eSATA Problem!

havoc77 · 03-25-2006, 10:45 PM

Hi all

I have an eSATA port on the back of my motherboard (Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe) and I want to attach a regular SATA drive to it.

I got an eSATA cable with a regular SATA plug at the other end and my drive cannot be detected on boot.

Was I wrong thinking that I could just plug in a regular SATA drive, or should it be working?

Thanks.

Will.Spencer · 03-25-2006, 11:16 PM

The drive should be detected.

You say that the drive cannot be detected on boot -- can it be detected after the system boots up from an internal disk?

havoc77 · 03-26-2006, 12:37 AM

Thanks Will

I have on onboard Silicon Image 3132 raid controller with 2 ports.

Port 1 is internal SATA
Port 2 is the eSATA external port.

During boot when I enter my Sil3132 raid setup it only finds 1 drive, and does not see the eSATA attached one. I have tried with both drives attached and just the eSATA one by itself.

I have been previously running this other drive on internal SATA ports so I know it is working.

No I cannot see any other drives after boot either from within windows drive management.

My goal was to Raid 1 my 2 drives on the Sil3123 so it would leave the other 4 onboard SATA ports for a raid 5 setup.

Will.Spencer · 03-26-2006, 01:02 AM

Have you installed the SiI 3112 drivers?

Have you run the SATARaid RAID management software utility?

These are both available from Silicon Image Support.

havoc77 · 03-26-2006, 05:04 AM

Yes windows is running latest Sil3132 drivers and I ran the management utility too. It tells me there is only a device on chanel 1, and no device on chanel 0.

The problem is not from windows though, I need to be able to setup my raid before the OS boots.

Since I have only just bought the cable with eSATA at one end and SATA at the other my best guess is that the problem is either:

1. The cable
2. The eSATA port
3. Problem on motherboard (either hardware or a setting somewhere)

havoc77 · 03-26-2006, 05:35 AM

I think for now I might give up and install my old Silicon Image raid card, even though it will mean less cooling for my graphics cards.

I just need to get my system up and running again.

If I figure out my eSATA problem I will try to post an answer.