eSATA causing Windows 7 lockup?

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I have a customer whose system (Windows 7 Home Premium) locks up if he starts up while his external HDD is connected via eSATA; if the same drive is connected via either USB or Firewire, he has no problems at all.
I replaced the motherboard, and the same problem occurs – we tried with the external drive off and on, and in both instances the system locks up as soon as the Windows logo appears.
We then attempted to leave the external drive disconnected during startup, and connected it after Windows was running – in this case, Windows could not see the drive at all, even after rescanning for drives (Disk Management).

Is there a known issue with Windows 7 and eSATA connections? I tried to search for articles, but Microsoft proper has nothing in the matter – I found a few assorted forum threads describing similar problems, but nothing specifically like this issue. I’d think that eSATA, like USB and Firewire, would just serve as a passthrough connection with no effect on the connection itself – yet the drive fails to be recognized only when connected via eSATA.

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Maybe the problem is with the hard disk’s esata connector. Is it possible to try another hard drive with esata to verify this. It is also possible to be the pass through connector, maybe you can try connecting hard drive direct to an internal sata socket on the motherboard.
I’m suggesting this because on my windows 7 home premium 64 bit I have no problems with my external drive connected to the esata port, I can unplug and replug just like USB and My computer sees it every time, so unlikely to be due to software.

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No problem with 7 (32 bit Pro) and eSATA here either and I too suspect something in the connections or in the eSATA bridge of the external itself. Changing one variable at a time and testing should reveal the location of the problem which we already know isn’t the drive at least.

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I have a self-built with Win 7 Pro 64-bit. I didn’t build eSATA into it. When I went to add it, I first tried a dongle, plugging into the mobo. I could not get it to work, the PC would not recognize the ext. HDD. I switched the mobo setting in the BIOS, still no luck. No problem with USB. Finally, I just tossed the dongle and went to a StarTech PCIe eSATA card. No problems since, I leave the ext. HDD connected all the time.

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I have no problem with my 1TB Iomega eSATA. Have you tried replacing the drive?

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Dagnabbit, (I know this happened eons ago) the move from WOPR to WindowsSecrets undid my email alert – I just now logged in to find I had responses – apologies for the delay in responding!

The drive is a Western Digital MyBook; it would be up to the customer to consider a replacement. I don’t have one of my own, nor do I have an enclosure that utilized eSATA connectivity (they still work, so I haven’t replaced them yet) … so I wouldn’t be able to provide an alternate test subject on my own, either.

The current “workaround” is to use a USB connection, since that method works fine. Slower than eSATA – if it actually worked.

I was there on a PC issue (replacing the motherboard, since Dell assumed that that was the cause of the problem described – but of course the new motherboard did nothing to solve the issue. My direct involvement is at an end (although I did agree to pass on any helpful information I was able to gather) – what I did recommend was that he a) use the USB connection until the problem is solved; and b) contact Western Digital support to see if they had any patches/suggestions (or in case the drive was still under warranty).

I believe that he said that the drive worked ok with eSATA with Vista; only after upgrading to Windows 7 did he encounter this problem. (would have been helpful earlier on, but again – apologies).

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A data point for you: I have a co-worker who has exactly the same issue — Windows 7 Professional 64-bit locks up and won’t boot while an eSATA drive is attached — sits at the “loading” screen forever. This cost him hours of time before he figured out the machine worked fine if he unplugged his backup drive.

His drive is a Western Digital MyBook and the machine is an Optiplex 760. And the work-around is to use USB.

I use an eSATA drive at home on a Dell XPS 730x (i720 proc) on Win7 (64-bit) professional at home without any problems, so if you also have an Optiplex, there may be some problem with the eSATA port driver, or specifically with the myBook. I suppose such incompatibilities do happen, as I remember reports of Samsung drives not being compatible with Marvell SATA chipsets.

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Same here: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Dell XPS 1340 laptop, Western Digital MyBook 1TB, locks up and won’t boot if the eSATA port is attached, doesn’t recognize the drive if the eSata port is connected after boot, USB port works just fine.

I’ll eventually take the WD drive to work and test its eSata port on a server, but I’m detecting kinda a pattern over here… it’s happening more than your regular small percentage of buggy drives or motherboards.

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Sounds like the MyBook was getting away with a slight deviation from the hardware standard before Windows 7.

Has anyone contacted Western Digital?

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I also am using an eSATA-connected external HDD (Western Digital) that operates fine with both XP and Win7.

I do have a hassle with the eSATA not being hot-pluggable like USB – that is, if the eSATA drive is not powered-on when I boot, My Computer won’t see it unless I reboot after turning on the eSATA drive.

OOPS! As a final check before posting this, I just checked – my eSATA connected HDD is indeed hot-pluggable in Windows7. Excuse my bungling: I’ve only had Win7 for less than two days!

However, in XP the eSATA drive is still not hot-pluggable.
Hope all this is of some help!

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I also am using an eSATA-connected external HDD (Western Digital) that operates fine with both XP and Win7.

I do have a hassle with the eSATA not being hot-pluggable like USB – that is, if the eSATA drive is not powered-on when I boot, My Computer won’t see it unless I reboot after turning on the eSATA drive.

OOPS! As a final check before posting this, I just checked – my eSATA connected HDD is indeed hot-pluggable in Windows7. Excuse my bungling: I’ve only had Win7 for less than two days!

However, in XP the eSATA drive is still not hot-pluggable.
Hope all this is of some help!

Reply | Quote

I also am using an eSATA-connected external HDD (Western Digital) that operates fine with both XP and Win7.

I do have a hassle with the eSATA not being hot-pluggable like USB – that is, if the eSATA drive is not powered-on when I boot, My Computer won’t see it unless I reboot after turning on the eSATA drive.

OOPS! As a final check before posting this, I just checked – my eSATA connected HDD is indeed hot-pluggable in Windows7. Excuse my bungling: I’ve only had Win7 for less than two days!

However, in XP the eSATA drive is still not hot-pluggable.
Hope all this is of some help!

Reply | Quote

I also am using an eSATA-connected external HDD (Western Digital) that operates fine with both XP and Win7.

I do have a hassle with the eSATA not being hot-pluggable like USB – that is, if the eSATA drive is not powered-on when I boot, My Computer won’t see it unless I reboot after turning on the eSATA drive.

OOPS! As a final check before posting this, I just checked – my eSATA connected HDD is indeed hot-pluggable in Windows7. Excuse my bungling: I’ve only had Win7 for less than two days!

However, in XP the eSATA drive is still not hot-pluggable.
Hope all this is of some help!

Reply | Quote

I also am using an eSATA-connected external HDD (Western Digital) that operates fine with both XP and Win7.

I do have a hassle with the eSATA not being hot-pluggable like USB – that is, if the eSATA drive is not powered-on when I boot, My Computer won’t see it unless I reboot after turning on the eSATA drive.

OOPS! As a final check before posting this, I just checked – my eSATA connected HDD is indeed hot-pluggable in Windows7. Excuse my bungling: I’ve only had Win7 for less than two days!

However, in XP the eSATA drive is still not hot-pluggable.
Hope all this is of some help!

Reply | Quote

I also am using an eSATA-connected external HDD (Western Digital) that operates fine with both XP and Win7.

I do have a hassle with the eSATA not being hot-pluggable like USB – that is, if the eSATA drive is not powered-on when I boot, My Computer won’t see it unless I reboot after turning on the eSATA drive.

OOPS! As a final check before posting this, I just checked – my eSATA connected HDD is indeed hot-pluggable in Windows7. Excuse my bungling: I’ve only had Win7 for less than two days!

However, in XP the eSATA drive is still not hot-pluggable.
Hope all this is of some help!

Reply | Quote

I also am using an eSATA-connected external HDD (Western Digital) that operates fine with both XP and Win7.

I do have a hassle with the eSATA not being hot-pluggable like USB – that is, if the eSATA drive is not powered-on when I boot, My Computer won’t see it unless I reboot after turning on the eSATA drive.

OOPS! As a final check before posting this, I just checked – my eSATA connected HDD is indeed hot-pluggable in Windows7. Excuse my bungling: I’ve only had Win7 for less than two days!

However, in XP the eSATA drive is still not hot-pluggable.
Hope all this is of some help!

Reply | Quote

I also am using an eSATA-connected external HDD (Western Digital) that operates fine with both XP and Win7.

I do have a hassle with the eSATA not being hot-pluggable like USB – that is, if the eSATA drive is not powered-on when I boot, My Computer won’t see it unless I reboot after turning on the eSATA drive.

OOPS! As a final check before posting this, I just checked – my eSATA connected HDD is indeed hot-pluggable in Windows7. Excuse my bungling: I’ve only had Win7 for less than two days!

However, in XP the eSATA drive is still not hot-pluggable.
Hope all this is of some help!

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