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Need eSATA Hot-Plugging Support on new XPS 8920 SE
I have a brand new XPS 8920 SE, running Windows 10 Pro. It has the 256gb SSD and 2tb SATA HDD.
I have another Internal SATA HDD in a NewEgg Rosewill External Enclosure, that I keep at my office and bring home once a week to backup the data drive, and store off-site. I have a eSATA Adapter (came with the enclosure) that I have plugged into one of the SATA ports on the motherboard to connect it.
With my prior Dell XPS 630i, I just could just plug it in, it would be immediately recognized, and I could then run the backup. So it was hot-pluggable without any special steps needed.
Unfortunately, when I plug it in to the new 8920, nothing happens. It isn't recognized without a reboot, and then it works fine. Ironically, if I then unplug it, the disconnection is recognized, and Windows Explorer is updated to show the drive no longer present.
As I've researched this, it may have something to do with the BIOS SATA operation being configured to RAID rather than AHCI, but I'm not certain about that.
I have not configured any RAID operation, and am just using the drives as they were installed and configured by Dell. I did install another internal HDD, also for backup, but again, no RAID configuration.
My question is what do I need to do to get hot-plug support with my new 8920? Would there be any undesired performance or stability impact if I changed the BIOS setting to AHCI? Is there another way to get this working as it did with my 9 year old 630i?
Thanks.
Don
speedstep
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June 29th, 2017 14:00
ESATA Hot plugging was a BIOS Feature for many OLDER Chipsets.
This isn't supported in newer chipsets by design due to malware and secure boot ELAM(Early Launch Anti Malware). The 630i doesn't have secure boot UEFI Bios.
1) No hotswap = motherboard limitation and Secure Boot UEFI - need to get a 3rd party eSATA to USB3
2) Drives going to sleep = power saving settings need to be changed: in the BIOS for USB and also from within Windows as follows:
control panel > power options > change plan settings > change advanced power settings > hard disk > turn off hard disk after = never
3) BSOD may happen with drives sleeping.
dlcphoto
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June 29th, 2017 07:00
I'm still hoping for some answers to the above question.
Thanks.
dlcphoto
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June 29th, 2017 13:00
Thanks for the reply and suggestion. Yeah, this would get the job done, although it does leave unanswered the question of how I can enable hot-plugging with my current hardware.
I would at least like to understand why this isn't working as it did on my prior XPS 630i, which was perfect, and if there is a simple fix that would enable it, while not creating any other problems.
Thoughts?
speedstep
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June 29th, 2017 13:00
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232047
dlcphoto
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June 29th, 2017 15:00
Thanks for the thorough explanation. Not what I was expecting, but it does make sense.
So, does my brand new XPS 8920 SE have a traditional BIOS, or is it UEFI?
I ask, in part, because the Dell Support Assistant is showing a BIOS update available. Is it calling this BIOS, when it's really UEFI/
Thanks again. Guess I'll either reboot when I need to, or just go ahead and get the Cable.
speedstep
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June 29th, 2017 16:00
There are Classes of Bios
CSM = compatability support Module.
UEFI requires GPT partitions.
Conventional class 0 or 1 allows MSDOS FAT32 MBR partitions up to 2TB.
INT 10 and INT 13 are 8 bit MSDOS functions.
Under real mode operating systems, such as MS-DOS, calling INT 13h would jump into the computer's ROM-BIOS code for low-level disk services, which would carry out ATA physical sector-based disk read or write operations for the program.
dlcphoto
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June 29th, 2017 16:00
Many thanks for the detailed explanation. I'm a bit out of my depth at this level, but this helps provide some context to try and make sense of it all!