I have a head scratcher and need help??

[termite72]

I am using an Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard and Windows 7 Professional. I am having a problem with my external (esata) disk drive being recognized by the OS. It used to work and now it don't?? During boot up I see the drive in the bios messages on my screen. Also when I look in device manager it shows the drive and says this device is working properly. However, when I click on "computer" its not there and no software program such as backup finds the drive either. I have tried uninstalling the drive in device manager and then rebooting. No luck? I am not sure when it quit working or why. Its not the drive as I have tried more than one and they are recognized when used in the USB port. I have uninstalled the Marvell 61xx RAID controller in the device manager also but no change?

Anybody have any ideas???

 

[Bolbi]

It sounds like your drive may not be assigned a drive letter. To check, type "partitions" in the Start menu; click the top Control Panel search result. Win7 will list your drives, their partitions, and assigned drive letters. Make sure your eSATA drive's partition (I'm assuming there's only one.) is assigned a letter.

 

[termite72]

It sounds like your drive may not be assigned a drive letter. To check, type "partitions" in the Start menu; click the top Control Panel search result. Win7 will list your drives, their partitions, and assigned drive letters. Make sure your eSATA drive's partition (I'm assuming there's only one.) is assigned a letter.[/quotems

Thanks for the tip but when I do that it doesn't show up at all even though its showing up in device manager. One thing I noticed is in device manager its says its a scsi disk drive. Its not, its esata???????

 

[Bolbi]

Thanks for the tip but when I do that it doesn't show up at all even though its showing up in device manager. One thing I noticed is in device manager its says its a scsi disk drive. Its not, its esata???????

Interesting. Are you sure you're looking at the right place in Device Manager? I.e., are you looking at the "Disk drives" section and not the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" section? Because I have never heard of an eSATA drive being listed as a SCSI. Not saying it's impossible, just... very unusual.

 

[termite72]

Interesting. Are you sure you're looking at the right place in Device Manager? I.e., are you looking at the "Disk drives" section and not the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" section? Because I have never heard of an eSATA drive being listed as a SCSI. Not saying it's impossible, just... very unusual.

I know its crazy but yes I am looking at the disk drives section. It describes it as a "Hitachi SCSI Disk Device" ????

 

[Bolbi]

I know its crazy but yes I am looking at the disk drives section. It describes it as a "Hitachi SCSI Disk Device" ????

Yes, "crazy" is an apt word. You mentioned in your original post that you had tried multiple drives. Do they all show up as Hitachi SCSI drives? And are they really all Hitachi?

 

[termite72]

Yes, "crazy" is an apt word. You mentioned in your original post that you had tried multiple drives. Do they all show up as Hitachi SCSI drives? And are they really all Hitachi?

I tried another drive and it showed up as a Seagate SCSI drive! I know its getting the drive type right but not the interface. I reloaded the Marvell 88SE61XX adapter drivers but that didn't help any. This thing has me stumped. Like I said... a few weeks ago it was working with either drive that was plugged in. Something changed and I wonder if it had to do with the big update of windows 7 that Microsoft had a little while ago? I guess I'll keep plugging away at it?????

 

[Bolbi]

That's an idea; you could try rolling back Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Do you have any other eSATA computers to see if the drives show up as SCSI on other computers as well? I'm trying to figure out which link in this chain has really changed.

 

[john the swift]

Hi,
Im assuming this is an external sata case or using an esata/power port on the back of the machine?

Have you tried connecting this hard drive internally and see if its properly detected or connecting it via USB (if its a case) or connecting the drive to another computer to see if it is your computer having the issue?

Also, ^ as mentioned above, look in device manager - disk management for your drive to see if its gone 'offline' or not been assigned a drive letter.

Good luck

 

[termite72]

Yes, its an external sata drive and has its own power supply. I want to thank everyone for their help. I am not sure what fixed it but I deleted the drive in device manager, deleted the drivers, and reinstalled everything (I had done all of this several times before).Then went into disk management and set up the drive. It worked! One thing is funny though, the drive still shows as a SCSI drive in device manager but at least it is now recognized by the system and working normally.

Its still a head scratcher but oh well......Again thanks to all.

 

[Bolbi]

Wow. Glad it's working now, but that's still unusual!