Dell XPS 420 - Win7 Ultimate - eSATA not recognized

[elmerjay]

Hello,
Purchased a Fantom 2TB HD with eSATA and USB ports. Only when USB cable is connected is it recognized by the OS. When connected using the Dell eSATA port, not recognized.

 

[tecmo34]

1) Does it work when you first plug it in than start the PC up with it plugged in?

2) Is the SATA controller set to IDE or AHCI (AHCI is needed for hot swap, which is what the eSATA is).

 

[elmerjay]

1) Does it work when you first plug it in than start the PC up with it plugged in?

2) Is the SATA controller set to IDE or AHCI (AHCI is needed for hot swap, which is what the eSATA is).

Does not work when first plugged in - not recognized in Computer. If I remove eSATA cable, and plug USB cable in, is recognized.

Don't know how SATA controller is set. I contacted Dell Support (India) and they pretty much did everything remotely. I recall seeing a screen with Auto Recognize icon, and another RAID. Was set to Auto Recognize. Am using Win7 with Svc Pack 1. Dell Support also mentioned something about Gen 1 and Gen 2 eSATA ports? Said if my eSATA port on the Dell XPS420 is Gen 1, and the drive is Gen 2, won't work. I sent e-mail to Fantom asking about the drive's Gen version.

Thanks for your reply, most appreciated.

 

[elmerjay]

1) Does it work when you first plug it in than start the PC up with it plugged in?

2) Is the SATA controller set to IDE or AHCI (AHCI is needed for hot swap, which is what the eSATA is).

Don't know how SATA controller is set. I contacted Dell Support (India) and they pretty much did everything remotely. I recall seeing the BIOS screen with Auto Recognize icon, and another RAID. Was set to Auto Recognize. Am using Win7 with Svc Pack 1. Whatever they did, did not solve the problem. I know there was some caution about changing to RAID, i.e., may have to reload O/S. Dell Support was leery about that and didn't change it.