External Multibay Enclosure

Hi guys I have 2 HDD laying around and I am after some multi drive external enclosure, but every where I look at those products ask for Port Multiplier capable eSATA host controller. Anyone know if our Gateway has it? So I can have more than one sata hdd plugged in one e-sata port.

 

I must share with you the gateway support about the issue, so please if anyone has the experience or knows that please tell me because gateway doesn't know what they use to build our system unless we pay for them to tell us even though my system is in warranty :

Subject
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e-sata controller info


Discussion Thread
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Response (Hariharakumar M.) - 07/15/2010 11:59 AM
Dear Felipe Cruz,

Thank you for contacting Gateway. I will be happy to assist you with this issue.

I understand that you are would like to know if the e-sata port controller has the port multiplier capability.

I have verified the Serial number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and found to be in warranty and not registered.

This is to inform you that the scope with Gateway Technical support is limited. In order to help with out of scope issues we have a dedicated team called Pay for support who will be able to provide you with the best

options available and help you further.

With your permission can I go ahead and set a callback for you. The specialist from Pay for support team would contact you and give more details.

 

See what the fee is for their pay for support. If it is per minute then you probably wouldn't pay much because you are just looking for a yes or no answer. Although it wouldn't surprise me if the fee still came out to be $10.

 

Something interesting. This is information about the Silicon Image SiI 3531 SATA controller on my 6860. Unsure if yours is the same. However, on the following page under Product Features, it explains how the host controller is able to utilize multiple drives through one eSATA connection.

http://www.siliconimage.com/news/releasedetails.aspx?id=358

Which eSATA controller does the 7809u use?
Open Device Manager/Storage Controllers

I'm assuming your 7809u will be able to control a multi drive enclosure, if the 6860 can do it.

 

On Storage controller I have only AHM25V8B IDE Controller, O2Micro Integrated MMC/SD controller and O2Micro Integrated MS/MSPRO/xD Controller.
I doesn't show any esata controller. Should it be there?
Thanks for the help.

 

That's strange, what's hidden under the Other Devices tab? Usually that is a device that's missing a driver etc.

 

It says unknown device... But The win is factory original... Actually it came with win vista and I got the free upgrade to win 7. I did not have a fresh win 7 install and just had the upgrader do the job....
I might not be installed or even working?

 

Oh ok I see. If you right click that unknown device, and goto properties, what does it list the device's location as? my esata controller is listed as PCI bus 3, device 0, function 0.

It's possible that unknown device could be your eSATA port, in which case you just need to find the driver for it.

 

It says Unknown...

 

Hmm, alright. Do you have an external drive or enclosure that has an esata port you can try? See if it works? That's all I can think of.

Perhaps someone with the same model can chime in and let us know what esata host controller the laptop is using?

You can also try if you like to use the Silicon Image eSATA driver the 6860 uses, though naturally it's a shot in the dark if it works, and it's a vista driver so there are issues there since your on 7.

Here is the Read Me from that driver.

Naturally, this is for the 6860 and if I remember correctly the 7809 uses a different chipset aswell.

Though, if you want to give it a shot, this is the link.
SI ESATA Driver - Windows Vista 64-bit

 

I don't have an esata here but I will try to get one to test... about the chipset yes it is different. Anyway thank you very much... I will keep trying to figure it out.

 

No problem, sorry I can't help you further. Interestingly enough, gateway doesn't even list an esata controller driver on their download page for your model. They do have one for the 6860. Perhaps the chipset driver controls the eSATA port? Unsure.

You could try a chipset driver, you said the laptop was on Vista right?
Intel Chipset Driver Version: 8.7.0.1007

 

No good news at least for me... If the Intel PM45 chipset (ICH 10) doesn't support port multiplier, as I found on this intel documentation http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/319973.pdf
If anyone can confirm, it is pretty big doc but I searched port multiplier and several times it says port multiplier not supported. I will just have to use the hdd separate or buy an usb hub since the gateway has only 3 usb ports, and using a mouse and two hdd eats all up. Thanks for the help and shame on gateway for the poor assistance.

 

Firewire is better than USB 2.0 for hard drives.

 

I know, I mean like to use e-sata I have to power the drive through an usb, and if I use the other hd as firewire there goes another usb to power it up, + an usb mouse, there goes all my usb ports... But thanks again. I will live with one external hd plugged in at a time.

 

I think that the Firewire port would be able to power anything that USB 2.0 could power.

 

I don't know, what I know is that some kind of firewire is able and other isn't. So there goes another question, is our firewire able to power an external 2.5" hd without an usb?

 

I'm looking through the docs for the pm45 and ich9-m and I'm not seeing anything specific that indicates it's not completely supported. Just that it doesn't support FIS based switching on port multipliers. Has anyone tried a P-7805 with a port multiplier?

At this point I don't care if the array is seen in bios. I just hope that it will be seen in Windows itself.