Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
26 Posts
0
7525
Free Agent Pro 1TB eSATA Connection Problem
I've been using my Seagate 1TB Free Agent Pro for a year or so via USB.
However, i recently purchased a connector card to plug the drive directly into a motherboard SATA port 3 ...i then changed the BIOS to turn on SATA port 3, turned on the Drive, booted the computer...but I first get a message during boot saying that no drive was found on SATA port 3. After i hit F1 to continue, the computer boots up but does not recognize the drive.
so..is there something I have to do to make this drive recognizable via eSATA? Maybe it's not hot-swappable like USB? ...or should it work just as easily as USB and theres a problem with the drive, eSATA cable, or Connector card?
thanks in advance.
RobinBredin
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
3.7K Posts
0
March 18th, 2009 13:00
Hi colegm, have you tried sata 5 port. The reason for this, is my sata 2 + 3 ports are not present in my system.
coleygm
26 Posts
0
March 18th, 2009 13:00
Update: I did get it working after re-seating the plug into the FreeAgent drive a couple times. ...However when it is plugged in and turned on now, it takes the computer 10 minutes to boot. So I'm leaving it off, booting up, then turning it on.
any thoughts as to the problem?
coleygm
26 Posts
0
April 24th, 2009 08:00
I've thought about maybe trying switching around what drives are plugged into what sata ports on my motherboard. You wouldn't think that would make a difference though.
To answer your question though, if you're not seeing ports 2 and 3 available, are you sure they're turned on from your bios setup?
Odd thing too with mine sometimes. When I do have the external sata drive turned on during boot, it now changes the boot list in the setup and I get a 'no boot device' found. I enter setup to find my RAID 0 array boot drives no longer selected within the boot sequence and I have to change it back again.
*sigh*
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
44.3K Posts
0
April 24th, 2009 13:00
coleygm,
You didn't mention what PC this is, so I can't look up the BIOS. Run BIOS setup and make sure the 1TB drive isn't listed in the boot path. If it's there, delete it. See if that improves the boot time without having to disconnect the drive.
As for the 530s, that system only has SATA0,1, 4, 5 connectors so SATA2 and 3 won't be listed in BIOS.
Ron
coleygm
26 Posts
0
May 5th, 2009 12:00
Mine is an XPS 410 and i do have the latest BIOS. Again, my eSATA drive was plugged into port 3, but i've since disabled the port via BIOS and gone back to connecting the drive via USB.
The drdive is listed in the boot path, but i always make sure it's not selected for boot devices. Funny though that it will simply change back sometimes and will even un select my actual boot drive!!! so i'd boot up, and usually with the eSATA drive attached and on, it would take about 5 minutes to boot, although it will usually come up finally and work ok. Sometimes though, it will finally come back and say that there is no suitable boot device found and only offers me to enter system setup. I'll enter, and sure enough the only item listed as a boot device is the eSATA drive and my other boot devices including my booting HD isn't selected.
So...why does having this drive plugged in via eSATA hang the system on boot the way it does...and why does it change my BIOS sometimes too?