External eSATA HDD not recognised

[paul881]

I have a gigabyte GA-EX58-ud5 MoBo with the latest BIOS update, win7 updates and with two internal HDD's.

I want to use an external 1T Seagate eSATA drive but try as I might, I just cannot get my system to recognise the drive. The drive is in an ICYBOX external housing with USB and eSATA connectors.

The drive is not seen in BIOS, and therefore not detailed in windows Drive Management either.

I have checked the cables, external PSU and they are all okay. The external drive bracket is internally connected to the GSATA connectors.

Bios settings are:

ICH SATA Control Mode= IDE
SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode =Disabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Device = Enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl= AHCI

On boot up, the BIOS scans the drives but comes up with the message "No drive found".

Here's another thing - the PC doesn't see the drive in USB mode either!

The PC has win XP as a dual boot and the external drive isn't seen in that configuration either.

But if I plug the external drive into an old ASUS P4PE, the drive is instantly recognised via USB so I know its working okay.

[Aussie Allan]

 Hay Paulie!

 Was the OS installed under ACHI ?...... if yes, ... do an optimized default boot and re configure all your settings including setting everything to ACHI, ... if no, ... report back with a description of what where looking at.

 Aussie Allan

[paul881]

Hi Aussie Allan.  No, both Win7 and win xp were both loaded under IDE. I don't know what else to tell you - the system doesn't see anything either as USB or eSATA.

[Aussie Allan]

  Have installed the NEC driver for the eSATA ?

 Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

It would sound to me like there is either a fault with the cable or box. I take it that you have enabled ESATA in the BIOS ?

[paul881]

It would sound to me like there is either a fault with the cable or box. I take it that you have enabled ESATA in the BIOS ?

No - please see my BIOS settings in my first post.  I didn't see anything specific in BIOS relating to eSATA and its v. f12.

[paul881]

  Have installed the NEC driver for the eSATA ?

 Aussie Allan

I don't know, Allan; I certainly haven't done so knowingly.  How can I check, where do I get it from and how do I install it? 

[Dark Mantis]

OK, you had me going there for a while until I double checked the manual. There is no ESATA connections on your motherboard hence the lack of being able to enable it in the BIOS.

Why it won't see it as USB connected when it is cabled up like that I don't know.

[paul881]

Dark Mantis, here's another strange thing; as soon as I plug any other USB device into any port on the PC it gets recognised.
Ordinarily, I would say that it suggests a faulty drive - except that the drive works perfectly when I plug it into my older PC.

[Dark Mantis]

If you remove the drive from the housing you could try plugging it in as a normal SATA drive and see if it works ok then. Is this housing a USB3 or USB2 connection ?

[paul881]

Its a USB 2.0 housing and yes, the drive is recognised straight away if connected internally via the SATA sockets.

[Dark Mantis]

So it would seem to be the housing as opposed to the drive then. Try swapping cables as some don't have long enough metal connectors and so don't make proper contact.

[Aussie Allan]

  Legend!