eSATA hdd docking station not working

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by jerecho, Jan 7, 2011.

  1. jerecho

    jerecho Regular member

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    I just purchased a docking station for hard drives. I tried to use it using the eSATA cord that it provided. I shut down the computer first. Hooked it up and turned it on. Then I powered on the computer. It took forever for windows to do anything (I'm running windows 7 pro). It hung at the welcome to windows screen until I turned off the docking station and then windows started right up. Once windows was up and running I turned the docking station back on and it wouldn't recognize it. I finally gave up and tried it with a USB cable and it worked flawlessly. What could be wrong with the eSATA? I would like to use this as I'm sure it is much faster.

    Thanks
     
  2. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    moved to correct forum as not a windows issue. try another esata cable. check in device manager to see if esata shows up there & not an exclamation mark or unknown device.
     
  3. mrslicker

    mrslicker Regular member

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    well you are right, sata is much faster. is the esata port an adapter bracket, or built onto the IO panel (rear connections on board)? i have heard of the esata device trying to suck too much juice from the port connected to the motherboard, mostly if its a sataII drive. check the jumpers, if any, on the HDD to see if there is a sata I/II jump on it. also check the bios for any info leads.
     
  4. jerecho

    jerecho Regular member

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    It's onboard sata as far as I know. It's next to my usb ports on the back of the pc. It was just built like 5 months ago. I'm not sure what jumpers your speaking of. The pc was built for me.
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2011
  5. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    next to the data connector is 4 pins, is there a jumper there? is that docking station getting power from a power bar or from the pc?
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2011
  6. jerecho

    jerecho Regular member

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    I don't see any jumpers or pins anywhere.

    Here is a pic of the back of the computer if it helps

    [​IMG]
     
  7. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    jumper will be on the hard drive if there to begin with not on back or front of computer depending on were your esata connector is.
     
  8. mrslicker

    mrslicker Regular member

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    theres a lot of problems with esata in terms of driver support and some hardware support. its like no one company really cares about it because its not the golden child, USB. especially with 3.0 being out. alittle off topic before, but maybe you should make sure your windows has the right drivers that it needs (i think the chipset drivers of your motherboard are generally what you need but sometimes its matrix raid drivers or the like (if you want to make it hot-swappable, i think thats where raid comes into play)) also go into your bios and make sure that the esata is enabled. its not always crystal-clear as to *what its called* on the boards bios though. also, there will be options (maybe) about what type of tech to use (IDE/Native, RAID, AHCI, ETC.) I hope that helps you out.

    UPDATE: i just got an esata drive to work on my computer by installing the jmicron esata drivers for my board. maybe you should check to see if there is something similar for your mainboard. look at the specs of it to determine the controller model.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2011

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