Windows 7 won't detect eSATA hard drive

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CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
5,401
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Hi guys,

I have an ASUS P7P55D Pro motherboard and three different eSATA external hard drives (all self-built in three different cases). Each drive works fine when plugged into the supplied USB Y-cable, but if I plug them into my motherboards rear eSATA port, nothing happens.

I've tried plugging in eSATA first, plugging in USB (power) first, restarting the computer, etc. When the computer starts, a BIOS message appears from the Jmicron eSATA controller, which lists the 250GB external hard drive, so it is being detected. Windows never seems to detect the drive or attempt to install any drivers (found new hardware). In the BIOS, I have the eSATA port set to AHCI mode, and I tried it in IDE mode as well. Neither worked.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,588
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I have a JMicron eSATA controller on one of my FoxConn motherboards. It shows up in the BIOS boot process, but neither Vista nor Windows 7 ever found it nor asked for drivers. Windows Device Manager never saw it.

With my Win7 installation, I went to the JMicron site and downloaded the appropriate driver installer package, executed it, and it found the controller and installed the drivers. The eSATA controller now shows up on Device Manager (as a JMicron JMB36X Controller under "Storage Controllers") and performs hotswap properly, automatically recognizing any eSATA disks that are plugged in or removed.
 
Last edited:
M

ModestGamer

Banned
Jun 30, 2010
1,140
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Windows 7 driver issue. Try updating from the defualt windows driver.


CurseTheSky said:
Hi guys,

I have an ASUS P7P55D Pro motherboard and three different eSATA external hard drives (all self-built in three different cases). Each drive works fine when plugged into the supplied USB Y-cable, but if I plug them into my motherboards rear eSATA port, nothing happens.

I've tried plugging in eSATA first, plugging in USB (power) first, restarting the computer, etc. When the computer starts, a BIOS message appears from the Jmicron eSATA controller, which lists the 250GB external hard drive, so it is being detected. Windows never seems to detect the drive or attempt to install any drivers (found new hardware). In the BIOS, I have the eSATA port set to AHCI mode, and I tried it in IDE mode as well. Neither worked.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
C

CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
5,401
2
0
Thanks guys, the JMicron driver worked like a charm. I guess I'm too spoiled by Vista and 7's excellent out-of-the-box device support. :p
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,588
0
0
CurseTheSky said:
Thanks guys, the JMicron driver worked like a charm. I guess I'm too spoiled by Vista and 7's excellent out-of-the-box device support. :p
Click to expand...
It sounds like you had the same experience I did - Windows 7 didn't even detect an "unknown device" on the motherboard. I found that was pretty unusual.
 
R

Riotvale

Member
Dec 20, 2009
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Everytime I turn on my external eSATA drive, I always have to go to device manager and scan for new hardware for it to detect the drive. I guess it's pretty annoying, but without installing an updated driver that's pretty much how I get it to work every single time.
 
QuantumPion

QuantumPion

Diamond Member
Jun 27, 2005
6,010
1
76
I have an Asus P6T motherboard and the rear panel eSATA ports are actually part of the Marvel raid controller (which I had disabled), instead of the regular Intel sata controller. I had the same symptoms (plugged in drive, no hardware detected) until I figured this out.
 
Bill Brasky

Bill Brasky

Diamond Member
May 18, 2006
4,345
1
0
QuantumPion said:
I have an Asus P6T motherboard and the rear panel eSATA ports are actually part of the Marvel raid controller (which I had disabled), instead of the regular Intel sata controller. I had the same symptoms (plugged in drive, no hardware detected) until I figured this out.
Click to expand...

I used to go through and disable unused controllers in the bios, and then forget after a year when I needed them. One of my favorites...
 
B

brxndxn

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2001
8,475
0
76
I have this problem with Windows 7 64bit in combination with either USB or eSATA hard drives.. Windows 7 has lousy compatibility from what I've seen..

For example.. Western Digital 320GB USB 2.0 hard drive doesn't work in my desktop (7 64bit) system - but works fine in my laptop (Windows 7 64bit) and any other computer I use.. A 500gb eSATA drive works fine in my desktop but not in my laptop (Dell M4400)..

I deal with numerous problems of this type right now thanks to Windows 7. It seems lots of other people on the Internet are having the same problems.
 
W

warthogism

Junior Member
Feb 1, 2007
1
0
0
RebateMonger said:
I have a JMicron eSATA controller on one of my FoxConn motherboards. It shows up in the BIOS boot process, but neither Vista nor Windows 7 ever found it nor asked for drivers. Windows Device Manager never saw it.

With my Win7 installation, I went to the JMicron site and downloaded the appropriate driver installer package, executed it, and it found the controller and installed the drivers. The eSATA controller now shows up on Device Manager (as a JMicron JMB36X Controller under "Storage Controllers") and performs hotswap properly, automatically recognizing any eSATA disks that are plugged in or removed.
Click to expand...

CurseTheSky said:
Thanks guys, the JMicron driver worked like a charm. I guess I'm too spoiled by Vista and 7's excellent out-of-the-box device support. :p
Click to expand...

Link please? I went to the JMicron site, but had no idea what driver to install.

I'm having the same problem. My esata drive is not being detected. Even when I go to device manager and refresh, as some have suggested, nothing shows up. AHCI is enabled. I can safely remove my regular sata drives.

What's frustrating is that I was able to use esata in the past on the Win7 RC. I had to reformat due to it's expiration, and now esata will not work. I'm not even sure if I have a JMicron controller.
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,588
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0
warthogism said:
Link please? I went to the JMicron site, but had no idea what driver to install.
Click to expand...
ftp://driver.jmicron.com.tw/

I can't tell you which driver to install because I don't know which JMicron chipset you have. I'd pick the latest version of the driver for your chipset and OS and choose the "eSATA.zip" driver.

"JMicron JMB36x Family Driver Update on Website
===============================================

Sept. 30, 2008

Contents
========

- Site Map
- Identifying Your OS and the configuration
- Download
- Support


Site Map
========

Once connected with ftp://driver.jmicron.com.tw/ from Support in JMicron company website,
one "jmb36x" folder and this readme file would be found. In the folder of "jmb36x", 8 folders
for various supported OS avaiable, such as

"fedora" contains the updated driver for Fedora Core6 and its readme file for installation
"MAC OS X 10.x" contains the updated driver for Apple MAC OS X 10.x
"redhat9" contains the updated driver for Redhat9 and its readme file for installation
"rhel3" contains the updated driver for Redhat Enterprise Linux 3 and its readme file for installation
"rhel4" contains the updated driver for Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 and its readme file for installation
"suse" contains three zip files and each one contains the updated driver for various version of
SuSe Linux OS and the corresponding readme file.
--sl10-ide.zip for SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 32bit and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 32bit
--sle10.zip for SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 32bit and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 32bit
--su101.zip for SuSE Linux Professional 10.1 i386 and SuSE Linux Professional 10.1 x86_64

"XP_Vista_Win7" contains latest Microsoft Windows driver zip files and its release note.
-- the filename with WHQL included as for WHQL certified updated driver
-- the filename without WHQL included as for the latest beta driver.
-- the filename with eSATA included for the system supporting eSATA port.

"Option_ROM" contains the updated firmware for add-on card customer. For JMB36x on board customers, please contact
with your motherboard manufacturer for the system BIOS update."
 
A

adamantinepiggy

Member
May 29, 2010
174
0
71
brxndxn said:
I have this problem with Windows 7 64bit in combination with either USB or eSATA hard drives.. Windows 7 has lousy compatibility from what I've seen..

For example.. Western Digital 320GB USB 2.0 hard drive doesn't work in my desktop (7 64bit) system - but works fine in my laptop (Windows 7 64bit) and any other computer I use.. A 500gb eSATA drive works fine in my desktop but not in my laptop (Dell M4400)..

I deal with numerous problems of this type right now thanks to Windows 7. It seems lots of other people on the Internet are having the same problems.
Click to expand...


Windows 7 has OUTSTANDING compatibility compared to any other OS out there. Whether you like Windows or not, does not change this fact. Just because your cheapo hot-buy USB drive doesn't happen to work with the particular "hardware" you put Win7 on, does not mean Win7 is not very compatible. It aint perfect, but it is better than any other OS's in running oddball junk hardware.

Win7 is the only OS where I can take the harddrive from some cheapo PC, stick it in another completely different cheapo PC with diff MBoard, video, etc, and 50% of the time it will find most every device, load drivers, and work perfectly fine with only one or two devices maybe needing a driver. 50% doesn't sound high, but try the hard drive swap trick with any other current OS on the market.

It has nothing to do with Win7, that you are "dealing with numerous problems of this type." It's your crappy hardware that allows the OS to work or not work with other external hardware.
 
dcloud

dcloud

Member
Sep 15, 2005
80
0
0
dougdraws.com
RebateMonger said:
I have a JMicron eSATA controller on one of my FoxConn motherboards. It shows up in the BIOS boot process, but neither Vista nor Windows 7 ever found it nor asked for drivers. Windows Device Manager never saw it.

With my Win7 installation, I went to the JMicron site and downloaded the appropriate driver installer package, executed it, and it found the controller and installed the drivers. The eSATA controller now shows up on Device Manager (as a JMicron JMB36X Controller under "Storage Controllers") and performs hotswap properly, automatically recognizing any eSATA disks that are plugged in or removed.
Click to expand...

Well, I installed the JMicron file just like you said and now I see it in Device Manager, but I'm still no closer to figuring out how to shut down my external e-SATA drive. How does this perform hot-swap? Can you elaborate more on this? I haven't been able to figure it out.

I also took the advice of someone else on another forum and used Disk Management to turn my external drive into a Dynamic Drive. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not, because now the drive runs all the time and is very warm to the touch. Before I did this the drive didn't run constantly. Now I have no idea how to undo it. Unfortunately, this didn't enable me to make it unpluggable, either.

Thanks.
 
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O

Old Hippie

Diamond Member
Oct 8, 2005
6,361
1
0
Well, I installed the JMicron file just like you said and now I see it in Device Manager, but I'm still no closer to figuring out how to shut down my external e-SATA drive.
Click to expand...
Did you install the JMB36X_WinDrv_R1.17.57_WHQL_eSATA.zip driver?

The "eSATA" driver should make all your eSATA connections removable devices and you should get the "Safely Remove Device" icon.

If you have the correct driver and still don't get the icon, you can use one of those Hot Swap utilities.

BTW, I'd be turning that external back into a basic volume.
 
dcloud

dcloud

Member
Sep 15, 2005
80
0
0
dougdraws.com
I took the eSATA cable off and went back to the USB cable, so now it appears in the icon tray down by the clock and I can easily remove it.
 
B

borys.t

Junior Member
Aug 20, 2010
4
0
0
hey everyone i'm having the same problem as the OP but i have a gigabyte x38-dq6 mobo. could you tell me which driver i would need to udpate to make the esata hotswap work?
 
B

borys.t

Junior Member
Aug 20, 2010
4
0
0
i'm going to assume i did not enable AHCI when i installed windows 7 (pro 64bit). when i go into the bios at boot up there is an option to enable AHCI but when i do after the windows loading logo i see a blue screen for half a second and it crashes. do i still need to do this registry tweak?

edit! upon reading the link you posted it sort of answers a bunch of these questions. thanks.
 
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