P5Q PRO: need help to detect external HDD via e-SATA after booting

[kingtz]

I have a 1TB Samsung Spin F1 HDD that I put in an enclosure and use an my external HDD.

On my old computer running on WinXP Media Center, I could connect the drive via e-SATA. I could boot up the computer and only when needed, turn on the external hdd and windows would detect it.

Now my new pc has an ASUS P5Q PRO board and running on Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

The problem now is that when I connect the drive via e-SATA, I need to turn on the external drive before I boot up, or windows doesn't detect it - not even in Device Manager or Disk Management. However, when I keep the external hdd connected via USB, I can turn it on any time and windows will detect the drive.

So, is there any thing I need to configure in my bios or a specific SATA port on the motherboard that I need to connect the e-SATA card to so that my external drive becomes PnP, per se? i.e. so that I can keep it connected via e-SATA and not have to turn on the external before booting up?


P.S. in the bios, there is a PCIPnP option under Advanced. It is set to [NO] by default. Will setting it to [YES] help or is this strictly for PCI cards?

 

[evongugg]

Is your sata port set to AHCI mode? Else put it on a AHCI enabled controller. Without this it may not support hot swap.
It has to be hot swappable for the OS to detect it automattically like a USB device.

 

[kingtz]

Thanks, it worked!

Just some information for others with this issue:
There was, however, one problem that is known to occur when enabling AHCI in the bios after Vista has already been installed. Restarting the computer after the bios change will cause the following error:
STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE

Fortunately, it's easily resolved by following the instructions here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Something to do with certain drivers being disabled.

 

[evongugg]

You're very welcome!
Glad I could help.

 

[antiacid]

thx for the info.

I ordered this mobo because of the eSATA port and was looking at getting vista x64 home premium as well. Good thing I learned about this before installing vista