eSATA HD issue with Studio XPS

Hello Jerry, I have the same exact issue. Do you have other eSATA drive, diferent brand to try? Best, Gustavo

Wish I did.  For now, hoping that Microsoft can pull something out of their hat.  I did get a replacement drive from WD.  No joy... same problem.  I'm 99% certain it's something to do with Vista and/or the SATA driver.

J.

Update... tried the advice above and right clicked on Disk Drives under Device Manager.  I then selected "Search for new Hardware" and lo and behold, it loaded a driver and the eSATA drive now works like a champ!  Fantastic. Problem solved.  Woo hoo!

Hi Guys,

Hate to stirr up this post again, but I have similar problems, except my Studio XPS 435MT does recognize my disk. Problem is that is just delays my complete system en even seems to stop working in the middle of progress.

I've had my Outlook files on this disk, but as soon as disk activity took place, my Oultook would just hang. Same for booting: every now and then I won't boot. I;ve disconnected the drive now, and all seems to work just fine.

Any clues?!?

Thanks.

Regards,
Allard

Hello Allard, try to use the USB and see if the drive has the same behavior.

Actually, I didn't. So I will try that tomorrow to see what happens...

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks.

I'd be very interested in what your ultimate solution is. I have a 435MT as well with the added complication of a RAID 1 setup. The first time I tried to connect my external eSATA drive (a Seagate ST3000XS, it caused my computer to seize up and ended up somehow damaging the hard disk driver. After working with Dell Support and basically starting over with a complete restore, I decided to try once again. The computer wouldn't recognize the drive when I plugged it in live and then when I rebooted with it on, the computer ended up needing to go back to an earlier restore point to boot up. Needless to say, I'm now afraid to try to plug the drive in and not too happy that I've bought a computer with an eSATA port that doesn't seem usable. I'm sure there is a solution though ...

I just tried Gustavo's method. It didn't work for me. What happens is the computer will search for the plug and play device, then simply give up. Interestingly enough, the computer is unresponsive except for this one activity (searching for the plug and play device) both before and after the search. I can move the cursor, but nothing is operable. When I turn off the external drive, everything returns to normal--the computer works again. Turn on the external drive and the computer goes unresponsive again.

I've been working with my HDD connected via USB, and that seems to work fine. Of course this is not what I want, since it's a lot slower than eSata. For now I'll have to do it like this. As soon as I have a bit more time. I will give eSata a shot again.

Hello, Try to update your SATA Driver to last vercion from INTEL

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2101&OSFullName=Windows+Vista*+64&lang=eng&strOSs=150&submit=Go%21

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2101&OSFullName=Windows+Vista*+64&lang=eng&strOSs=150&submit=Go%21

Try new vercion of SATA from Dell.

I've installed the new Intel version. First thing I noticed is that the machine still takes a lot longer to boot, than without it.Will create some large disk usage later on to see if it holds up.

Thanks so far.

Hi guys,

I've connected my eSata disk after updating to the latest Intel drivers as mentioned above. Threw a few 10GB files from one drive to antother, and all stayed stable, so I think updating fixed my issues.

Thanks,

Allard

I seem to be having installation problems. I've downloaded the file and tried to run it from my hard drive and I've also just tried "run" direct from the website. In both cases, Windows comes in and shuts down the installation because it can't identify the source of the file. The farthest I got was some blank message windows that told me nothing and gave me a choice to abort or ignore. Ignoring didn't do anything but bring up another message-less window with no options, just a exclamation mark in a yellow triangle.

HI,

As mentioned above, I've installed the latest Intel drivers,  but the system still hangs on booting.
Any more clues on how to solve this?!?

Cheers,
Allard