[Cman333]

As topic states. I bought a Nexstar 3 USB/ESATA enclsoure. It doesn't seem to work when plugged into esata, but works thru USB. The whole point of paying double for the enclosure was for the esata transfer. Nothing happens when I plug it in VIA esata. Windows doesn't detect it, it doesn't show in my computer, I've gone into device manager and tried "detect new hardware".

So I've went into BIOS and changed the settings from IDE to AHCI with no success. There's no drivers applicable to Windows Vista 64.

I've done a little research, and some people have put a jumper on the HDD to get it working, but didnt specify how to do so or what it did. Some did a BIOS upgrade, but apparently a BIOS upgrade is a recipe for disaster.

So I don't know what to do. Anyone have any suggestions?

[twitchyzero]

on my USB/eSATA 2.5" enclosure there's a switch that you have to push everytime you wanna change connector type. does your's have that?

[Cman333]

Only an on/off switch.

[Cman333]

I figured it out guys thanks.

For future reference this is what I ended up doing:

Reformat the HDD through USB. Then the esata still didn't work, but this time when I rebooted the computer it detected the HDD while plugged thru esata. Then had to reformat the HDD AGAIN, and now it works. Hotswapping and all.

[nns]

Your motherboard most likely doesn't support hot-swappable drives. This is the reason why the drive didn't appear when Windows was booted up and you powered on/off the external drive, or by unplugging USB and plugging in via eSATA.

To disconnect a Serial ATA hard drive from the computer when the computer is running, you must first use the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon on the system tray to dismount the drive from the Operating System. If the Serial ATA hard drive is not listed under the "Safely Remove Hardware" function, the motherboard or Serial ATA controller does not support hot plugging and the computer should be shut down and powered off before disconnecting the hard drive.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=941&p_created=1049824205&p_sid=dNkvMssi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9NiZwX3Byb2RzPTk1JnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9MS4 5NSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX 2ZubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWhvdCBzd2Fw&p_li=&p_topview=1

I have a Nexstar eSATA external enclosure as well, and it behaves just like yours - minus the part about having to format twice. I don't know why you had to do that, I only needed to format once.

[Cman333]

Your motherboard most likely doesn't support hot-swappable drives. This is the reason why the drive didn't appear when Windows was booted up and you powered on/off the external drive, or by unplugging USB and plugging in via eSATA.


http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=941&p_created=1049824205&p_sid=dNkvMssi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9NiZwX3Byb2RzPTk1JnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9MS4 5NSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX 2ZubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWhvdCBzd2Fw&p_li=&p_topview=1

I have a Nexstar eSATA external enclosure as well, and it behaves just like yours - minus the part about having to format twice. I don't know why you had to do that, I only needed to format once.

Yeah I didn't understand that. I took that drive out to put a bigger one in, so I was hoping all I needed to do was slide the old one into the enclosure and everything would be gravy. At least I didn't lose all the data, I was still able to transfer it through USB (took a bloody long time) before I formatted. But still what was weird was when i used USB to format it worked fine when USB was plugged in. Then I rebooted with esata, and windows detected the drive but windows said the drive needed to be formatted. After formatting when connect to esata everything works. Weird.

My mobo has an esata port on the back, wouldn't that mean its hotswappable?

I found a blurb off the ncix site
"This motherboard supports the next-generation hard drives based on the Serial ATA (SATA) 3Gb/s storage specification, delivering enhanced scalability and doubling the bus bandwidth for high-speed data retrieval and saves. The external SATA port located at the back I/O provides smart setup and hot-plug functions. Easily backup photos, videos and other entertainment contents on external devices. "

Hotplug = hotswap?