eSATA drive problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter philo
  • Start date Start date
Gene said:
Yes, but I read drives formatted in XP on my Vista machine, so I think
the problem is likely to be with your drive or your Vista (or your
hardware or drivers), not all XP Drives with all Vistas.

I mentioned one possible kind of partition setup, but there are other
parameters: primary, secondary, extended, logical, and so forth, which
could be a problem. I don't know enough about all this to offer
suggestions.

There's also encryption.

And I think I already asked: did you try using the drive with a USB
enclosure or adapter instead of eSATA?

And I forgot (it's not in your OP) - have you read other XP NTFS drives
in that eSATA port on Vista or 7?

The thing is, when I don't know what the problem is, I do a lot of
experimentation...
Click to expand...



Yes I am an experimenter and I am not actually going to be using Vista
or Win7 other then just to learn how they work.

As I mentioned somewhere...I need to keep current as I do a lot of
computer repair work and anticipate working on machines with Vista and Win7

The problem was with the eSATA drive only
and Win7 has no problems reading an IDE drive that has win2k on it.

The main thing that is odd it that Win7 cannot read the drive...(sees it
as RAW)
yet it *can* run CHKDSK on the drive and sees no problems
 
Gene said:
Scary. I hope the OP investigates this solution before trying it...

I say scary because I have no idea where the program refered to on the
forum came from, and it seems to write to the drive in question. So I'm
glad that I don't have the OP's problem for the moment...

But if it ends up working, then thanks, Mr. Hunter...may I call you Mr.
Hunter? :-)
Click to expand...


I am not going to do that and risk losing my data (even though I have
backups)

However I say that Win7 and Vista should recognize the data on an eSATA
drive by default and without having to jump through hoops.

It does recognize the drive, simply not the file system

unless one runs chkdsk, then it can recognize the file system

Next time I get a new drive I'll experiment with it though
 
Vista said:
I have been called a lot of things over the years. :)

Anyway, the site seems reputable, and I view it to be no more dangerous
than the Ultimate Boot site, if one happens to be in a pinch.

However, the OP while over there in COLA was dogging Vista and Win 7 out
saying he was never going to use either one of the O/S(s) anyway with
his LOL remarks.

Therefore, it's moot point with him. I am only making the posts for
others that may face the issue, needing a way out.
Click to expand...


unplonk

As I have stated a few times before ==>I do computer repair work so must
stay current with all the new operating systems out there...
so it's necessary for me to know as much as possible about Win7 and Vista...

It's irrelevant whether or not I use Vista or Win7 myself.

As a matter of fact, if giving advice over the phone (or the net)

The best thing for me to do is to boot to the OS my "customer" is using
and I can navigate through not having to rely on my memory.

Since I have most of my machines using removable drive kits...

last count , I had about 25 different operating systems spanning my 5
main machines.

Yep, I even have a 286 running Windows 1 , 2 , 3.0 and 3.11
 
You may have an eSATA enclosure with firmware which is not compatible
with Vista or Windows 7, or the disk may need a firmware update.
 
Paul Montgomery wrote:

<pfft>

You're still there old Montgumdrop and still chasing with your nose wide
open and dripping.

Do you have some tissues in the house? :-P
 
philo said:
unplonk

As I have stated a few times before ==>I do computer repair work so must
stay current with all the new operating systems out there...
so it's necessary for me to know as much as possible about Win7 and
Vista...

It's irrelevant whether or not I use Vista or Win7 myself.

As a matter of fact, if giving advice over the phone (or the net)

The best thing for me to do is to boot to the OS my "customer" is using
and I can navigate through not having to rely on my memory.

Since I have most of my machines using removable drive kits...

last count , I had about 25 different operating systems spanning my 5
main machines.

Yep, I even have a 286 running Windows 1 , 2 , 3.0 and 3.11
Click to expand...

LOL, LOL and LOL an *UNPLONK*?
 
Dominic said:
You may have an eSATA enclosure with firmware which is not compatible
with Vista or Windows 7, or the disk may need a firmware update.
Click to expand...



Hmm

could very well be...

at any rate thanks for the advice...maybe the best I've gotten so far
 
philo said:
Hmm

could very well be...

at any rate thanks for the advice...maybe the best I've gotten so far
Click to expand...



Went to the mfg website and the enclosure is listed as Vista compliant
and no firmware updates.

I also used the USB-2 connection
but still, Win7 and Vista see the drive as either corrupted or RAW
"do you want to format this drive?" yikes!!!!

and again *note* when CHKDSK runs on the drive from Vista or Win7 *no
problems found*
 
It sounds as if the firmwares and BIOSes are almost, but not quite,
fully compatible with Vista and each other.

The current version of the enclosure may be fully compatible with Vista
but older versions might not be. Enclosures cost too little for there to
be any firmware updates for them, and there is probably no inbuilt
routine to do so.

Check to see what firmware updates there might be for the disk, and
Google for posts relating to both the enclosure you have and the disk
model. Others may have had the same problem.

Are there any BIOS updates for your motherboard? Device compatibility
can be fixed by BIOS updates resolving undocumented BIOS bugs.
 
I have been called a lot of things over the years. :)
Click to expand...
Anyway, the site seems reputable, and I view it to be no more dangerous than
the Ultimate Boot site, if one happens to be in a pinch.
Click to expand...
However, the OP while over there in COLA was dogging Vista and Win 7 out
saying he was never going to use either one of the O/S(s) anyway with his LOL
remarks.
Click to expand...
Therefore, it's moot point with him. I am only making the posts for others
that may face the issue, needing a way out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for unscaring me - sort of related to "unplonk" :-)

I'd be happier, though , if you risked your system by trying it for me,
rather than just saying the site is reputable.

Yes, that's a joke...But I am serious about the thanks.
 
Dominic said:
It sounds as if the firmwares and BIOSes are almost, but not quite,
fully compatible with Vista and each other.

The current version of the enclosure may be fully compatible with Vista
but older versions might not be. Enclosures cost too little for there to
be any firmware updates for them, and there is probably no inbuilt
routine to do so.

Check to see what firmware updates there might be for the disk, and
Google for posts relating to both the enclosure you have and the disk
model. Others may have had the same problem.

Are there any BIOS updates for your motherboard? Device compatibility
can be fixed by BIOS updates resolving undocumented BIOS bugs.
Click to expand...

Thus far I did not find anything by using Google...
but I'll see if there is a bios update that addresses the issue

thanks again
 
philo said:
Went to the mfg website and the enclosure is listed as Vista compliant
and no firmware updates.
Click to expand...
snip >

Is it possible you've uncovered a bug the mfr'd like to know about, even
though they state it currently is Vista compatible?

John
 
John said:
snip >

Is it possible you've uncovered a bug the mfr'd like to know about, even
though they state it currently is Vista compatible?

John
Click to expand...



For now I'm going to stop fooling with it before I break it.

Again: Win7 can run CHKDSK on the drive with no problems
yet booted to the desktop it sees the drive as unformatted.

Though the suggestion to check for a BIOS update I though to be a good
one, if the issue was concerning eSATA

I did try the USB-2 connection too and got the same problem


When I have time, I'm going to pop an old SATA drive in the enclosure
(one that has bad sectors and is expendable)
then fool with it some more

thanks all for the replies
 
philo said:
I have an eSATA drive formatted NTFS from my XP installation.

Drive works fine from either XP or Linux (multi-boot machine)

I had previously tried Vista on the machine but it saw the eSATA drive as
unformatted. Gave the message "Do you want to format this drive?"

Very dangerous as an unknowing person may have actually formatted the
drive and lost all their data.

Interestingly enough, any time I've tried to access the drive,
Vista ran a chkdsk on it at the next boot up.

CHKDSK from Vista saw it fine and reported no errors

but could not read the drive once booted to the desktop.


I eventually gave up on Vista and just did a Win7 install yesterday.

Problem was identical!
Click to expand...


I think you should copy data off the drive and recreate the partition under
Vista or 7. If it works fine after that, then probably the partition was
created using a third party partition software that Vista and 7 no longer
recognizes.



Why did Microsoft name Windows after Vista, 7? VII is short for Vista II.
:-)
 
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