How to remove an eSATA drive from Windows Server 2008

I am setting up an SBS 2011 Essentials server (basically Windows Server 2008 R2) and have an external drive caddy attached to the machine via an eSata port. Any drive dropped into the caddy shows up as a regular hard drive in the Disk Management tool. However, the OS does not recognize the drives as removable drives so there is no way to eject them. I have two physical drives I need to rotate into and out of the caddy for use as the system backup target, which means I need a way to eject/dismount a drive from the OS and then mount the new one.

Anyone know how to force the OS to treat these as removables?

Gary

 

I heard back from a colleague:

to which I replied:

I'll report back my findings to the group, to help expand the communal knowledgebase.

Gary

 

Do you have ACHI enabled in bios?

 

The BIOS is VERY limited re:the onboard SATA controllers on the Proliant ML150G6. There are two SATA controllers. The primary one is set for RAID and is being used for the four internal drives. The secondary one (where the eSata caddy is attached) only has two options "Disabled" and "Compatible" (aka SATA Native mode). The primary one does have an AHCI mode, but I need it for my RAID arrays.

There is "Hot Plug" option on the same BIOS page but does not appear to be associated specifically with either controller 1 or controller 2. I have it set to on but that seems to have no effect.

Gary

 

ACHI = hot plug capability among other things. Perhaps a separate controller card with more features would be in order?

 

ACHI = hot plug IF the drivers enable that function. I downloaded the HP drivers for the motherboard, but they only applied themselves to the four port SATA controller #1 when I ran the installer. The two port SATA controller #2 still has generic Microsoft drivers. So even if it had an ACHI mode, I doubt it would work without a proper driver.

Your idea of a separate controller was something I was already looking into. Specifically the HighRely eSATA cards. I know for fact their drivers make all devices attached to them show up as removable media in Win 2008 R2/SBS 2011.

Gary

 

I found some specs for that server.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/DS_00148/DS_00148.PDF

That makes me believe that there's no way to make those 4 ports support hot plug.

 

The base model has a 4 bay drive cage and the 4 port RAID capable SATA controller. You have to add to that to get it up to 8 drives. You can get 4 or 8 hot swap drive cage options too. But the difference there is just the cage style. The same controller(s)r is used for either one.

However there is an additional 2 port SATA interface. One port is used for the DVD ROM drive. The second port is where I have the eSATA drive caddy plugged in.

This second controller seems to be a pretty bare bones one as it is designed for DVD or Tape drive options. It will work with a hard drive too, as I have demonstrated. But there is no HP driver for it and the stock Win Server 2008 R2 install does not seem to support hot swap, or more specifically the ability to dismount and remount it, which is all I really need. Looks like I will have to add a HighRely eSATA controller. Their drivers present all devices as removable media to the OS.

Gary