DVD drive connected to laptop with sata to esata cable, drive is not recognized by windows 7

hi, I connected a dvd drive to my laptop using,
a sata to esata cable. my laptop has a ESATA port.

I don't know if you should post some kind of config summary (if yes let me know, I will do it promptly)
basically I have a HP DV6t quad edition
with an Intel 5 serie chipset,
PM55 express chipset (dont really know if it make any sense but still, I will just say state it)


so I installed Intel Matrix Storage and when I connect the drive I can see it, but windows 7 does not see it, it's like I didn't plug anything in.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5978/prtscru.jpg

wow its giving me headache I have spent 3 hours looking for a solution.

also my bios is almost configurable, I don't know why
I can change the time, the date, the admin password, the boot order, virtualization, fan on/off that's pretty much it.

so what options do I have if I want to make this dvd drive work??

thanks in advance

 

Although your laptop has an ESATA port which provides for power to an external (E)Sata device it will not provide power to a SATA device. You need to provide external power to your DVD drive either by an external power adapter or a USB connection if it has one.

 

the Dvd Drive is powered externally, dont worry
as you can see the drive is detected by Intel Matrix Storage, but Windows 7 itself does not detect it. so the Power is not the issue here.

 

I know you said that Windows 7 doesn't detect the drive but just to clarify:
1. Does the drive show up in Device Manager or do you have an Unknown device shown there?
2. In Administrative tools, does the drive show up in Disk Management? Sometimes if the drive shows in Disk Management but does not have a drive letter associated with it, windows will not recognize the drive as functional until a drive letter is associated with it.

 

1. no

2. no

the drive only shows up in Intel matrix Storage.
windows thinks that only 2 ports are functioning (thats what it says when I clic properties of intel sata ahci controller driver)

I have 6 ports, port 0 is used by the HDD, port1 is used by the internal bluray player, I dont know about port 2 and 3 but port 4 and 5 are unused.

port 5 is the Esata port.

 

I don't think that it will work this way. While Intel Matrix can see it, that's about as good as it will get. Reason being, the Drive isn't hooked up to an esata controller on it's end. If you were to change this, you would more than likely get a different and possibly more favorable result. I can't say for sure. But I base this on the fact that is is not showing up in Device Manager or in Disk Management.
I hope this helps. Good Luck.

 

Sata can accept esata as long as you add a controller that can distribute the power, however I don't know of any laptop esata ports actually distribute power

 

Thats not necessarily true. I just built a esata portable hard drive and before i bought the case with the controller I hooked the drive, with external power supply, to my old hdx 16's esata port and it worked just fine.

The only reason I needed the controller was so I could power through usb, or if just transferring small files, just use usb.

 

Unfortunately HP doesn't give you much leeway in changing bios options.

Can you connect the drive to a desktop to make sure its working alright?

Are all your drivers, including the drive drivers (if needed) updated and installed correctly? Make sure to have the latest chipset drivers.

The fact that its not showing up in device manager is not a good sign.

Whats the specific dv6 model that you have?

 

I have the DV6t 2000
my drivers are updated

 

Yes, of course you are correct. Sorry for the misleading info. When I saw esata I was thinking that the newer notebooks had ESATAp ports (power over esata), but what they actually have is combo esata/usb ports. I am still stuck with USB only.

 

ok, I borrowed a Asus laptop this afternoon, and the bios is configurable.
I did what I wanted to do.

go into the bios, if the bios is configurable (if not configurable this is what you seriously need to consider: throw your laptop in the air, and dance like you just don't care )
go into the advanced section (PM to HP: is it that dangerous to activate that damn section in the bios"????)
and selec IDE configuration, switch enhanced to compatible. if you choose RAID, you will get a BSOD everytime you try to boot.

after doing that, save and exit. job is done.

I will never buy HP again...