E-Sata drive not recognised by Windows 7 after booting

[SNGX1275]

All this about the Esata drive not being recognized, is IMO moot. The OP states, the Esata drive is only recgonized when it's turned on >> before << boot. I'm standing firm with the opinion that that's to be expected, since if it's not turned on (at boot poll) then it technically doesn't exist. Since the system is likely not true hot swappable RAID, why would it appear after initialization. (In the case of the H55 board, the only concession that is made to XP, is that BIOS >> defaults << to IDE). Although in the next revision they might think better of that, but who knows).

This is actually (I think) the only part where I disagree with you. SATA drives (RAID or not) are supposed to be hot swappable (hotplug in some literature). As we've all pretty much agreed, since he installed Windows with them in the IDE emulation mode, he can't hot swap. XP does not naitively support the AHCI stuff, but any board built with SATA 2.0 (revision 2, not SATA II) support does - so for some people it would be possible to have a very early SATA board, and Windows 7 and not have the ability to hot swap.

 

[tipstir]

Good point SNGX1275. AMD calls it SATA Intel AHCI the confusion should be cleared up. Why both CPU and chipset makers need to come to a standardize title. Anyway XP limited support but XP with chipset maker does support RAID well with SP3 better than the prior.

 

[captaincranky]

Dear Lord Please, in Thy Infinite Wisdom, Make This Blind Board See......

This is actually (I think) the only part where I disagree with you. SATA drives (RAID or not) are supposed to be hot swappable (hotplug in some literature). As we've all pretty much agreed, since he installed Windows with them in the IDE emulation mode, he can't hot swap. XP does not naitively support the AHCI stuff, but any board built with SATA 2.0 (revision 2, not SATA II) support does - so for some people it would be possible to have a very early SATA board, and Windows 7 and not have the ability to hot swap.

OK, here I'm willing to take one for the team. It's obvious that a drive not present at poll, will not be available after boot if running as IDE. I do so hope that our OP's Esata drive can be turned on and off at his beckon call, and still be recognized, after he reinstalls the OS, and runs the drives as "AHCI" or "SATA". Whatever his board's BIOS calls it. (My prayer as follows; Dear God, please make Mr. DeeGee's external HDD hot swappable).

I also hope that the proponents of running everything as IDE, will rethink that e-pinion, in the interest of progress. XP is after all "dead". (Yeah I know, but that's a whole different argument).

 

[deegeeh]

Captain - Your prayer has been answered! I have re-installed on a different motherboard (Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2) , together with the supplied SATA drivers and I am pleased to report that 'hot-plugging' works as I hoped that it would. So where the trouble originated I cannot say. Once again thank you for your efforts.

Deegeeh

 

[tipstir]

Final add Intel ATOM BIOS shows IDE or AHCI (SATA) but not in the AMD BiOS. Well anyway the OP fix his issue!

 

[captaincranky]

I have re-installed on a different motherboard (Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2) , together with the supplied SATA drivers and I am pleased to report that 'hot-plugging' works as I hoped that it would. So where the trouble originated I cannot say. Once again thank you for your efforts.

Deegeeh

Well obviously, you're quite welcome. As the "A Team" used to say, "I (we) love it when a plan comes together".

I do however, know where these problems are coming from, "overlapping technologies". With respect to Intel, it's current lineup of 3 different (consumer home desktop) sockets and compatible chipsets, which all seem to be expecting different things with respect to what OS will be installed. The older LGA775 chipsets were all designed when XP was king, and as a result of that, any SATA drivers were expected to be installed with the OS. Windows 7 has it own generic "AHCI" drivers that will run SATA as SATA. But, as to whether any given BIOS / chipset configuration can summon their installation correctly, seems to be still up in the air. None of this takes into account the further complication caused by the required ability to read "Chinglish" instruction manuals.

Again, we're glad you're up and running.