External Sata Drive Not Being Recognized

[imdaman]

I have a SATA HD that won't show up on my computer unless I go to Device Manager and Scan for hardware changes before it shows up. Is there anything I can do to make it show up automatically? It recognizes fine with usb but not when using esata.

Thanks.

[redwudz]

Is it powered up at boot? I would check your BIOS and see if it's listed there. A eSATA drive should behave exactly like a SATA drive inside your PC.

Are you using the motherboard for the eSATA connection or a PCI SATA controller card for it? If you are using a card, it may need some drivers installed. They should have came with the card. Most cards are plug and play, though. If it's a card, you should also see it checking for drives during boot.

[imdaman]

I power up the external after I boot the computer and I am using the onboard esata

[redwudz]

Have you tried powering up the external drive first? In order for the MB to recognize the drive it has to be detected at boot by BIOS. A USB drive can be detected after boot as it is a 'removable' like a USB thumb drive. Though a eSATA may be listed as a removable, they don't generally work that way.