External HD

[bpgt64]

I am planning on buying an external drive with an eSATA port, However I don't have an eSATA port on my computer. And some of the benchmarks online show significant improvements in speed using an eSATA, vs USB 2.0 . I have several open SATA ports how ever, and I may not understand completely how eSATA works, however I thought a normal SATA port could be connected using something like this;
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0233366
I am using this motherboard;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131335
and this External HD;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204079


My overall goal is to create an eSATA port on the back of the computer using the device from Microcenter plus a generic SATA cable...Any suggestions or corrections to my ideas?

 

[newtekie1]

Well, none of your links work, but I assume you meant something like this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226006

In which case, yes you can just use that to get an eSATA port on your computer. You will also need an eSATA cable to go between your drive and the computer, a standard SATA cable will not work.

 

[bpgt64]

Yup, thanks a bunch

 

[bpgt64]

I have read some posts that say my motherboard needs to support "Hot Plug" for eSATA to work right.. I am assuming thats just the ability to initialize when a device is plugged in. My motherboard however doesn't seem to talk about supporting Hot-Plug, and so I'd assume it doesn't. Am I back to square 1 with this? or..

 

[newtekie1]

You have to go into your motherboard's BIOS and make sure you enable the option to allow the ddrive to be hot swappable, most modern motherboards have this option. Some boards call it "SATA Mode" or "AHCI". This will allow you to hot-swap the drive.

 

[bpgt64]

I went into the bios and found this;
SATA Configuration; Gave options; IDE, RAID, ACHI
It's currently set to IDE, as I only have one drive


There was another sub configuration setting that gave the options of;
Disabled
Enabled
Enhanced- Is what its set to.

 

[newtekie1]

Change it from IDE to ACHI, this will allow hot swapping.

 

[bpgt64]

Whhattt if I told you doing this causes my computer to blue screen on trying to load...

I switched it back, and it was fine...but hrm

 

[bpgt64]

I found this...
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=195867

I liked the second solution because it means I don't have to open up my case...and seemed simpler..any thoughts?

 

[newtekie1]

Yeah, I was going to suggest you do pretty much exactly what it says to do in method two.

 

[bpgt64]

two things, One, I do have multiple sata ports, and like 6 host controllers, plus a 2sata port controller and 4 sata port controler, plus a IDE controller. My question is which of those do I need to update the driver for or rather how do I know which controller is hosting the HD?

Secondly, I am in vista business edition, and when it says to locate the driver in DOS folders, where the hell is that? lol.