eSATA and Hot Swappability

[Hapkido]

I have a "hot swappable" drive mystery I can't seem to resolve. Realizing
that "eSATA" hardware is relatively new there isn't much technical help to
be found out there so I may be wasting my time asking this question. Simply
put, I have a WD 250 SATA2 HDD mounted in a Thermaltake Silver River Duo
external enclosure. The "Duo" in the model name signifies that this
enclosure can connect either via USB 2.0 or eSATA. The HDD is installed with
the SATA power plug vs. the IDE Molex plug and obviously also connected with
the SATA data plug. And finally, the enclosure itself is connected to the PC
via an eSATA cable to the back of the box. So, in essence, the drive is
connected no differently than if it was installed internally in a desktop
case.

Now, according to both Asus (motherboard) and Western Digital tech support,
this setup should be "hot swappable", i.e., I should be able to power the
drive on and off using the power switch on the back of the enclosure. But
the fact is, I cannot. If I bootup with the drive off and then turn it on
via the power switch nothing happens, I can hear the drive spin up, etc.,
but it is not being recognized in Device Manager, My Computer nor in Drive
Management. If I turn off the PC, turn on the external drive and then
bootup, the drive is recognized and it works fine. If I then power off the
enclosure, Windows freezes up until I switch the power back on.

Okay... this is where things get strange. Out of curiosity I booted into
Vista with the external drive's power switch off and then turned it on. Lo
and behold.... bingo, the drive was instantly recognized and I could use the
drive to transfer files, etc. The "safely remove hardware" icon appeared and
I first used that to remove the drive and then powered it off. So, there is
no problem with this drive being "hot swappable" in Vista but it doesn't
work in XP. WHY????

Is there some "Service" perhaps which I might have disabled that is needed
in XP to allow this feature? If so, I haven't a clue what it might be. I
really can't think of any services I have disabled or set to manual with
this new build. Sooooooo, any ideas??

 

[Robert Carroll]

I see the same problem with XP and e-Sata. If you have found a solution please contact me at (e-mail address removed).
******************************************

eSATA and Hot Swappability - Hapkido
27-Jan-07 01:02:07

I have a "hot swappable" drive mystery I can't seem to resolve. Realizing
that "eSATA" hardware is relatively new there isn't much technical help to
be found out there so I may be wasting my time asking this question. Simply
put, I have a WD 250 SATA2 HDD mounted in a Thermaltake Silver River Duo
external enclosure. The "Duo" in the model name signifies that this
enclosure can connect either via USB 2.0 or eSATA. The HDD is installed with
the SATA power plug vs. the IDE Molex plug and obviously also connected with
the SATA data plug. And finally, the enclosure itself is connected to the PC
via an eSATA cable to the back of the box. So, in essence, the drive is
connected no differently than if it was installed internally in a desktop
case.

Now, according to both Asus (motherboard) and Western Digital tech support,
this setup should be "hot swappable", i.e., I should be able to power the
drive on and off using the power switch on the back of the enclosure. But
the fact is, I cannot. If I bootup with the drive off and then turn it on
via the power switch nothing happens, I can hear the drive spin up, etc.,
but it is not being recognized in Device Manager, My Computer nor in Drive
Management. If I turn off the PC, turn on the external drive and then
bootup, the drive is recognized and it works fine. If I then power off the
enclosure, Windows freezes up until I switch the power back on.

Okay... this is where things get strange. Out of curiosity I booted into
Vista with the external drive's power switch off and then turned it on. Lo
and behold.... bingo, the drive was instantly recognized and I could use the
drive to transfer files, etc. The "safely remove hardware" icon appeared and
I first used that to remove the drive and then powered it off. So, there is
no problem with this drive being "hot swappable" in Vista but it doesn't
work in XP. WHY????

Is there some "Service" perhaps which I might have disabled that is needed
in XP to allow this feature? If so, I haven't a clue what it might be. I
really can't think of any services I have disabled or set to manual with
this new build. Sooooooo, any ideas??



EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

eSATA and Hot Swappability - Hapkido

I have a WD 250 SATA2 HDD mounted in a Thermaltake Silver River Duo
external enclosure. The "Duo" in the model name signifies that this
enclosure can connect either via USB 2.0 or eSATA. The HDD is installed with
the SATA power plug vs. the IDE Molex plug and obviously also connected with
the SATA data plug. And finally, the enclosure itself is connected to the PC
via an eSATA cable to the back of the box. So, in essence, the drive is
connected no differently than if it was installed internally in a desktop
case.

That's prolly the key to this, if the OS sees this as a "fixed" disk.
You may have to change settings to declare the HD to be removable, or
connexct it after the OS starts so that it hopefully realizes this is
a come-and-go device, much as it sees USB-connected HDs.

Now, according to both Asus (motherboard) and Western Digital tech support,
this setup should be "hot swappable", i.e., I should be able to power the
drive on and off using the power switch on the back of the enclosure.

That's not what I'd understand as "hot swappable".

Instead, the approved method may be to keep the HD powered (so that
the drive can flush from its own RAM buffers to platters) and then
disconnect the data cable from the PC.

In fact, even that's unlikely to be safe; more likely you'd have to
first "stop" the device, much as one does a USB flash drive, and then
disconnect the data cable once told it is safe to do so.

If I bootup with the drive off and then turn it on via the power switch
nothing happens, I can hear the drive spin up, etc., but it is not
being recognized in Device Manager, My Computer nor in Drive
Management.

OK - IOW there's no runtime detection of new S-ATA devices, as there
is for new USB or FireWire devices.

If I turn off the PC, turn on the external drive and then bootup, the
drive is recognized and it works fine. If I then power off the
enclosure, Windows freezes up until I switch the power back on.

Yup - that's "rude", and I'm not surprised the OS bites you

Okay... this is where things get strange. Out of curiosity I booted into
Vista with the external drive's power switch off and then turned it on. Lo
and behold.... bingo, the drive was instantly recognized and I could use the
drive to transfer files, etc. The "safely remove hardware" icon appeared and
I first used that to remove the drive and then powered it off. So, there is
no problem with this drive being "hot swappable" in Vista but it doesn't
work in XP. WHY????

Ahhh... OK. Vista clearly has runtime detection for S-ATA devices and
has the sense to treat these as removable devices for warm swapping
(by "warm" I mean you still have to tell the OS you are going to
remove the drive before yanking it).

I'd expect XP to be weak on that.

If the HD is powered on when Vista starts, does it also show the "safe
to remove" icon, or does it see the drive as "fixed"?

Is there some "Service" perhaps which I might have disabled that is needed
in XP to allow this feature? If so, I haven't a clue what it might be. I
really can't think of any services I have disabled or set to manual with
this new build. Sooooooo, any ideas??

I think you may be up against something too new for XP to cope with.
Yes, I know S-ATA's been touted for hot swappability since it came out
long before SP2, but that doesn't mean the OS folks were up to speed,
or that they'd have dev'd up the required code for a "no new features"
SP. In Vista, you'd expect better, and it looks like you get it

--------------- ---- --- -- - - - -

Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!