Windows backup E-SATA

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Hi Forum members, I like some help please. My E-Sata Hard disk shows as disconnected in Control panel yet it works just fine in all functions. It is not in the BIOS. The Drive is listed in the post as 0 wd 500xxxx 465 GB It is in Device manager and in Windows Explorer. File moving, writing to all works just fine. When I try to backup my C: drive to it the problem occurs. the backup finishes but Windows does not recognize the latest backup event. It shows as disconnected in control panel Backup and restore applet.
After the back up is done except for some files the back up is not available to be used. The Drive is E-SATA external NTFs 500 Gig Western Digital in a Antec housing. My question is what could be wrong?
Does Windows backup not work with a E-SATA drive? Any help would be very much appreciated. Regards Peter

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Windows backup works with any disk Windows recognises.
As Windows recognises your disk but it does not show up in the BIOS you must have a Windows specific driver for the eSATA card.
Have you updated the driver to the latest from the card manufacturer?

cheers, Paul

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Hi PT, yes I have the latest driver for the Silicon Image E-SATA card. As stated Explorer shows the External Drive etc. Device manager shows it. The back up function does not even though the backup completed. It is ,according to windows, not available as a backup location to be used even though the files are there. Regards Peter

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Hi Peter,

Do you have AHCI enabled in the BIOS? Please give us the mainboard brand/model if you are unsure and we may be able to assist.

Also it seems like a strange situation but could you also tell us which edition of Windows 7 are you using? Home Premium / Profession / Ultimate etc.

The reason I ask the above is Professional and upwards support backup to network shares. As a work around you may be able to network share the ESATA volume and set the backup location to the local network share. It’s a loop workaround but may work.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/backup-and-restore.aspx

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Hi Josh B and PT, thank you for your replies. The motherboard is ASUS A8N-SLI. AMD dual core cpu. The BIOS is phoenix flashed to 2005 revision. Here is what I did today: downloaded the Win 7Home premium 64 bit driver for the Silicon Image ESATA card. This plugs into the motherboard PCIE slot. It is not connected to the SATA plug in on the board. Two SATA drives in the Computer. These are plugged in to the #1 and #3 motherboard plug ins. My friend, a Microsoft Tech, told me to plug into 1 and 3 instead of 1 and 2. for the two hard drives. I have no Raid enabled nor any IDE drives . After the Silicon Image driver download and update driver in Device manager nothing new happened. Windows said device is working correctly. So back to Silicon Image web site. Downloaded their BIOS flash utility called SIL flashtool.exe. This is a command prompt dos procedure. So did the download and went to C:1 where the download was, typed in SILFlashTool.exe It did that I think? Anyway after I started my Computer windows found the ESATA card again and installed the WIN 7 home Premium 64 bit driver for the ESATA card. Now the External drive still does not appear in the BIOS but now windows makes it available as a backup location. In control panel Recover and Restore applet it no longer shows as disconnected the red X is gone. The external ESATA does show in the post when the Computer is first turned on ” 0 WD-500 …..465 gig. then the post proceeds to start windows. No error messages, nor were there any before. So in summary the external drive is listed in Device manager and in Windows Explorer and is fully functional. My problem to use as a back up device is solved.. The ESATA card is listed in Device Manager down the list under Storage Controllers ” Silicon Image SIL 3132 SATALink Controller.The Drive is listed in Disk drives All Three Disk drives are listed as SCSI Disk Device in Devise Manager
I wonder if there is a way to connect the ESATA card with a cable to the motherboard SATA plug in # 2 or # 4 if that would then show up in the BIOS as a Hard drive?
However; my original problem is fixed. The Silicon Image drivers and manipulation required are not easy to accomplish if you are not familiar with DOS command requirements. Thank you again for your help. Maybe my excursions will help someone else. I do not know what or where AHCI is or where it lives. Regards Peter

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“I wonder if there is a way to connect the ESATA card with a cable to the motherboard SATA plug in # 2 or # 4 if that would then show up in the BIOS as a Hard drive?”

I can offer the following on this aspect. I replaced a drive in my system that was running hot (but running fine) with a new drive. Because of the heat problem, I decided to use the old drive as an external drive for backup purposes and went to purchase a suitable enclosure. I do not have an ESATA connection on my system (only USB and Firewire) but thought it would be worthwhile buying an enclosure that had both USB and ESATA for future possibilities.

To my surprise, when I got home, the enclosure included a cable/connector device that effectively extended one of my motherboard SATA connection to an ESATA connection without any board or anything beyond a simple ESATA connector mounted on a standard rear panel slot filler clip. In use, the “ESATA” drive is connected to this rear panel connector (which in turn, is internally connected to the motherboard SATA connection). It works exactly like an internal SATA drive and is indistinguishable from one including the requirement to have it connected at bootup and presumably to shutdown before disconnecting it. It appears in the BIOS and can be inserted in the boot sequence if desired.

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Hi Chet, thank you for the reply. I believe I understand exactly what you are saying. It seems that the need for a ESATA card is only to increase the number of External Drives if the motherboard is already at capacity.
I will look and see if there is a jumper or an option to bridge the card to accomplish what you did. This would then make the External drive show up in the BIOS and make it a boot option. Thank very much for the tip. Regards Peter

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