MSI GT60 eSATA not recognized

Hello all,

One of the factors in my decision to buy the MSI GT60 is the included eSATA. Unfortunately, when I plug a drive into the eSATA port it is not recognized (does not even power up) in Windows 7. I know from past experience that AHCI must typically be enabled in BIOS in order for Win7 to recognize eSATA devices, but since the GT60 ships with 2 drives in RAID, the setting in BIOS is "RAID", not "AHCI".

Any BIOS or other tricks to get around this? I find it incomprehensible that MSI would sell a machine that forces the user to choose between the performance of RAID, and the performance of eSATA.

(Above post copied from GT60 eSATA drive not recognized)

 

Is the eSATA port hot swappable?

Try plugging in the device, restarting the computer and see if it's recognized after the restart.

 

Drive is not recognized - neither in BIOS nor in Windows - even after restarting with the drive plugged in.

 

This part makes me wonder... so forgive me but I have to ask... does the drive have power? Is there something plugged into the drive to power it?

Regular eSata cables do not provide power, nor can a drive be powered through the sata connector, something must be connected to the sata power connector on the drive.

eSata alone provides no power. An eSatap (or eSata/USB combo) only provides power with the correct (and somewhat rare) cables that connect to both the sata and sata power connectors on the drive.

 

It's a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drive (2.5") that has consistently worked on other machines when plugged in to eSATA or USB. Having said that, all the other machines I've used have had an eSATA/USB combo port, so it's possible that style of port supplies (adequate) power, while the dedicated eSATA port on this GT60 laptop does not.

 

Just talked to MSI support, and was told that the eSATA port on these laptops is not powered and hence will never work with a 2.5" external SATA drive that relies on power over the communication cable. In other words, while the GT60 does have an eSATA port, it does not have an eSATAp port.

Every other laptop I've seen with eSATA provides a powered eSATA/USB combo port, so in my opinion MSI whiffed pretty badly here. This port is essentially useless for my needs - and presumably for many other eSATA fans out there who might be considering this notebook.

 

Actually i've seen the opposite pretty often too, a lot of notebooks don't have e-SATAp. I've seen s-SATAp mostly on Lenovos and Dells. I have an e-sata 2.5" external that can be hooked up via usb for power and e-sata for data transfer or USB for both. If you have a dual plug USB cable, you can use the power only plug to power the drive and e-sata for data. Far from elegant, but it works at least.

 

What external chassis is that? Any suggestions on where to find a USB/eSATA/eSATAp cable like you describe?

 

Oh, it's two cables, the enclosure is a Mukii Transimp TIP230SU, i'd love a cable that splits the as you describe, but unfortunately, i gotta use two cables that's why i called the solution inelegant. The USB cable i use for power has a connector that only has the power leads and no pins for data so it isn't detected as usb device by windows which lets me use a regular e-sata cable.