eSATA external hard drive problems

[l Thomas l]

I have AHCI enabled and I have the latest Hard drive and eSATA drivers, but I cant set it to "optimize for quick removal" in device manager, it's grayed out.

Also, it shows up under safely remove hardware, but when I try to remove it, it says the drive is in use and it can't eject it.

It also says it's a SCSI Device, the name is "SATA WD My Book SCSI Disk Device," I dont know if that matters.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I searched online and on this forum, but nothing they suggested seemed to work. Thanks.

Whats weird is it worked when I first installed the intel chipset drivers, before I even installed the hard drive or eSATA drivers. Before that I wasnt able to plug the eSATA drive in while the computer was on. Now I can though, I just cant remove it. I did remove it once when I first installed the chipset drivers tho.

 

[California Roll]

Originally posted by: l Thomas l
I have AHCI enabled and I have the latest drivers, but I cant set it to "optimize for quick removal" in device manager, it's grayed out.

I've never been able to change this either. I gave up trying. This is the setting for usb flash drives, usually.

Also, it shows up under safely remove hardware, but when I try to remove it, it says the drive is in use and it can't eject it.

Make sure you have nothing accessing that drive, like Windows Explorer. Sometimes you'll think nothing is accessing it, but if you check Task Manager an app/process that you used earlier for a file on that drive may still be open, even if you exited it. Lastly, sometimes it just won't let you eject it. In these cases I just turn off/disconnect the drive when I'm sure it's not writing.

It also says it's a SCSI Device, the name is "SATA WD My Book SCSI Disk Device," I dont know if that matters.

This is normal and doesn't matter.

I use external drives (5 of them) daily and they have their quirks.

 

[l Thomas l]

Thanks.
Yeah I had no programs open. I also tried ending explorer.exe from Task Manager, with no programs open, and then restarting explorer, a trick that used to work for me with XP (btw Im using Vista), but it didnt work.

 

[California Roll]

Originally posted by: l Thomas l
Thanks.
Yeah I had no programs open. I also tried ending explorer.exe from Task Manager, with no programs open, and then restarting explorer, a trick that used to work for me with XP (btw Im using Vista), but it didnt work.

Couple other things you can try:

Turn off drive indexing for that drive.

I mainly use externals to archive video. After I copy a file onto it (write operation), sometimes I can't eject it. If I then view one of the files (read operation), then close it, eject works.

Both of the above are hit and miss tho. Again, quirky.

 

[M0RPH]

SATA hotswap really doesn't work all that well. You're lucky that you got the first part, getting it to show up in Safely Remove. I never got that but I use a little utility called Hotswap.

Still, half of the time when I go to remove the drive I also get the crap about the drive being in use. Even when I know nothing is using it. You can try a utility called Unlocker which will show the processes associated with the drive and give you the option to 'unlock' them. Sometimes that works for me.

If you can't get the 'drive in use' to go away, your options are to either 1) just unplug the drive anyways and hope there's no data corruption or 2) shut down the computer. It's usually safe to just unplug it.

It's too bad really that SATA doesn't work as well as USB. I've never had a problem safely removing a USB drive whenever I wanted to.

 

[l Thomas l]

Damn, thats too bad, its so much faster than USB or even Firewire. Does disabling the drive in Device Manager also work?

 

[M0RPH]

Disabling through control panel is the same thing, if it's locked you'll get a message saying you need to restart. So again, either you ignore it and unplug the drive, or you restart.

 

[elconejito]

if you're on Vista, open task manager then click on resource manager button in the performance tab. In the new window, there is a disk section, you can sort by filename. Whenever i can't eject it, there is always some random file ("X:\$LogFile (NTFS Volume Log)" usually) thats open. I have indexing turned off [shakes fist in general direction of Redmond] so I don't know what it could be that is accessing it. I don't know how to kill that file though, maybe M0RPH's Unlocker would do the trick.

If you don't even have the "safe to remove" option, I think I saw somewhere that the Intel chipsets don't give that option. I have one, but my eSATA port is hooked up to the Gigabyte provided additional SATA ports on the mobo, not the Intel ones.

 

[corkyg]

I have two eSATA drives - one on this system and one on my laptop. Primarily for digital imagery storage. I turn 'em on and off as needed with out regard to Safely Remove" etc. It never presents a problem. Just make sure the drive is quiet when you turn it off. They are normally off unless I need to access a photo or file a batch.

If you connect your eSATA cable to a mobo SATA port, it is seen as an internal SATA drive. To get true eSATA, you need a card that has a real eSATA port on the backplane.

My laptop eSATA gave me some errors - and that was solved easily by replacing the cable.

Both eSATA drives are duplicates - that provides redundancy.

I never have them on when booting or shutting down.

 

[l Thomas l]

And that wont affect the life of the drive? Cuz if you did that with USB I think it probably would. It just doesnt make sense why it would happen with USB and not eSATA with the same drive.

 

[Old Hippie]

It just doesnt make sense why it would happen with USB and not eSATA with the same drive.

:laugh:

You're right but that's just they way it is.

The JMicron chipset for my eSATA ports hotswaps well 99% of the time but for those rare times when it doesn't, Unlocker works great. :thumbsup:

 

[l Thomas l]

Ok I havent used it with eSATA since my last post here, and now it wont work at all! It shows up as a drive with the folders listed, but then it hangs forever if I try to access it.

The drive is working fine with Firewire and USB though.

 

[corkyg]

Sometimes we connect eSATA drives to what amount to internal SATA ports. IOW, if the eSATA drive is connected to a eSATA port on the backplane, and then that in turn is connected to a regular SATA port on a card or the mobo, it is seen by the computer as an internal drive.

As for SCSI designation - that is normal. Not to worry.

As long as you use common sense and always wait until that drive is inactive (don't put programs on it!! Just data, photos and music) you can power it off any time without regard to Safe Removal and there will be no ill effects. I do it all the time.

 

[SleeStack1]

I have the same issue with a dock that connects direct to a MB sata port.

I believe its a Chipset and/or driver issue.

At first, I couldn't get a hot swap drive to recognize unless it was present from startup (BIOS recognize).

All SATA drives would show up under 'Safe removal' in this condition, but plugging in a new drive was useless (no detection).

I updated my Vista 64 driver with the latest nVidia driver for my 590 SLI chipset and voila!, I could now hot plug in a drive and the system would see it!

But now NONE of my SATA drives show up under 'Safe Removal'.

I tried using the HotSwap utility but I can never eject any drive because 'a program is always accessing it'.

I guess I'm better off now since I can actually plug in a drive and have it recognize though. I can pull it out just fine as well and the system recognizes that and dumps the drive letter.

I just have the risk of corrupting something I suppose.

I suspect that my issue is that the 590i chipset does NOT support AHCI. But that's just a guess.

I'll keep my fingers crossed I don't wreck any drives yanking them out.

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: l Thomas l
I have AHCI enabled and I have the latest Hard drive and eSATA drivers

fwiw, on my first install I thought I had this but it turned out the MB was internally emulating it as a PATA drive. I had to force it in the BIOS (Raid Mode to AHCI) and use Intel Matrix Storage manger (there may have been another driver too, sorry was a bit of a mess sorting this out at the time). The Intel guides on this aren't the best, and you should anticipate a potential clean install if you need to change this.

Also, my DVD drive is internal SATA and shows up in "safely remove hardware", my HDD doesn't. I have a second HDD which I'll try plugging in and see if that one comes up (perhaps the HDD doesn't show because it is C: )

[edit: second drive doesn't show up, but apparently can be safely removed by right-clicking on it in Device Manager and selecting Disable. There's an app which supposedly puts this in the Safely Remove Hardware icon - just came across it on a Google though, can't vouch for it. I'm guessing Windows knows (thanks to Intel driver) that it's an internal drive on an internal SATA and therefore does not show it in Safely Remove Hardware, since there's loads of people on XP moaning about wanting to remove it from there. If so this might support and explain the drive needing to be on what Windows knows to be an eSATA port. ]

 

[Old Hippie]

I suspect that my issue is that the 590i chipset does NOT support AHCI. But that's just a guess.

I'm thinking I read the same thing.

I tried using the HotSwap utility but I can never eject any drive because 'a program is always accessing it'.

You'll probably be OK just waiting for the drive to become inactive before removal, but the little Unlocker program linked above will tell you what is accessing the drive and give you the option to unlock it.

 

[vailr]

There are several factors to consider when talking about eSATA.
1. The eSATA port controller chip: whether Intel (Raid or non-Raid) or JMicron (AKA "Gigabyte controller" on Gigabyte boards).
2. The bios setting for said controller chip: AHCI, Raid, or Disabled (PATA mode).
JMicron SATA ports can always be selected in bios setup to support Raid or AHCI, but aren't quite as fast as Intel SATA port Raid & AHCI.
Note: Intel non-Raid chipset SATA ports (such as found on an ICH9 board) do not support Raid or AHCI .
If the board you're using is set up for Intel Raid, then an AHCI selection (useful for external removable eSATA drives) would only be available by using the JMicron SATA port.
Also: be aware that the legacy IDE port is also controlled by the JMicron chip, which can sometimes affect the eSATA "safe remove" feature.

 

[Old Hippie]

Another "gotcha" AHCI/eSATA problem I've noticed, is that many fail to see the "R" in the chipset designation.

It can make all the difference in the world but when numbers start flying around, sometimes the little "R" gets lost in the shuffle.