska on January 1st?