External HDD eSATA freezes PC

I have had a WD MyBook for quite some time and I have always been using a USB wire for it. Recently I purchased a new PC and during set up I noticed it had eSATA slots so I went on ebay and got myself an eSATA wire.

Now I did use the MyBook via USB on the new computer with no issues and the drive works fine over eSATA too. The only problem is that, while using eSATA, if I turn the drive off it freezes my PC. USB ports seem to malfunction (I have to replug my mouse to get it working) and the PC stops everything it's doing (I tried starting up a game and shutting the drive off, it just stopped all it was doing). Now if I turn the drive back on, everything is magically okay again. No restart needed.

I also had some error at start-up once about drive potentially needing an error check or some such (I didn't manage to write down what it was), which leads me to think the PC believes the external HDD to be an internal one or something.


How do I sort this out?

Did you build that PC yourself? Is the SATA controller configured for IDE or AHCI?

Yes, it's done in the BIOS. If it's IDE, don't change it; otherwise your computer will no longer boot.

If you provided your computer's specs, it would be easier to provide adequate help.

Furious5k has a system with an eSata port. Since we don't know what motherboard was used to build that system, we can't yet determine if it has 2 SATA controllers or only one. It isn't because a system has an eSata connector that it is hot-pluggable. It simply means that an external SATA device can be connected to it.

My Asus P5Q Deluxe and P5W DH Deluxe have an additional SATA controller that supports hot-plug via what Asus calls Sata On-the-go.

So use the USB, forget the eSATA... Problem solved.

Just checked, SATA configuration is set to IDE.

And the drive does not appear in "Safely Remove Hardware" window, that was the first thing I checked.

If the SATA configuration in the BIOS is set to IDE it will NOT work...

This needs to be changed to AHCI, however, if you do this and your OS is on the same controller it will BSOD on boot. To change without the BSOD please read somejoes sticky here
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ng-windows

Additonally my ASUS P5K drivers on the ASUS support page didnt support hotswapping, sounds like youll have the same issue. Download the corresponding drivers for your controller from jmicrons website.

Either connection will be faster than your drives. Do what you like.