what is proper way to use external Sata drive?

[tryintoo]

I have a western digital Sata - 250 GB - drive in a NexStar 3 enclosure. I set it up using Disk Management and used it with several computers that didn't have Sata capabilities using the USB cable with no problems. I have moved it to a computer that has a Sata connection on the motherboard and want to use the Sata cable.

My problem is that this computer doesn't recognize the external Sata drive if I just plug it in and turn it on. (I haven't tried it on this computer using the USB cable.) The computer freezes for a short time and then goes back to working, but the drive is not found. I have only used it once on this computer and in order to "see" it using the Sata cable I had to reboot with the external drive turned on and then used it without any problems. I turned it off when I was done because I couldn't find any "unplug or eject" that applied to it.

Is this the way external Sata drives work or am I doing something wrong? The NexStar book details connecting and disconnecting the drive using the USB cable, but doesn't address much about using the Sata cable.

Thanks in advance.

I am using XP Home Edition SP2, motherboard is ASUS Extreme AX300SE, Pentium 4 3.00 GHz and 2 GB Ram. I have 2 WD internal sata drives - 80 that has OS on it and another 250 GHz used for storage. Could there be a conflict?

[redwudz]

Does it show in 'Disk Management? It might be showing up as a 'foreign disk'. If you don't see it check your BIOS settings and make sure it's not turned off there. It should show up during the boot sequence when you first turn the computer on, the same as any other internal SATA drive.

There's no reason it would conflict unless it has the same drive letter as one of your other drives. I would try another SATA cable too, just in case.

SATA is plug and play and you can unplug it anytime, as long as it's not writing or reading, same as USB. Safer is to use the disconnect icon in the toolbar. I have one of those NextStar enclosures and it's always worked fine.

[tryintoo]

Thanks redwudz,

This "same drive letter" from your reply jarred my memory. When I set this drive up with this very computer that wasn't reading it - it was assigned the letter "F". Since unplugging it and using in other computers I had put a 4 slot photo card reader into a USB hub and just left it there.

Guess what - the four slots were labeled F,G,H,I So I disconnected the photo card reader using the toolbar, unplugged it and then restarted the computer with the external Sata drive turned on. It appears it wants to be F and the card reader is satisfied to be G,H,I,J. It is now recognized when I turn it on and I can use the toolbar to disconnect it.

Thanks again!

[redwudz]

It's always a good idea to name removable drives from 'Z' upward, or at least leave 4 or five open drive letters to reduce conflicts. I've had similar problems with my removables that I move between different computers, and that cured it. Even if it did boot as 'F', it would have moved your other drives letters around and that can cause problems with programs that expect a drive to have a certain letter.

[tryintoo]

Would it be a problem if I went into Disk Management and reassigned it the letter Z? It didn't seem to matter when I was using it in the other computers with the USB cable, although none of them had drive letters assigned up to F.

It is used as an additional backup for large folders - pictures and music - although I also have these files/folders backed up on several DVDs.

Thanks for your help.

[redwudz]

That shouldn't be a problem. I have one of mine assigned as 'T' and the other as 'S'. Network drives seem to start from 'Z' and work backwards, probably to avoid this type of situation.

Those card readers are kind of a pain as they take up several drive letters. On this computer they are just labeled as 'Removable Disk, 'E' through 'H'. I have no idea which is which. Since a optical RW is placed after the disk drives, it ends up as 'I'. That means if I use a flash drive, it will end up as 'J'.

[RabidDog]

SOunds to me like your drive enclosure or motherboard (ubtek??) does not support hot swapping of sata drives. That would be a fairly common thing. Having it plugged in and turned on then starting your Pc would be the way to use it in sata mode rather than starting your PC THEN plugging the drive in.