M570TU eSata Problems

Well I really wanted to have an eSata drive to go with my M570TU. So I purchased an enclosure from newegg and threw my 640GB internal Sata drive into it. The OS recognized it, but takes about 2-3 minutes for it to become usable. If its plugged in while rebooting, it takes about 2-3 minutes longer to boot. Even when booting the Vista install disk, it takes that long. So I returned the enclosure and bought an actual external eSata drive. I plugged it in and to my unhappy surprise, there was still the 2-3 minute delay any time the drive is initialized. When connected via USB, the problem does not exist.

Its not a driver issue, as this happens anytime the drive is accessed, including pre-install environments. Do I have a faulty eSata controller or whats up?

 

Uhh..well i just installed an Esata Western digital and do not have that issue..

Do the drives need external power? i know that sounds dumb, but if its trying to power off the port..

 

They do require power, at least that I'm aware of. And the drive is plugged in. Its also a WD drive. I wonder if the controller is fubar.

 

I have 3 eSata TB drives, two thru expresscard and no issues.

 

Sounds it, if its not driver and not software....

Maybe a bad cable????? maybe?

 

Could be. I'll have to try tracking somebody down who's got eSata.

 

Sorry my ignorance but how you put a TB drive thru expresscard???
Thanks

 

with an expresscard esata adapter

 

Mike,

Did you get your issue closer to a resolution?

 

that seems to be a normal problem of the 570tu i have an external sata driver myself and i dont power up the drive before windows is booted because if is switch it on before booting it takes about 10 minutes (no joke) to boot vista 64.
i tried different esata cables its always the same so i think its vista 64 bit issue or an controller issue but i dont think its corrupted. seems to be normal. anyway just wanted to report that and sorry 4 my bad english

greeting flode from germany

 

I just like ot update my previous posts and say that after 3 cables i have the same problems as Emike..

Most times my system will lock uintill i disconnect the cable

Now using the drive via USB

 

eSATA should be virtually the same as SATA, no? Sounds like a Vista problem.

Try installing XP and see if you get the same problem? That's what I would do.

If I get an M860TU, I'll want to use usb or eSATA with my enclosure/SATA drive But, I'll use XP and Linux. I don't forsee those problems but who knows.

 

Puter, if you would have read these threads, the problems happen during POST. XP doesn't fix anything for anything at all. Only causes problems.

And eSata is slightly different.

 

emike09, I'm running XP SP3 on my Sager 5796 and using esata w/o any problems. I made a nlite disk w/ the AHCI drivers on it and I've never had a problem w/ my 1TB esata drive I use for backup. It's fully hot-swappable too!!! I've seen on here a lot of you that have had problems w/ esata on these notebooks, but everybody else seems to be using Vista. I wonder if that's part of the problem or if I happen to be the lucky one. Anybody else playing w/ esata on XP???

 

Again, if it happens in POST, it doesn't matter what OS you are using. When it takes 3-4 minutes for the BIOS to detect what drive is there, it is obviously not related to Vista. You see most of the people with problems running vista because very few of us use XP anymore.

 

I was speculating since I was curious about eSATA although I had my external drive (in an enclosure) set up via USB.

I think you were on the right track of it being the controllers and that's why I suggested installing XP. You're right, though, it shouldn't be needed. But, if you are installing an OS on it, it's one idea. Slipstreaming XP and using AHCI mode settles all the SATA issues, imho. I did that with my main OS boot drive (for my desktop) and it was smooth sailing as far as having partitions/drives detected.

I suggest you google: "setting up eSATA" as I tried it and received several hits. Apparently, it is quite an issue. I think it is close enough to SATA to warrant and justify my comments. If you read about SATA issues, there is a similar 'can't get my drives to become detected/read' vibe from many complaints.

If you google that, you might come across someone with a similar issue. I will speculate once more that it might help to check settings in your BIOS. As you say, if it's a POST issue, that to me suggests BIOS issue since you have a delay problem. It's as if the BIOS is using that medium (drive) as the last one to detect or activate. Could that be a reason for the delay? The BIOS goes through your main drive, CD/DVD drive, looks for anything on the USB ports etc. etc. and then looks at eSATA last?

Sorry if none of this helps but googling 'setting up eSATA' is one way to approach it, imho.

 

Edit: Try these links and see if they give you any ideas?:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-774420.html

http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/archive/index.php/t-72785.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=333681

http://stevenharman.net/blog/archiv...ms-my-esata--sata-ii-enclosure-wont-play.aspx

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?p=31489152

What happens if you power on the HDD first and then turn on your notebook?
(after looking in BIOS settings and making any changes - might have to enable eSATA drive?)

 

let me see if i can recreate your problem and find you an answer mike.
edit: ok, everything went fine and my os sees it immediately.

so i would try a different cable. one of the more expensive ones.

 

I have this problem on my M570RU using an esata express card it takes long to pick it up and it freezes as well and longer boot times etc.

Its a pain as i have to switch back to using a usb cable.. there is definetly an issue with the post, but what about in vista? I use 64bit Vista Ultimate and i have loads of issues like one of the posters my laptop freezes unless i disconnect the esata cable..

 

I can say that I have seen similar behavior out of my Asus P5B Deluxe desktop system, and it had something to do with the way my drive was set up in the BIOS (AHCI vs. SATA vs. IDE). I'm sorry I don't remember the specifics. It was one of those times when I was more concerned with trying changing settings on a whim just trying to get it working than taking any sort of methodical approach to it.

 

still messing with this issue around with enabend esata driver my nootebook need about 7 minutes to boot. when i start the external drive when win is booted up. it freezes the laptop for about 20 seconds the recognizes the harddriver correctly.

 

i just like to tell you and the world everybody who has problems with esata on a m570 tu! PLS try out Intel Storage Matrix Drivers? (3/13/09) Version 8.8!!!!

it fixed my Problems..... but there is only one problem if use this driver you dont have intel turbo memory anymore.

because intel turbo memory comes with its own old version of the matrix storage driver whitch still messes up the esata port of the m570tu!

so you have to choose between working esata or working turbo memory at the moment!

i hope intel releases a new version of trubo memory driver with the new storage driver included that would be so nice...

greetings flode

 

Ok i know this is bumping an old topic but i got some new info. I use an express ESATA II card which ofc supports sata 3gb/s. I am also connected to an E-SATA enclosure that supports SATA I/ sata 1.5 gb/s. The SATA I seems to have compatibility issues with ICH9 but works well on ICH5 controller.

How i solved my problem for now was restrict my hard drive to 1.5 gb/s in the caddy by using the jumper option. Now it works perfectly fine but capped ofc at SATA I speeds. Im going to get a SATA II caddy and see if it will work properly on SATA II speeds.

It looks like some SATA 3.0Gb/s drives will need to have the jumper set to force SATA/150 (SATA 1.5Gb/s) mode to ensure full compatibility.

Will keep this updated..